Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 29th, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Nick Whalen]

I want to welcome everyone to the 163rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. We're pleased to be joined by Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

I'd like to welcome Mr. Kmiec today. I'd also like to congratulate normal standing member Michelle Rempel on her nuptials to Major Sergeant Jeff Garner. We wish her all the best and happiness. That explains her absence today.

Although we had originally been scheduled from 3:30 with the possibility of overflow to 6:30, I believe the consensus among members is to proceed for a full 51-minute round of questions with Mr. Hussen. After that, we'll dismiss the remainder of the witnesses and go into committee business on the usual motions.

Without further ado, I call upon the minister to present his opening remarks. Minister, you have nine minutes.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm pleased to be here to present my department's main estimates for fiscal year 2019-20. I'm accompanied today by the acting deputy minister and a number of our senior officials.

For Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's 2019-20 main estimates, we are seeking a proposed net increase of $832 million over last year, which includes the items announced in budget 2019.

A substantial portion of this increase, $324 million, addresses higher volumes of asylum claimants, and the need to provide practical support to provincial and municipal partners, particularly in the area of temporary housing.

As this committee knows well, the world is currently experiencing a record number of people fleeing violence and persecution. With unprecedented levels of people on the move around the world, our government has taken concrete steps to ensure that we address the challenges in a responsible manner, and that we provide support to vulnerable refugees, while ensuring that the health, safety and security of Canadians is paramount and protected.

Since 2017, our government has been implementing a comprehensive plan to manage irregular migration, while also improving the productivity and management of the asylum system. As part of this plan, we have worked very closely and effectively with provincial partners, and even directly with municipal partners when provincial authorities have been unwilling to collaborate.

The funding in the main estimates builds on the $150 million that has been previously announced. We have committed up to $474 million for sharing interim housing costs incurred by the provinces and/or municipalities to respond to the increased need for housing solutions.

The main estimates also include separate votes for key initiatives announced in budget 2019, totalling $339 million for IRCC in 2019-20. This includes funding to enhance the integrity of Canada's borders and increase the capacity of the asylum system, so that decisions on claims can be rendered faster; improve the services we offer to all our clients, including by hiring additional call centre agents; improve visa processing to ensure that Canada maximizes the benefits of business and tourist visitors who want to come to Canada, while ensuring strong screening procedures, so that the health, safety and security of Canadians is protected; and finally, overhaul the oversight of immigration consultants, including through more investigations and stiffer penalties, so that more vulnerable clients can be protected.

These main estimates, including proposals in budget 2019, allow us to continue to strengthen our immigration system and improve client service. We've made a lot of progress on our commitments. Our government introduced the most ambitious immigration levels in recent Canadian history. This represents a major investment in Canada's current and future prosperity by growing our immigration through a well-managed, multi-year immigration plan.

The plan provides for an increase in the number of immigrants, selected on the basis of their skills and education. This will help our economic growth and address our labour market shortages as well as bring much-needed skills to our country.

To ensure these benefits are felt right across the country, we have successfully piloted the Atlantic immigration program. We have introduced a new rural and northern immigration pilot program, and we have expanded the provincial nominee program numbers to help attract skilled immigrants to smaller communities across our country.

We've also seen a commitment to family reunification by expanding admissions through our parents and grandparents program, the spousal sponsorship program and the caregiver program.

We have also ensured that we have an innovative approach to further improve our processing capacities. I'm proud of the fact that we have reduced wait times and backlogs across almost every line of business in the immigration system. Legacy spousal sponsorship inventory went down from 75,000 cases to less than 2,000.

The live-in caregiver program backlog went down from 62,000 cases to only 1,700 cases. We are processing the federal skilled worker program's express entry system applications in about six months; processing new spousal sponsorship applications within 12 months, down from 26; and processing new caregiver program applications within 12 months.

In addition to this, the global skills strategy is another example of an innovative program that is meeting Canada's economic needs. It helps businesses grow and expand by attracting highly skilled temporary workers into our country. It processes their work permits and visas in only two weeks, down from seven months.

Building on the success of the global talent stream pilot, budget 2019 commits to making this pilot program a permanent program. We've also seen the success of the start-up visa pilot project. We've turned it into a regular program to drive innovation. This program has helped launch nearly 200 start-up companies in Canada in a wide range of industries.

Settlement services are also, of course, key to newcomers' success in Canada. In 2019-20 IRCC will invest more than ever before, with $778 million to deliver the settlement program to newcomers outside of Quebec. IRCC funds over 500 organizations and provides services to over 460,000 clients, including assistance with learning a new language, finding a job and integrating into Canada.

Mr. Chair, immigration strengthens our country. It helps keep Canada globally competitive by promoting innovation and economic growth and by supporting diverse and inclusive communities. The actions I have noted today demonstrate our ongoing commitment as we continue to meet these goals.

The actions that I've noted today demonstrate our ongoing commitment to achieving these goals.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Nick Whalen]

Thank you very much, Minister.

I would just remind everyone that the normal rules of this committee are those of the House. On matters of decorum, we usually allow some flexibility to speak directly with the minister, but if things get a little bit heated, as they sometimes do in this committee, we'll address the normal points of order and we'll have the questions then directed through the chair.

Without further ado, I would ask Mr. Tabbara to begin the first seven-minute round.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the officials and to the minister for being here.

Minister, thank you once again for coming to the committee and updating us on the great work that the department is doing and that you're doing.

