Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 12th, 2016

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

If we were to ballpark the total cost over a five-year period, we're probably north of $1 billion at this point?

[Dawn Edlund]

I would hesitate to try to do the math that quickly, Mr. Chair.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

But it's significantly above $250 million, is that correct?

[Dawn Edlund]

Yes.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

My next question relates to the minister's comments around prioritizing Syrian refugees within, of course, the context that we all agree that this is a humanitarian crisis of epic magnitude. To department officials, has the government provided any formal clarification or listing of criteria for prioritization of refugee groups from one region versus another?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Can I interrupt for a second?

In answer to your question, north of $1 billion, I think Mr. Manicom has a response.

[David Manicom, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

There is additional money this year of $150 million. The costs identified before that were about $680 million. I do not believe this represents a total of over $1 billion.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

What's a quarter billion between friends?

Going back to the question I just asked to the department officials, has the government provided any additional criteria or any clarity around the criteria for the prioritization of one refugee group over another?

[David Manicom]

In coordination with other resettlement countries, particularly the United States and Australia, we work with UNHCR on a multi-year basis all around the world to identify groups that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is flagging as priorities for resettlement. Then the resettlement countries work with the UNHCR to decide which country is best placed in which region to absorb which elements of the population.

We have a number of multi-year commitments in South America, in Central Africa, in Asia, to resettle populations in coordination with the UNHCR. We are meeting all those multi-year commitments that we had made prior to the Syrian effort and we continue to accept referrals on an ongoing basis in those areas consistent with that plan.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Some groups are trying to sponsor refugees from other parts of the world. In Canada, there have been media reports that they've experienced delays due to the Syrian refugee initiative. We anticipate putting order paper questions on this down the road.

Have any delays or any verbal notices been given to these groups by officials within Citizenship and Immigration that their applications would not be prioritized or would not be expedited at the same level as Syrian refugees?

[David Manicom]

The answer to that is a bit complicated.

The private sponsorship of refugees program in the past had widely varying processing times depending on the part of the world where the refugees were from, primarily based on existing case inventories, processing resources, whether or not we were able to put staff safely into some parts of the world, and things like that.

We have not reduced any refugee processing elsewhere in the world due to the Syrian initiative, so there has been no displacement. That said, the priority on the Syrian project has meant that Syrian privately sponsored refugees are being processed more quickly than some refugees in other parts of the world. This year, because of the tripling of the private sponsorship of refugees program, we are planning to process more privately sponsored refugees from elsewhere in the world than was the case in the previous several years, in addition to the Syrian commitment.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

We also have noted multiple media stories from around the country that there's been a very high demand on food bank usage for government-sponsored refugees; for example, 400 people in the Ottawa area alone. Has the government given any thought to how they're dealing with food bank usage, especially in other areas of the country where there might be demand on them at this point?

[Dawn Edlund]

Mr. Chair, we are working with Food Banks Canada to study this phenomenon. We need to recognize that government-assisted refugees, when they come to Canada, and the income support they receive, puts them into a low-income set-up. It's not unusual that government-assisted refugees would be accessing food banks.

We have been working with our service provider organizations as well to try to understand the phenomenon. In some instances it's possibly a temporary phenomenon as people are waiting for their child tax benefit cheques to arrive. In some instances it's helping to educate the Syrian families that even though the food bank is there and it's a free resource, they shouldn't go there unless they need to and some of them had been going when they didn't need to. There have been some communication issues around that, but we continue to work and study food bank usage in close collaboration with the service provider organizations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you Ms. Rempel.

Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and to the minister and his officials.

I'm wondering if the department has had any inquiries with respect to foreign credentialling. We have a number of Syrian refugees here. Many of them may not even have their transcripts with them due to the rush in which they left their county. Therefore, they are having difficulty accessing post-secondary education opportunities or work opportunities. I wonder if the ministry has had any inquiries with respect to that and what action the government will take to help address that issue.

[Catrina Tapley]

We have now started to receive inquiries about this. The number I have of those intending to obtain credential recognition or a license to work in a regulated occupation is about 600. We'll work with provinces and territories to try to help people come through the system to address some of the problems that you have outlined. It will be a challenge.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

To the Minister, I think this is a major issue because some people don't even have their transcripts, and therefore, they cannot make an application to post-secondary institutions or secure employment. I wonder if the Minister will take some action in his leadership role to address this issue.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I agree with you. If they have come from the difficult circumstance of being a refugee they won't necessarily have all their papers with them. Do we have measures in place to deal with that? How is that acted upon? I'd like to know the status quo before seeing if more needs to be done.

[Catrina Tapley]

There are two parts to that answer, Mr. Chair.

The first is that in some cases we do competency-based assessments. In lieu of transcripts, there are some occupations, particularly trades, for which competency-based assessments are recognized.

The second is a more complicated answer on responsibility with respect to foreign qualification recognition. It's the responsibility of provinces and territories, and then they further delegate to regulatory bodies. At the federal level we share responsibility with our sister department, ESDC, so there are a variety of actors who need to come together around this point.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Maybe I could suggest that the minister look into this and get back to the committee, specifically on the question of lost transcripts, the inability to obtain a transcript, and how that could be addressed in a practical way for post-secondary institutions as well as for the refugees?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I will do that. I might just add that the general issue of credentials has been plaguing this country for decades, and it's largely provincial. We are going to have a federal-provincial meeting at which we will discuss best practices to improve how we deal with credentials in general.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

I want to move to another area, namely the one-year window application, the opportunity application. In that process, refugees' parents and siblings are generally speaking not considered as a family unit, and therefore they can't make application for them. I wonder whether or not the minister could advise us on how that can be addressed. There are a lot of Syrian refugees here who are not able to make application for their immediate family members in that context.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Okay, I think I'll hand that to Mr. Manicom.

[David Manicom]

The one-year window process is for when you have a refugee nuclear family separated at the time of the application. Let's say, for example, that the wife and children were in Lebanon and the husband was working in a Gulf state or in Europe, for example. That process enables us to process the family to which we which have access immediately, bring them to Canada, given them permanent resident status without examining the other family member and then that application can be submitted during one year for that person to come. The non-nuclear family sponsorship entitlements for refugees are the same as they are for other Canadian permanent residents or citizens. They can sponsor their parents under the family class but Canada does not have a sponsorship program for siblings. That said, a very large proportion of the privately sponsored refugees through sponsorship groups are in response to the requests of refugees to bring in family members.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I appreciate the answer and I understand how the program works. I guess my point is this. There are many families who, given their culture, actually live in large extended families with parents and often siblings. One sibling is often responsible for the rest of the siblings, and that's the nature of the culture that they come from. The way in which the system is set up with the one-year window of opportunity excludes them from bringing those family members here whom they consider as their nuclear family. I would urge the government to take a look at that and perhaps come forward with a revision.

How many applications has the government received through the one-year window of opportunity, and how long would it take to process them? In that context, are these applications included in the immigration targets of the government in the report that was issued by the government? I wonder if I could get a breakdown of what the targets are for the countries with refugees that the government would be including in the coming year.