Evidence of meeting #113 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 funding.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I wonder if the minister will commit to looking at the material himself and not just rely on his staff.
Liberal
Ahmed Hussen Liberal York South—Weston, ON
Absolutely. I look at everything that comes to me from members of Parliament, but I first allow my staff to look—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
If the minister looks at that, he will see a copy of that letter. He will understand the inappropriateness of that letter. Frankly, in my view, it has a tone of racism to it. It is not appropriate to tell someone that they are not well matched, for example, because the wife is three years older than the husband. It is completely inappropriate to make those kinds of comments.
I would urge the minister to take a look at that and to look at the structure of the issue, and not just for this one particular case.
I would like to raise the issue of Iranian nationals. They too are stuck in this system, which both this minister and the Minister of Public Safety have acknowledged.
The minister was not able to provide a number to me as to how many people are stuck in this situation. Can he provide that information to me now?
Liberal
Ahmed Hussen Liberal York South—Weston, ON
We acknowledge that some applicants have experienced security screening delays and are working with our partners to process applications efficiently.
We have engaged with the community representatives on this—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'm sorry, I'm asking a very specific question. How many people are stuck in the system, which has gone beyond the normal processing time for Iranian nationals? That was a question I asked of the minister at committee of the whole. I hope he has the answer now, today.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The Canada Border Services Agency reports that the current inventory of Iranians pending security screening under the temporary business lines is at approximately 4,150 cases, and the permanent resident inventory is at about 975 cases.
NDP
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The processing times for security screening vary greatly, and some cases are particularly complicated depending on a number of factors. We would be happy to provide more information on this to the committee.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I would like to get the specific breakdown. It's a question that I asked in committee of the whole and the minister could not answer the question. Surely—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
The minister now has the information, and his officials can provide this committee the information on how many people, Iranian nationals, are beyond the processing time in both the PNP stream and the express entry stream. It's basic information that I think the minister can provide to this committee.
Liberal
Ahmed Hussen Liberal York South—Weston, ON
Just to put it on the record, security screening is not conducted by IRCC. It's conducted by Public Safety. They would have the answer with respect to how many are beyond the normal processing time for security screening.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
The files are before this ministry. They are stuck in this ministry. While it's true that CBSA is doing the security screening, they are stuck in this ministry. So my question is, in the PR applications, how many Iranian nationals are beyond the normal processing time in the different streams to which they are applying?
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The average processing time for Iranians is higher than that for the overall average processing time.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
At the moment, the average security screening processing time is 293 days for permanent residents from Iran.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'm sorry, but you need to compare the individuals who are Iranian nationals to other people, people who are not Iranian nationals. That's how you get the difference in the number of lengthy delays they are experiencing. Processing times for the Iranian nationals I've spoken with—there are hundreds of them—are somewhere between 300 to 1,200 times longer than those for people from other countries. That's what I'm asking for.
I don't want to spend any more time, and so, Madam Chair, could I get your direction to the ministry to provide that information to the committee?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
That sounds quite reasonable. I certainly hope that the minister and his department would do that, Ms. Kwan.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much.
I'm going to move on to another area. The minister himself just talked about visa applications in China particularly, given that this is the year of tourism between Canada and China. There was a Guangdong world conference that was held this week, and over 200 of the visa applicants in China, many of whom are individuals and officials who had been approved and allowed to come to Canada previously, were rejected. They are some of the organizers of this world conference and they were not able to come. Why is that?
Liberal
Ahmed Hussen Liberal York South—Weston, ON
You can appreciate that I cannot comment on specific cases and the reasons for visa rejections. That's not—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I do not believe it is just a specific case. Here you have a major world conference, over 2,000 people across the globe came for this event, and some of the organizers in China were not able to come from Guangdong province themselves, to attend the Guangdong conference. There were over 200 applicants, a number of them officials who had come to Canada before. Nothing has changed and they've been rejected. I think there is a systemic issue here and I would like the minister to look into that situation.
Liberal
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to let the minister finish. There was a question from the opposition. They're confused about the difference between visitor visas and asylum claims. I want to give you a chance to answer that.
