Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Jan. 30th, 2019

[Ümit Kiziltan]

I do not recall the text, Mr. Chair. Economic immigrants, overall, have been increasing their average and median income. We will have to check that and come back.

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

It's on page 14. I took that from your departmental performance report. I hope that somebody knows that it's in there.

In terms of integration outcomes, does the department have a set of metrics or key performance indicators it uses to define integration?

[David Manicom]

Yes.

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

What would those be?

If it's going to take a long time, would you mind tabling that with the committee?

[David Manicom]

Yes, we'd be happy to table them to the committee.

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

Thank you.

Part of the challenge of finding information on settlement services is that there's not a standard definition of what those are and evaluating budgetary support for them. I'm just wondering if you could tell us about the type of settlement services and if there's a difference between them for a permanent resident, a temporary resident and a protected person.

The people crossing at Roxham Road they would be on the temporary resident side. What settlement services would temporary residents receive when they're in Canada?

[David Manicom]

The federal government does not provide settlement services to temporary residents.

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

Would you consider the Canada child benefit a resettlement service?

[David Manicom]

No.

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

Is that managed through another department that would be able to track information on that for us?

[David Manicom]

Yes.

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

Another component of settlement services concerns relationships. We hear a lot about that. Certainly, a lot of civil society groups talk about relationship stability or potential abuse. One of the areas I'd like to explore in this study is the removal of conditional permanent residency for sponsored spouses.

I know that the policy change in that regard had good intentions, but I've had a few cases, including a specific one where the unintended consequence was forcing a constituent to remain financially responsible for her documented abusive husband for a three-year undertaking period. She sponsored her husband, and now your department will not let her out of the undertaking period, despite her applying for divorce and filing assault charges against him.

Why would your department force somebody to stay in an abusive relationship in a sponsorship situation as a result of the change that was made under this government? Have you seen many cases like this?

[David Manicom]

That's not in my area of responsibility, but there are provisions for relieving individuals in abusive situations of their sponsorship obligations. That's my understanding.

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

You're fairly senior in the department, sir. I'm just wondering, again—

[David Manicom]

I did used to have policy responsibility for that area, and there are provisions—

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

So would you speak to it based on your institutional knowledge?

[David Manicom]

There are provisions for relieving individuals of their sponsorship obligations in abusive situations. That's my understanding.

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

I would love for you to table those with the committee, because that is not the response we got from your department on this particular case.

[David Manicom]

Okay, we'd be delighted to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you.

Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the officials for the presentation and the answers to our questions.

On the resettlement services side, one of the key issues is that I think especially the vulnerable newcomers who have experienced trauma have had difficulties in accessing counselling services or psychological support. That seems to be an ongoing challenge, especially in the language capacity that could help and support them.

We had Yazidi survivors, for example, and we learned through the committee that five Yazidi survivors have had access to individualized trauma counselling in Canada. I hope things have changed since that time.

I wonder if you can let the committee know what work has been done in this regard to ensure that kind of support is in place for especially vulnerable newcomers.

[David Manicom]

Yes, we have certainly been working very hard on improving mental health supports. The medical mental health supports, of course, are a provincial responsibility, but we've been increasing our ability to do crisis counselling in cases where newcomers require trauma counselling service providers.

There certainly was a challenge in a small number of cases in providing interpretation services in the Yazidi native language. We believe we have resolved those situations in all the places where we have resettled Yazidi individuals.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sorry, can I interrupt you there?

How have you resolved it, then? Can you just give us some information how that has been resolved?

[David Manicom]

My understanding is that we have identified Kermanji-speaking interpreters in those communities now, so that we now are able to provide that service in their mother tongue.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That is to say if an individual requires that service in their mother tongue, they would express that and then the federal government will ensure that translation services are in place wherever the person is relocated? Is my understanding correct?