Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 9th, 2016

[Dawn Edlund]

My understanding is the money that was saved in relation to this initiative for IRCC, over $110 million, has actually gone back into the fiscal framework for the use of the Government of Canada. It has not been repurposed within IRCC.

What we are doing then is having other sources of funds identified for continuing to deal with the Syrian refugee resettlement and the increase in levels plan.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you for that.

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

In other words, as a consequence of that saving, the overall deficit of the government is smaller.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Absolutely.

In your opening remarks, you talked about your interest in making sure that you were on track to meet new targets that were provided in your ministerial mandate letter. Could you possibly elaborate on that?

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

To meet...?

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

To meet new targets to make the department more efficient in terms of processing various types of immigrants to this country. You did state that you think that you are on track to meet those targets that were in your mandate letter.

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

Yes, I do believe we're on track for the 300,000 levels plan, if that is your question. I also talked about the greater efficiency that we learned from the refugee experience that can be imported into the overall program, and that will help us to achieve greater levels in the future, but in terms of the current year, we are on track.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Is this for various categories of applicants?

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

You never know the absolute number until the end of the year, but we anticipate that we will hit the 300,000 target, or at least within that range.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

We've heard from various witnesses that have taken the time to appear before this committee that there are perhaps better ways of making sure that we do take care of the health care needs of some of the families that are arriving from Syria. Would you be open to the possibility of focusing on that issue to make sure that we go about the provision of health services in the most efficient fashion?

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

As our Prime Minister likes to say, there's always a better way. l have no doubt there's a better way, but you'd have to explain what they mean when they say a better way. A better way in what sense?

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

In terms of the doctors we heard from.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 15 seconds, sir.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

They were explaining to this committee ways that we could tweak the offering of basic dental services.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, and the time is up for that round.

Ms. Rempel.

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

This question is for the officials. With regard to the increase in refugees that's outlined in the immigration levels report, are there any plans to target Yazidi girls or Yazidis after the joint partnership program or under any category in the immigration levels report?

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

Did you say it's for the officials?

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

Yes.

[Richard Wex]

I guess I'll open it up, and then turn to Mr. Manicom.

By way of context, of course, the government recently fulfilled its multi-year commitment for Iraqis in 2015 of over 23,000. We do continue to rely on the UNHCR with respect to referring cases to us.

Persecution based on religion is considered by visa officers, as we know, but we do not track cases based on race or religion. Anecdotally, we know we are dealing with some Yazidi cases at the moment. I also believe that we may be planning a trip later this year to northern Iraq to look at various options.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Manicom to see if there are any additional comments.

[David Manicom]

And I, in turn, will turn it over to Dawn Edlund.

Operationally, I know we have a trip planned to Erbil in northern Iraq, and we continue to work with the UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable groups. Most of the Yazidi population, which has been very tragically persecuted, are in camps in northern Iraq that are difficult to access, and some are in camps in Turkey. Some cases have been identified by private sponsorship groups and we're endeavouring to get to them as quickly as possible.

Perhaps Ms. Edlund has more details.

[Dawn Edlund]

My colleagues have referred to the fact that we're doing the planning now to do an area trip into northern Iraq, to Erbil, in the fall. We're just evaluating whether we can do that and maintain the safety and security of our staff.

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

Do you anticipate that this trip would result in a specific program, say, under the joint sponsorship program, that would allow Yazidis to be identified and come into Canada, such as the proposal provided by One Free World International, a similar type of program?

[Dawn Edlund]

The cases that we're hoping to interview and process in northern Iraq in the fall are cases that we already have in hand. For example, Syrian privately sponsored refugees in our office in Amman are found in northern Iraq, so we're going to go there.

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

Specifically Yazidis.

[Dawn Edlund]

For the Yazidis who are in northern Iraq, it's not a refugee situation per se because people are internally displaced, and so we have to do some policy work around thinking through what the possible levers would be to work on that population.