Evidence of meeting #108 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was border.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Mike MacDonald  Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Patrick Tanguy  Assistant Deputy Minister, Government Operations Centre, Emergency Management and Programs Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Commissioner Gilles Michaud  Deputy Commissioner, Federal Policing, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Jacques Cloutier  Vice-President, Operations Branch, Canada Border Services Agency
Shereen Benzvy Miller  Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Evelyn Lukyniuk
Jamie Solesme  Superintendent, Federal Policing, Criminal Operations, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

I have a point of clarification, Mr. Chair.

12:50 p.m.

Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Mike MacDonald

—or in terms of what may be happening in the immigration streams.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I'm sorry this is—

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Point of clarification, Mr. Chair.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

No, to your point of clarification. If you have a point of order or a point of privilege—

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Sure, a point of order. Actually, I just have a question, because typically department officials don't provide policy statements, and we just had a statement—

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

That would be debate. I get that.

Mr. Whalen.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I'm going to move to my next question anyway. I think I've got the confidence that it's being well monitored and that the United States is still considered to be a safe third country.

Ms. Benzvy Miller, when I look at some of the data around the number of cases you receive going toward the IRB and the number of cases of a regular border crossing that Mr. Michaud raised, I see there's a discrepancy of about 400 or so folks for Q1 of this year. I'm wondering if that is because sometimes people aren't apprehended irregularly and they declare themselves without having been apprehended, or are there other reasons why there might be slight discrepancies in the IRB numbers versus the RCMP numbers?

12:50 p.m.

Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board

Shereen Benzvy Miller

There are no discrepancies. We only record cases that are actually officially referred to us, so people who do not actually meet the test for referral would not show up in our numbers. The numbers that we have are just the claims that we are seized with, and that's why they're always slightly less, but about 99% of all claims do get referred to the IRB.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I'm sorry Ms Benzvy Miller, but it's actually a little bit more, so in the first quarter of—

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

There's a point of order—if it is.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

I believe you've scheduled five minutes of this meeting for business, but that wasn't agreed to by committee, so I would like to have our round of questioning.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Okay.

Go ahead.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

If I just do the math on your opening statement, I see it's something around 5,400 so far in 2018. Maybe it's because you're counting some April numbers, but the Q1 numbers from Mr. Michaud were 5,052, so it's actually almost 10% higher. I'm trying to understand that discrepancy.

12:50 p.m.

Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board

Shereen Benzvy Miller

It may be the March–April differential, because they're talking numbers in real time and I cut mine off at the end of March. We could get back to committee on that difference. I actually don't know because we didn't consult beforehand to know what data was being provided by what date.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Maybe by the 11th of the month we could have some information on that discrepancy level.

In any event, I'd like to move:

That the Committee undertake a study of Migration Challenges and Opportunities for Canada in the 21st Century; that the Committee start this study with four meetings in preparation for the previously approved Committee travel to Tanzania and Uganda; and that the witnesses for these meetings be suggested by the analysts; and, following the Committee travel, make a further decision about further meetings for the study.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

And this relates to migration in general?

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Yes, as I read, and I appreciate that this is just notice of motion.

Do I have any time remaining for my question?

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

You have six seconds.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

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

Don't we get to talk about the motion?

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

No, it's just notice of motion.

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

I thought he moved it.

He has finished, so I have the floor.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I would take it as notice of motion.

Thank you.

Ms. Rempel.

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Thank you.

Mr. MacDonald, you just mentioned that we would welcome the DACA cohort through an economic immigration stream, as they are skilled. Who is “we”?