Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 6th, 2010

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

But in your own document's report on labour market participation, Ontario workers are actually—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Order.

The time has expired, Mr. Oliphant, I'm sorry.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

We'll pick it up later.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Madame Beaudin has the floor.

[Josée Beaudin, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here, Minister.

From the outset, I have been hearing that, for example, dishonest refugees are preventing us from solving the problems for honest refugees. We hear about control, the integrity of the system, fraud, the dishonesty of refugees.

I would first like to address with you an aspect that I imagine is more gratifying for a Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, and that is the humanitarian aspect, and the case of Haiti.

In fact, on August 30, the Department announced that it was ending the special measures for Haiti. First, why? I would like to have an explanation of this, given the entire situation with which we are familiar and that is still going on in Haiti.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you, Mrs. Beaudin.

First, I note that we have issued some 4,000 permanent resident visas to Haitian nationals this year.

Is that right, Ms. Deschênes?

[Claudette Deschênes]

There have been 4,000, including temporary residents in Canada, so immigrants and temporary residents.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Up to October 31, we had issued nearly 3,000 permanent resident visas to Haitians. That represents a 54% increase over the same period last year. So there has been a major increase in permanent resident visas issued.

Obviously we are expecting more QSCs to be issued by the Government of Quebec under its special program. As well, Ms. Deschênes could tell us how many QSCs we have issued under that program.

[Claudette Deschênes]

There have been 1,773 issued, for the "family class", in Quebec, compared to 601 the previous year. So that's an increase of nearly 300% during the same period.

As well, on the question of the special measures, some people started to arrive in May. On October 29, the files were completed for 167 people who had their visas, and 52 have become permanent residents. In addition, in November, another 187 visas were issued. Because it takes two or three months before it gets to us. We expect that it will continue to progress.

I also want to point out that there are 23 decision-makers, the people who make decisions, in Port-au-Prince, in Santo Domingo and at the Ottawa processing office, as compared to six decision-makers before the earthquake.

[Josée Beaudin, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Yes, there was the earthquake, but now there is cholera. Precisely, you are keeping the number at 23 decision-makers, in spite of the difficulty that Haitians or people may be having in responding, and in spite of the entire catastrophic situation in Haiti.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

So we have increased the number of decision-makers several times. Previously there were six; there are 23 now. So that is an enormous increase.

You have to understand that assigning a Canadian decision-maker as an overseas official, in Port-au-Prince or Santo Domingo, is very expensive. It costs several hundred thousand dollars to assign a single decision-maker to an overseas post. So it is fairly expensive.

[Josée Beaudin, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Talking about delays, I would like to address with you the processing delays that do seem to be a problem.

I see that in the supplementary estimates you have allocated additional funding to certain programs for, among other things, security certificates, and also for refugees.

Are you not planning to invest funds to resolve these processing delays or the problems that result in processing delays?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, we are. When the government organized our actions in response to the earthquake, it included an increase in CIC's budget for those reasons, in fact. That was included in the supplementary estimates (A) that we submitted to the committee a few weeks ago. The figures correspond to an additional $14 million to meet immigration needs after the earthquake.

[Josée Beaudin, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

I'm not talking about just for Haiti.

For all other applications, are you not investing funds to solve the problems of backlogs and processing delays for applications?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Including refugees, refugee protection claimants, in Canada?

[Josée Beaudin, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Yes.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, that also includes all programs.

For example, we proposed renewing temporary status for Haitian nationals who were in Canada when the earthquake happened. And so all sorts of things are included in that additional $14 million.

I should also say that the IRB decided to expedite processing of refugee protection claims from Haiti, after the earthquake.

On the question of the issuance of permanent resident visas to Haitian nationals, although the number has been increased, it has to be done in accordance with the framework of the overall plans and objectives.

It was very clear in Quebec, for example. The 3,000 cases that Quebec is sending us, in relation to certain family members of Canadians of Haitian origin, have to be included in the overall target range for Quebec, under the immigration plan for 2010.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

That's it.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Really?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Yes. You've managed to struggle through another session with us.

We want to thank you, Mr. Minister, and your colleagues for coming and listening to our questions. You've been very helpful. Thank you very much.

We're now going to vote.

Committee members, we've handed to all of you a sheet that has the amounts of votes 1b, 5b, and 10b. We'll vote on each of those individually. I hope you've all had a chance to look at them.

CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

Department

Vote 1b--Operating expenditures..........$24,680,417

Vote 5b--The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$1,153,101

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Vote 10b--Program expenditures..........$7,098,418

(Votes 1b, 5b, and 10b agreed to)

Shall I report the supplementary estimates to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you. We will do that tomorrow.

That concludes this meeting on estimates. We will return on Wednesday at presumably the Queen Street address, where Mr. Dosanjh will join us again. I think he has about half an hour left.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

We'll give him more time if he wants, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Chow, you are first on the list.

The meeting is adjourned.