To begin, is the $24 million for the processing of temporary foreign resident visas going toward creating positions for application handling, or is it targeted for technology improvements like IT services?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

That's an important question. The global demand to visit Canada, to work in Canada or to study in Canada is growing exponentially. Each year we welcome millions of tourists, temporary foreign workers and international students. These visitors and students inject billions of dollars into our economy. We are proposing to invest, under budget 2019, $79 million to help with processing, to enable us to process applications faster and to process more applications than ever before. We expect 3.9 million applications for temporary resident visas in 2019-20. We will also engage in file triaging, identity validation, eligibility and admissibility assessment, document review, decision-making and post-decision activities. We engage in quality control, quality assurance and risk management.

At the end of the day, it simply comes down to processing applications that have gone from around 1.9 million to the 3.9 million temporary resident applications that we expect. Obviously, we have to invest in more resources to be able to deal with this; of course, more full-time employees, but also leveraging more technology solutions to deal with a huge increase in volumes in some of the source countries.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

You mentioned technology. I think that's a good segue into my next question.

In your testimony, you talked about the global skills program and how important that was. I want to also mention the rural pilot program, the Atlantic pilot program and the expansion of the current provincial nominee program, but specifically the global skills strategy and how all of these programs coming in together all at once are really benefiting our economy, benefiting Canada and bringing global talent from abroad.

What I want to end with here is that we have a start-up company in Kitchener that just published having a newcomer come in.... It was a sponsorship group, Talent Beyond Boundaries, that sponsored this young individual. He was able to work in a high-tech company. This was not through the global skills program, but through a sponsorship program that we've quadrupled, I believe, over the years.

How has that been a net benefit to Canada and a net benefit to employers here?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

One of the main reasons for the increase in immigration levels in every year of our government has been to listen to the concerns of business. Businesses have told us very clearly—small, medium and large enterprises across the country, not just in urban areas but in rural Canada—that they are facing a lot of pressure from not having workers to fill unfilled jobs. This impacts their ability to grow. In the process of growth, they also are able to create jobs for Canadians, especially when you're talking about skilled workers who are coming in to actually address particular skill shortages and who, when they're able to come through our immigration system, are able to unlock dozens and hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs for Canadians.

The second question is, investment follows talent. When particular investments are made in Canada, one of the main reasons and one of the key things they look at, the major investors, is the ability to be able to (a) find the talent in Canada and (b) bring in talent as needed in their growth trajectory.

A global skills strategy is certainly helping in that process. Bringing down the processing time from seven months to two weeks is really revolutionary when you think about it, and many employers have benefited from it. In addition to that, the express entry system allows Canada to continue to be a global leader in being able to use our immigration system to bring the best and the brightest from around the world.

In many industries across Canada, there is tremendous growth. They are taking up as much as is possible the local talent that is being produced in Canada through our wonderful educational institutions, but it's not enough, so the delta is being filled by foreign workers, who are coming in through various immigration streams to continue to power our economy and create jobs in the process.

I've seen this first-hand—

[The Chair, Liberal, Nick Whalen]

Excuse me, Mr. Minister.

We see that the lights are flashing. There has been a notice of motion for the production of papers. The vote will be in about 29 minutes. It's just a couple of floors above us, so I believe that we could probably get to the end of the first round and then resume our meeting after the vote, if we have unanimous consent.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Nick Whalen]

Wonderful. We have about a minute and 15 seconds.

Minister, you were still answering the question.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I was saying that I've seen not just on a macro level but on a micro level situations in which an employer has brought in a highly skilled worker that they just couldn't find locally because all those skilled people had been employed locally. Through the injection of that highly skilled worker in the company, they were able to unlock 35 or 40 jobs for Canadians.

I've seen that in Sackville, Nova Scotia. I've seen that in northern Ontario. I've seen that in British Columbia and many parts of Canada. This is a way for immigration policy to equip our businesses—and our economy—to get the talent they need so that our businesses can grow and be able to fill unfilled jobs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Nick Whalen]

Thank you.

Mr. Tilson, for seven minutes.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First of all I want to thank you, Minister, and the department officials for being flexible in meeting with us under the craziness that's going on in the House. I thank you for that.

I have a question, Minister, and it involves my riding. It involves parental sponsorship applications under the old system. There's a family living in my riding who have waited 12 years for the processing of a parental sponsorship application, which was initiated in July 2007. I appreciate you will have no knowledge of this, but we will give some papers to your officials and hopefully you could comment generally on this.

The department continues to promote family reunification, yet here we have a family in my riding that has continued to languish in the New Delhi visa office since May 2009. Seemingly, the department cannot figure out how to update the details all because the file has the misfortune of being initiated under the original system. I'm not going to reveal the names for privacy reasons, but I'll have my assistant give somebody up there a copy with more details. He's doing that now.

Notwithstanding that this is something that you're not aware of, I would like it if you could comment generally on how this is happening—a 12-year wait?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Our priority is family reunification. I am saddened to hear about the length of time it is taking for this family to reunite with their loved ones.

I'm, of course, not familiar with this particular case—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'm sure you're not.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—but I will commit to you that my team will work with your team to see how we can help.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

If someone could contact my office at a convenient time, I'd appreciate it.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

That's not a problem. Thank you.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you.

I will share my time with my colleague.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Welcome, Minister.

I'm pressed for time because of the votes.

When will you close the loophole in the safe third country agreement?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

The safe third country agreement, as you know, is a bilateral agreement, so it requires both the United States and Canada to agree to any modernization or adjustments.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

When will you close the loophole in the safe third country agreement?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

It's not something we can do unilaterally. I'm saying any changes or any modernization to that agreement has to be done on a bilateral basis.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Right, Minister, but the PBO has found and written that the illegal border crossings will be costing at least $1.1 billion by 2021. They're saying that this is a continuous cost driver for your department.

Again, when will you close the loophole in the safe third country agreement? Do you have a timetable?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I'm happy to discuss costs. The Auditor General highlighted the costs of inaction, and the funding of the system—