Evidence of meeting #122 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 countries.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jean-Nicolas Beuze  Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Salma Zahid  Scarborough Centre, Lib.
Michael Casasola  Senior Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Matt de Vlieger  Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Glen Linder  Director General, International and Intergovernmental Relations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Mark Giralt  Director General, International Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Jean-Marc Gionet  Senior Director, International Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

September 27th, 2018 / 5:15 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I may be shifting gears for a second, but this is great. We're just trying to get a sense. Maybe we could get some data if you guys have some estimates or statistics on what that overlap might look like, even from some moderate sample size. It might be nice to know.

With respect to internally displaced people, obviously it's a touchy subject. If there are internally displaced people due to some failure of the rule of law in a country, there's not going to be a lot of willingness from that source country to want to do some type of deal that would allow those people to come to Canada.

Has there been any experimentation or discussion around offering places like Ukraine, Colombia or Venezuela, countries that Canada has traditionally taken refugees from in the past, where we've said, “We understand that you're experiencing this trouble. We will make immigration available to your country, to many thousands of people, referred and assessed through Canadian diplomatic channels, to help relieve the pressure in your home country and encourage other countries to do the same”? Those people might come to Canada as permanent residents, but there might also be a high likelihood that, when things stabilize, they return. It might be a way to help address this much larger problem of 40 million internally displaced people worldwide.

What sort of plans might exist there?

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Briefly.

5:20 p.m.

Senior Director, International Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Jean-Marc Gionet

I would say that those conversations happen proactively. There are situations such as the survivors and the plans that we implemented after the Haitian earthquake a couple of years back.

As I indicated earlier and as UNHCR stated as well, the focus of the program is, from a resettlement perspective for refugees, that there are instances where we can, with the collaboration of the host government, implement special measures for internally displaced people.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Thank you.

Ms. Rempel.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to ask a bunch of random questions related to strategic policy and planning.

One of the first things is that the minister had in his mandate letter a visa framework review. Has your department been directed to complete this review, and if yes, when do you anticipate it coming out?

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

I understand the visa review has been conducted over the last number of months, and there should be an announcement within weeks to months.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Thank you.

Colleagues of mine filed an ATIP request that was received by your department on April 3, 2018, specifically related to the global compact for migration. It is now September 27, nearly six months after this request was submitted, and there is still no response.

How are we supposed to get through a study like this if it's taking six months to get information on an ATIP request? Is that typical of the response time in your department?

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

We can follow up on that ATIP request.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Thank you.

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

It ranges by complexity, in terms of how long it takes to respond to one.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Okay, thank you.

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

My colleague can answer questions on that, on the compact.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Perfect. We'll get to that.

The other thing that our committee did was undertake a significant piece of work earlier in this Parliament around fraudulent immigration consultants and a review of the governing body that manages complaints, etc., related to that profession.

Has the government given you any direction to come up with a solution to that particular problem?

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

The department is reviewing that report very carefully and will be coming forward with options and recommendations.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

When do you anticipate that coming forward?

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

Within the coming months.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

How many months?

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

I couldn't say.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Have options been presented?

5:20 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Matt de Vlieger

They're reviewing the recommendations.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I want to remind the member to keep within the scope of this current study.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

The scope is pretty broad, Mr. Chair.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

It's pretty broad, and the first two questions were within scope, but this one is just pushing it. This is a gentle reminder.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

You did allow quite a generous scope in this—

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

—big, generous scope.