Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 19th, 2018

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

I was talking about Toronto.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Yes, but I know that this is also not the case in Toronto as well, because I spoke with a councillor about the situation there.

I would like to highlight too that in Vancouver, for example, we also have refugees in shelters, not asylum seekers waiting for their applications to be processed but rather people who have received their status here. They're really running into problems, because housing is simply so expensive. Some of the individuals when they first arrived had good support from the community, allowing them to rent housing at a low cost. That ended after the first year, and now some of them are in a very precarious situation.

Really, ongoing resettlement services are required. What does budget 2018 do, or does it do anything, in support of the refugees, not the asylum seekers, in that situation?

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

As you know, every year we are spending more money on settlement services, on language training, on employment supports, and so on. The fact of the matter is that we fund permanent residents until they become citizens. We don't provide those kinds of services for asylum seekers and refugees—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sorry, Minister, but you keep saying “asylum seekers”. I am not talking about asylum seekers. These are individuals with status who have obtained their permanent resident status.

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

Right. In terms of the settlement money, we have an additional $370 million—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

How much of that, if any, is specifically allocated to housing? If none is allocated to housing, what is the federal government doing, working in collaboration with the provinces and local governments, in addressing the housing crisis that they now face?

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

I am not the minister in charge of housing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm afraid I need to end it there—

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

We do provide money for housing under the Canada social transfer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

You're the minister responsible for resettlement. Housing is part of that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

We have Mr. Whalen for seven minutes, please.

Yes, Mr. Tilson.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chairman, Mr. O'Toole went to the final second. My friends at the end here went to the final second. It would be helpful if you gave us some notice as to when the time expires.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

As I've said repeatedly, it is the member's responsibility to keep a timer. They have staff here for that purpose, as well as our clock.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Do you want us to bring a clock? Is that what you want us to do?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I think the members need to manage their seven minutes. I don't think it's a point of order, but if you'd like to challenge me on that—happily.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'm just asking you to help with the running of the committee, sir. We just need to know when our time expires. It would be very helpful if you gave us even 30 seconds' notice. That's all I'm asking.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I will try to do that, but as I've reminded the members in the past, it is your responsibility to manage your seven minutes. The House has provided us with the equipment to do that.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

All right. You've got the clock, Mr. Chairman. I'm just asking for your co-operation.

Thank you.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

As a point of information, does that eat into my time, or do I start now?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for coming again, Mr. Minister. It's great to see all the great things we're working on.

In terms of some of the earlier questions, I think you used the word “conflating”. I want to elaborate a little bit on some of the amounts that Mr. O'Toole raised as being amounts that are being spent by your department. It seems to me that the interim federal health program and the Canada-Quebec accord transfers are monies that are spent by other levels of government and are just reimbursed by your department. They're not monies that are directly spent.

Can you just confirm for the committee that your answer to Mr. Anandasangaree's question in the fall stands, that your department was able to fulfill its commitments under existing allocations, and that these amounts that we're talking about under the interim federal health program and the Canada-Quebec accord are really amounts that are being transferred to other orders of government?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Yes, Mr. O'Toole.

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, since my friend is basing his question on my question, based on our friend Gary's question, I think it would be fair for that question to be read into the record. He asked the minister in October 2017, “Are you confident that the mechanisms, timelines, and resources are in place for that to take place, both at the admissibility stage and at the processing stage?” IRB backlogs are a federal department's responsibility.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I think the member will have time in the next round to raise that, but this is Mr. Whalen's question.

[A voice]

Maybe this helps, Mr. Whalen.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

This doesn't change my question. It seems to me that those are not matters of processing. Those are things that happen at a provincial level. Can you just clarify those two points?