Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 1st, 2012

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

All right.

Let me just start by saying that it's no surprise to me that the country that produces the All Blacks can turn around refugee processing times that quickly.

Thank you for being available to us, and for being so open and transparent in your responses.

I was really intrigued by what you said about detention and that it was explicitly there as one of many aspects to deter people from coming to your shores in illegal ways.

We heard from other witnesses that it wasn't an effective thing to do, although common sense just suggests that if there are penalties there, people who know about them and fear the penalties may be inclined to go elsewhere.

Do you want to comment further on that, Ms. Hyndman?

[Christine Hyndman]

I would say that the overall package is intended to deter. The detention is probably not the major part of it. The major aspect is the three years of temporary status, and then the restrictions on wider family sponsorship.

I think it is true that detention in and of itself probably may be off-putting, but may not be a major deterrent to people. But with the package we very much want to remove business opportunities from people smugglers who may see them as enabling people to come to New Zealand.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

We're constantly engaged in a balancing act here. On the one side, clearly there is compassion in the hearts and the minds of New Zealanders and Canadians who want to help people who are in severe circumstances elsewhere. On the other hand, we want to make sure that security is a value that prevails in our refugee policy.

How do you see the detention part helping you deal with the security aspects of what you're trying to do?

[Christine Hyndman]

It is particularly focused, I think, on the security aspects. Its major focus is on enabling us to ascertain the identity of people.

One of the issues, of course, which I understand Canada has experienced, is that if you have a mass arrival, the crew, the people who are organizing and involved in the business side of it, are liable to have spent part of the journey destroying their own documents and developing stories to enable themselves to look like people who are in need of protection. So part of the identity verification aspect of the detention is being able to winnow those people out.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

That's it, Mr. Weston.

Ms. Hyndman and Mr. Richards, thank you very much. I hope we haven't been too tough on you. We've had some difficult questions, but we appreciate hearing something about your legislation that's being proposed.

Again, I thank you on behalf of the committee for taking the time to speak to us.

[Christine Hyndman]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Before we adjourn, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow our meeting will be from noon to 2 p.m. Ms. Sims will be the chair because I will unfortunately not be here. The second meeting will be from 3:30 to 6:30 in this room.

This meeting is adjourned.