Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 19th, 2018

[The Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.)), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Good afternoon. I'm going to call this meeting to order.

This is our 100th meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Today, pursuant to Standing Order 81(5), we have the consideration of supplementary estimates (C), which have been referred to our committee. We're very pleased to welcome again Minister Hussen, who is going to begin our first hour with opening remarks and then will be available to the committee members for questions.

Welcome, Minister.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm pleased to appear before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration today to discuss the supplementary estimates (C).

Accompanying me today are Paul MacKinnon, ADM, strategic and program policy, IRCC; Harpreet Kochhar, ADM, operations; David Manicom, ADM, settlement and integration; and, Dawn Edlund, associate assistant deputy minister, operations. Also with me are Mike MacDonald, associate assistant deputy minister, strategic and program policy, and Christopher Meyers, director general, financial management, and deputy chief financial officer. We look forward to speaking to the committee.

Mr. Chair, the Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that all newcomers integrate and contribute fully to the Canadian economy and to their communities.

The contributions that immigrants make to Canada result in jobs, innovation, economic growth, and cultural diversity.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's 2017-18 supplementary estimates (C) reflect a net increase of $133.1 million in resources. Taking into account spending authorities that have already been approved, IRCC financial authorities will increase to a total of $2.08 billion for 2017-18 if these resources are approved.

These estimates include access to funding of $14 million for the processing and resettlement of survivors of Daesh, including Yazidi women and girls. This funding supports the unique initiative to resettle more than 1,200 extremely vulnerable women and their families, including providing extensive specialized services and supports.

The estimates also allocate $10.4 million to address irregular migration at the Canada-U.S. border. As we've always said, we will never compromise on the security and safety of Canadians while also ensuring that we respect our commitment to provide due process to persons seeking asylum. The funding in supplementary estimates (C) includes increasing our operational capacity to process asylum claims in a timely manner, as well as resources for the interim federal health program.

The estimates also call for an internal reallocation of $1 million for the migration policy development program. This will provide opportunities for increased international co-operation in developing well-managed migration policies.

Finally, the estimates include an increase in funding of $112 million, which will fund the annual grant for the Canada-Quebec accord on immigration, increasing total funding to $490 million in 2017-18. These amounts are calculated using a formula set out in the accord. The funding transferred to Quebec goes towards the provision of services that support the settlement and integration of newcomers who settle in that province.

I will be happy to answer your questions about the estimates in greater detail, but now I would like to briefly outline some key initiatives concerning IRCC that were proposed in the recent federal budget.

As you know, the Minister of Finance tabled budget 2018 on February 27. The budget includes continued investment in key areas, such as ensuring that the increased number of people seeking asylum in Canada have access to quick, safe, and compassionate processing; continuing to be able to welcome more women and children from conflict zones around the world; offering targeted settlement supports to those newcomers who face the greatest barriers, such as visible minority women; and, ensuring that the rights of temporary foreign workers are protected.

To address irregular migration, the budget acknowledges the importance of maintaining border security while treating those seeking asylum with compassion and providing them with due process. A proposed $173.2 million will be used to support security operations at the Canada-U.S. border and the processing of asylum claimants arriving in 2018-19, of which IRCC will receive $17 million to support these efforts.

Refugee women and girls face increased protection risks due to their gender, and represent half of the world's 22.5 million refugees as well as a significant proportion of those in need of resettlement. Our government's refugee resettlement levels are already at historic highs. The budget pledges $20.3 million to resettle even more vulnerable women and girls. These funds are in addition to the $27.7 million over three years announced in budget 2017 to resettle survivors of Daesh, including Yazidi women and girls. In addition, budget 2018 proposes $31.8 million over the next three years for IRCC to launch a pilot project to support programming for newcomer women who are also members of visible minority groups in an effort to remove potential barriers to employment.

To ensure that temporary foreign workers are protected and their rights are enforced, the budget proposes to dedicate $180 million over five years to continue the international mobility program compliance regime and the ongoing collection of labour market information related to open work permits. An additional $14.1 million will support unannounced employer inspections under the temporary foreign worker program.

Additionally, the budget supports contributions to innovation and entrepreneurship. A total of $7 million over five years will be used to cement the start-up visa program and make it a permanent program so that we strengthen the Canadian economy through innovation. The program makes it easy, and easier, for foreign entrepreneurs actively pursuing new business ventures in Canada to become permanent residents. It targets promising start-ups to come to Canada and scale up, creating more jobs for Canadians.

The budget also proposes $400 million over the next five years, and $88 million of ongoing support for the action plan for official languages from 2018 to 2023. Of this, my department will receive $41 million over the next five years and $10 million ongoing. Under this, IRCC will fund initiatives to create a francophone pathway covering integration services from pre-arrival to settlement into francophone communities in Canada.

Before closing, I'd like to return briefly to address the issue of asylum claims. Despite the high numbers, we have processes in place to ensure that the flow is well managed and that people are getting quick decisions regarding their eligibility to make a claim and are getting work permits very quickly.

As I noted, budget 2018 includes funds to support security at the Canada-U.S. border, the processing of asylum claimants, and faster decision-making capacity of the Immigration and Refugee Board. I welcome the IRB's efforts to find more efficiencies and better ways to conduct hearings so that it can both embrace technology and take advantage of the institutional knowledge it has acquired to move cases faster without compromising integrity. As you are aware, the third party review currently under way is examining how to further increase productivity at the IRB. The final report from that independent review will be available this summer. IRCC will provide the report to this committee once it becomes available.

In conclusion, the Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that our immigration system continues to welcome those who wish to help build our country.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would now be happy to answer any questions the committee members may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much, Minister.

We'll begin with Ms. Alleslev, from the Liberal Party.

[Leona Alleslev, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you very much, Minister, for those important comments.

