Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 9th, 2016

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

I would ask for specificity in your notes, Minister, going forward.

Going back to the cost of the immigration loans program, since an hour has passed, I'm wondering if the departmental officials have been able to provide any more information on the projected cost of waiving the immigration loans program for all refugees.

[Richard Wex]

Mr. Chair, we have not identified any additional costs during the course of the hour, because we have been answering questions.

The only thing I would say is that there is no decision on this issue at this moment. Many issues are being considered and discussed internally, and advice is being given to the minister and to the government.

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

Great. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes, please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

I have a question to follow up on from May 5, 2016, related to the additional employees who are being sent back to the Middle East to process privately sponsored applications. At that time, I requested information about the details of the operation. How many staff are being sent back? How much has been allocated? At that time, there was no information available. I wonder whether or not that information is now available.

[Dawn Edlund]

In terms of processing refugee resettlement files across the entire network, in the period of January to June, which is all we know about so far in terms of temporary duty, we have 412 weeks of temporary duty. I hesitate to use that in the number of people, because some people who go on temporary duty are there for two weeks, and some go for six weeks, so it is a better measure just to go by 412 weeks of temporary duty. That is 288 weeks of temporary duty to the Middle East, and 124 weeks of temporary duty elsewhere, over that six-month period. This is additional to the staff who are already in place in places like Cairo, Nairobi....

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

What is the cost for these 412 weeks and 288 weeks, respectively?

[Dawn Edlund]

I don't have that cost breakdown with me. We would have to provide that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Could we also have the cost of sending the staff back, and the transportation cost related to that?

In my March 10 questions to the minister and to the staff, questions were asked about the breakdown of the funding allocated to the organizations. I keep coming back to the same questions, because the set of answers that came back did not provide the actual funding allocation for those organizations. I wonder whether the allocation for those organizations has now been made, and whether I can receive that information.

[Richard Wex]

We can certainly provide the information that is being requested in terms of funding allocations to the organizations. I don't know if Ms. Tapley has any additional information she would like to provide at this time.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I know it is a long list of organizations. I have the list already, but I have no dollar amount attached to it. What is the dollar amount that has been allocated to those organizations?

I have a broad statement in each of the answers about what that organization generally does, but I don't know if there is different programming within that organization. I would appreciate a detailed breakdown of the programming costs as well, for us to fully understand what is going on with the funding allocation on the ground, and how refugees and Syrian refugees are actually being supported.

On the live-in caregiver program, I am interested in this. With the 2016 target levels—with the admission of around 16,500 live-in caregivers in 2016, whereas we see 2,750 applications for each new stream in 2015—how many of the cases does the minister anticipate will be left in the backlog of live-in caregiver applications?

In terms of the health care cost, what is the minister's view on the caring for children class and the caring for people with high medical needs class in the future? What is the breakdown of that, out of that global number?

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

I can't give you those precise numbers.

[Richard Wex]

I will start and then turn it over to Mr. Manicom.

If the question is what the inventory is for caregivers at the end of 2015 and 2016, it was 38,000 and projected to be 26,000, respectively.

I will turn it over to Mr. Manicom to talk about the intake, which is expected to be considerably lower than the range level for caregivers this year.

[David Manicom]

I would just clarify that the number of expected admissions in the caregiver program this year is 22,000, not 16,000. Therefore, we expect that at the end of year, the inventory will be not much more than one year's worth of levels.

With regard to the two new classes, there's a maximum space available in each class of 2,750 principal applicant spaces. So far, the number of applications into those classes has been quite modest, several hundred. We would be expecting 600, 700, or 800 in each class this year. We've had roughly similar proportions in each year. These numbers are generally small, because the former live-in caregiver program is still open for permanent resident applications for caregivers who were admitted as temporary workers previously.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Does the ministry keep track of live-in caregivers' applications for family reunification? If so, what is the backlog there, and how long is the wait for these caregivers to be reunited with their families?

[David Manicom]

The inventory numbers we are talking about are the applications of the caregiver and their family members. They are a combined application for permanent residence. In this program, about 50% of the applicants are caregivers and 50% are family members. Processing times right now are backward looking about 48 months, but we expect those to drop rapidly over the next year or two.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Back to the housing issue with respect to the military bases, I actually asked that question some time ago, and I got the answer that $2.3 million was expended. Now we understand that this money actually came out of another ministry, not from this ministry.

I also asked a question around temporary—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 15 seconds.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

A quick question, then.

Given that the housing is actually sitting empty at the moment, is not being used, and there are still refugees.... Although a significant number have actually been moved into permanent housing, many of them are actually in substandard housing. Is there any thought from the government of utilizing this housing for Syrian refugees?

[Richard Wex]

No, there is not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Ehsassi, for seven minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, thank you kindly for appearing before this committee again.

My first question follows up on one of the issues that has been focused on by other members of this committee, namely, your insistence on being at the airport when the first wave of Syrians arrived in Canada. I seem to recall that it was a moment of great pride for many Canadians. They saw you, the Prime Minister, and premiers in various provinces welcoming Syrians.

Could you explain to us why you thought it was significant that you be at the airport? Was it more in recognition of the great generosity shown by Canadians, or was it to impress upon the Syrians that we were very grateful they were arriving?

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

I thank you for that question.

I think the second part of your suggestion is important, that we wanted to show to the Syrian refugees that Canada welcomed them.

When the Prime Minister—and not so much me—went to the first plane and welcomed the refugees as new Canadians to their new home, that photograph went around the world. People everywhere in the world saw it. I remember going to Jordan, where I met a group of refugee children at a UNICEF place. Those refugees knew nothing about Canada and their families had not applied to come here, but they came up to me and said, “Oh, I see your Prime Minister welcomed us Syrians at the airport.”

Whereas other countries are closing their doors or making it tougher, I think one of the things we as a country are doing is welcoming people. I think that photograph of the Prime Minister of our country at the airport welcoming refugees sent a message around the world.

For me, it was something I wanted to do, because it was something we had all been working on very hard and we were also starting to see the fruits of our own labour when the first group of refugees arrived, first in Toronto and then later in Montreal. I also spoke to quite a number of refugees at the airport in Amman when they were leaving to come here.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

My second question relates to your testimony when you first arrived today. I noted that, as a result of efficient planning and your and your department's insistence on cost saving, $110 million was saved. In your presentation you said that the cost saving that occurred would probably be earmarked towards a number of different things, one of which is to manage settlement programs. Could you be a bit more specific as to how you will be steering the money that has been saved in a prudent fashion and where you think that money may be used?

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

Perhaps I'll turn that question of where specifically that money will go over to Dawn Edlund.