Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

That's the long-term view. Right now, regarding the people who are leaving at an airport to go to a country other than the United States, we presently don't know they've left Canada.

[Les Linklater]

That will be the case for a period of time as we look at the longer-term vision implementation.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I know CBSA operates three detention centres right now in Vancouver, Montreal, and the greater Toronto area, I believe. A detention centre was specifically built in Kingston for individuals suspected of terrorist activities and detained under security certificates. Is that right?

How many cells are in the detention centre in Kingston? How many detainees are in it right now?

[Peter Hill, Director General, Post-Border Programs, Canada Border Services Agency]

That detention centre is being closed, subject to a Government of Canada strategic review decision. It had capacity for five cells, but it's at a stage where it's virtually not being used at all. It will be officially closed very soon, if it hasn't already been closed.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

There is nobody in it right now, I take it.

[Peter Hill]

It hasn't been used for quite some time.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Do you know the cost of building and operating that detention centre?

[Peter Hill]

I don't have those figures. I could get those for you.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Could we have those provided?

[Peter Hill]

Sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You can send those to the clerk, Mr. Hill, please.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

We know the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act indicates that, as a matter of principle, children should only be detained as a last resort. I don't think anybody in this room ever wants to see children detained. I'd like to know how many children were in detention in the last year that we kept records. I don't know if that's 2010 or 2011. Does anybody know?

[Peter Hill]

Yes, I have some statistics.

[Pierre Sabourin]

For fiscal year 2010-11, we had 227 minors who were detained, of whom 196 were accompanied and 31 were unaccompanied, and the average detention was six days.

I want to make it clear that we always consider the interests of the children. We do as much as possible to keep the families together. In the detention centre, men and women are separated and the children are kept with their mothers.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Lamoureux.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

In regard to the tracking issue, in countries where there's a visa required to come to Canada, it's fair to say that there is no tracking once they depart Canada, nothing to indicate that they've actually left Canada. That is, there is no country today for which we issue a visa on a person's departure from Canada, nothing that says they've actually departed. Can you confirm that?

[Claudette Deschênes]

Yes, I will confirm that in Canada at the present time there's nothing confirming someone has left the country. However, I would add that sometimes when we issue a visa overseas, we will ask for the person to come back and tell us that he or she has returned, because we've made a risk management decision and we want to confirm that this risk management decision was a good one.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

But that would be something completely at random. There is no directive coming from the ministry. Correct?

[Claudette Deschênes]

That's correct.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Citizenship is something that we all value greatly. We've revoked somewhere close to over 2,000 citizenships. Have all of those citizenships that have been revoked in the last year or so been revoked for not having the required number of days of residence in Canada in a set period of time?

[Claudette Deschênes]

We're actively working on revocation, but not all of the ones I mentioned have been revoked. There are a few that have actually gone through the process. I would not say that all of them are based simply on not having met the number of days.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

What percentage would that be, roughly?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I don't know that. I'd have to check.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

What would be other reasons for revoking a citizenship?

[Claudette Deschênes]

They could have lied on their application form to say that they had no criminal charges against them or had never been convicted of a criminal charge. That would be a reason for going back and going after their citizenship.