I noted that in today's Toronto Star, there was some concern over the Yazidi girls' settlement. The government has been somewhat criticized for perhaps not providing adequate support, yet in your opening remarks you highlighted that $27.7 million will be dedicated specifically to this activity in terms of settling survivors of Daesh, including Yazidi women and girls. I wonder if you could expand on some of those specifics and how this will address some of the criticism.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I'm proud of the fact that we've met our commitment to resettle 1,200 survivors of Daesh and to provide them with safety and security in Canada. Part of the program's operational planning was to make sure that we didn't land all 1,200 of those people at once. There was a paced landing process, which we learned about from Germany. We made sure that these extremely vulnerable individuals landed in communities that had the necessary wraparound supports to provide them the ability to access those supports, because they need them. We've done that, and it's working in that manner.

Provincial health care budgets provide for health care services for these survivors, but in addition to that we have also made sure that the interim federal health program is available. We have heard criticisms in the past around access to mental health by these individuals, but we have made sure that we continue to work with local community members to ensure that those wraparound supports are adequate. Where there have been gaps, we've moved very quickly to address them.

[Leona Alleslev, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

We have also invested $41 million in francophone immigration to official language minority communities.

Can you tell us how that funding will be used?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

This is a key priority for our government. We want to make sure that we contribute to the vitality of francophone communities outside Quebec. One way to do that is through immigration. We have a target that 4.4% of all immigration to Canada should be francophone. We've made a number of changes to facilitate that. One of them is through the express entry system. We now provide more points to applicants who demonstrate strong French language skills, and it's already having an impact. The percentage of successful applicants under the express entry program who are francophone has doubled from 1% to 2%, and we hope it will continue in that direction. Our government also introduced Mobilité francophone, which allows any employer in Canada who hires a francophone skilled immigrant to be exempt from the labour market impact assessment. We want to make sure that services for francophone newcomers are provided by francophone organizations and that they're referred to francophone services, and so some of that money will go to that. Also, there will be more outreach and more targeted promotion to seek out francophone skilled workers abroad and to create more pathways for francophone international students who are already in Canada to stay in Canada.

[Leona Alleslev, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

That's outstanding.

Could we return to some of the comments you made around the increase in funding in the budget for asylum seekers? Could you give us a framework around what that looks like and perhaps why we've decided to focus on this even more than in the past?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

The money in the budget is $173.2 million to address all the operational challenges at the Canada-U.S. border and all the downstream effects, including an increase in the capacity of IRCC and all the other agencies as well as the IRB to process the cases. Out of that, we will be receiving over $73 million for IRCC, including, I believe, the IRB, the Immigration and Refugee Board. The efforts we had already made before the budget to increase capacity to conduct eligibility hearings faster and to be able to provide work permits faster for asylum seekers have met with success. For example, work permits for asylum seekers used to take three months and they now take less than three weeks. This is something that the provinces had asked us to do to minimize pressure on provincial social services. When asylum seekers can support themselves financially by working, that reduces pressure on the social programs. Our ability to provide that work permit faster is key to that. Some of that money will also go to the IRB to make sure it can hear cases faster.

This is really important, because when asylum seekers don't have a credible claim, they can be processed faster, and that means they can be removed faster and will be asked to leave Canada sooner. The same goes for people with credible claims. If the IRB can hear the cases of people with legitimate refugee claims faster, they can then spend less time in limbo and move on with their lives and become members of our community.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

You have about 25 seconds left, Ms. Alleslev.

[Leona Alleslev, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

I think we'll leave it there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Can I use those few seconds to confirm, Minister, that you said you indeed have met the 1,200 Yazidi resettlement figure?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Yes. When you combine the number of government-assisted refugees and the privately sponsored refugees, we've now surpassed the number of 1,200—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I think the committee's very happy with that.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—survivors of Daesh. Eighty per cent are Yazidis, but all are survivors of Daesh, of course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you.

Mr. O'Toole, for seven minutes.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's good to join you.

My first question is for Mr. Meyers, who is in charge of finance for the minister's department. We see $138 million in the supplementaries for the Canada-Quebec transfer and for the interim federal health initiative. The minister mentioned $173 million in new spending in the budget for processing illegal border crossers.

How long has your department been working on the numbers behind the supplementaries submission and the budgetary submission? I'm assuming it's probably into last summer, but do you have an approximate date?

[Christopher Meyers, Director General, Finance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Just to make sure I understood the question, I think you were referring to the irregular migration costs of $10.4 million, which are in the supplementary estimates (C), so—

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

There are the two amounts. How long has your department been working on the budgetary asks? My experience in cabinet would suggest probably six months or so, but I'm looking for your timeline.

[Christopher Meyers]

I would say between three to four months in total.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Four months in total, so that's last October and November, that time frame?

[Christopher Meyers]

Yes.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Minister, in October of last year, you and Minister Goodale appeared before the committee on the issue of illegal border crossing. My colleague, Liberal MP Mr. Anandasangaree, asked you specifically whether resources were in place to admit and process all illegal border crossers. At that time, Minister, you said, quote:

We've done it with the resources we have. It's been a question of being a little more efficient...”.

Your DG has said that since October/November they've been planning for up to $200 million to $400 million in new spending. A memo to your deputy minister warned of costs of up to $3 billion to 2021 from the illegal crossings, and the deputy minister's memo to you in the fall suggested an urgent need to revisit the safe third country agreement because of the increased crossings last year.

Why did you tell committee that you were working with internal resources to handle the problem?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Well, we were able to redeploy.... First of all, the response to the situation that we faced in the summer was not just IRCC's. We worked across government to make sure that all the agencies were lined up to address this issue.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Minister, you said you were redeploying internal resources. You used the words being “nimble” in one of your appearances—