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.
12:55 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I think Canada overall and the labour market needs within Canada is the “we” when you look at a high-skilled labour market that could be there, which would benefit the country.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
It's odd that a public servant would be suggesting public policy to a committee, but I'd love for you to explore this. Has this been brought up with the minister?
12:55 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm not aware of any conversations with the minister, at least that I've had with the minister.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Have you or has anybody in your department brought up a proposal for an economic stream regarding the DACA migration class to the minister?
12:55 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
To my knowledge, there are no proposals of such nature. We already have very robust economic migration streams through our levels.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Has the department undertaken an analysis of the skills of the DACA cohort, or has there been any analysis in preparation for a proposal to the minister?
12:55 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm not aware of any analysis specifically on the DACA cohort, other than what you see in the media.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
So your assertion is your own, then, and when you are saying “we”, as Canada, would welcome it, as a senior public official, that's your analysis based on what you've read in the newspaper?
12:55 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Chair, I may have overspoken, obviously, by giving a personal opinion, so I do apologize for that.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I would just note, Mr. Chair, that this is the sort of thing that really derails productive debate, when we have people who represent our public service making assertions without any sort of data analysis here, especially when they don't have the data on the numbers of people who came across the border last month.
I hope we have a more fruitful meeting in the future.
Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Thank you to all of the witnesses.
Just before I adjourn the meeting, I'd like to give a little notice about our next meetings. We have the minister, and we're hoping two ministers will appear. They're not available to appear next week. They will be appearing the following week. The minister will also appear on estimates the week after that. That gives us four meetings of preparation for our travel to Africa. I'm suggesting to the committee that we request the analysts to prepare briefings on our migration study in those meetings. We'll get prepared for that by doing those four meetings.
We request that the analysts suggest witnesses to the committee. Ms. Rempel has suggested one witness, which we'll pass on to the witness list. Ms. Alleslev has suggested a witness as well. I would like to have a different process and leave it to the analysts to recommend a set of briefings so that we're prepared.
Is there agreement on that?
12:55 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.