Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 25th, 2016

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

The new ones haven't been processed. Under the previous ones, approximately 50% have been processed and the others are done. Okay.

What is the normal processing time for humanitarian and compassionate grounds applications?

[Michel Dupuis]

The average processing time now is 38 months for H and C applications for other groups.

If I may, one of the most important parts of the decision-making is stage one. Stage one is approval in principle, meaning that unless there are other inadmissibilities, your application will be accepted. Approval in principle is six to 12 months after the application. Overall it's 38 months.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Okay.

The Canadian Council for Refugees has long advocated for the government to implement a program allowing for all people under temporary suspension or removals lasting more than three years to apply for permanent residence, arguing that it's difficult for those who live in limbo for a long time.

What would be the advantage and disadvantage of such a program?

[Michel Dupuis]

It would be hard to comment on a proposal made by the CCR, but one of the main advantages of the current program, the current special measures, is that people will not be removed if they have an application in process or if they submit an application within a certain period of time. That is really one of the keys here—making sure that people have a chance to submit an application and have it processed without fear of being removed from Canada during that time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

We now have Mr. McCauley, please.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you.

I have a few questions. Come August, what is the plan? We've extended once and we've extended twice. Is there a plan for August when the second six-month extension comes?

[Michel Dupuis]

It would be for the Minister of Public Safety Canada to make that determination.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Has your department made any preparation, or is it going to wait until August and then we'll have to scramble, or....?

[Michel Dupuis]

It would be inappropriate for me to answer the question.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. Thank you.

Failed refugee claimants are being invited to apply for permanent residence. I'm curious about the reasons for the original denial. Is it a whole swath of reasons, anything specific, any security issues among them, or is it a blanket invite to every one of them?

[Michel Dupuis]

No. People who have submitted their refugee claims and have been assessed are either accepted or not by the board. That will be the decision of the board on a case-by-case basis. We don't have more information to share at this moment on the reason why some of these people might have seen their refugee applications being refused by the board.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

I have one last question for you. I know the folks at EI are working with CBSA, and they track everyone. If you leave the country on EI for a day or a week, they're communicating with EI to pull back claims. Do they not work with Immigration to do the same thing? You mentioned this missing 1,000 people that may have left the country without informing CBSA. I assume they're not just walking across the U.S. border. If they're going home, we would have records.

Do they not communicate with Immigration so we can track these people leaving? More importantly, if we know they're still here we can focus on helping those people.

[Michel Dupuis]

I'm afraid I would have to defer that type of question to our colleagues at CBSA.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Does Immigration reach out to CBSA to attempt to find these missing 1,000 people? They're here and we need to help them. It would make more sense if we could focus on the people we know are here rather than blanketing to 1,000 people who as you mentioned may not be here. We have the information I assume.

[Michel Dupuis]

As my colleague said we don't necessarily have the information because people can leave without informing either IRCC or the CBSA. There is no such a thing as a formal exit control at this time. IRCC does not have a process to check for each and every individual leaving the country at the moment.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

If we're tracking people for EI purposes, to claw back from them, we can do the same for....

[Michel Dupuis]

We don't have this information.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

I do commend the folks on the fast time looking after the folks and the 93% approval rate. It's pretty amazing. I do want to pass that on.

That's all I have. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. McCauley.

Discussions were held, and the Liberal members quite generously agreed to give their time slot to the Bloc Québécois.

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If I understand correctly, Mr. Dupuis, you estimate that 3,500 individuals could have been subject to removal, that 2,200 people have submitted an application and that 1,038 of them have had their application processed. So about 1,300 people have not applied. Some of them may be gone and others may still be here.

What is your estimate of 3,500 people based on? Is it based on refugee claims? Are those all the figures you have? Are you able to keep track of those individuals? When you send out a notice of suspension, you have to be able to find people. Is there a way to take individual steps to reach out to people who have not applied?

There is something else I'm wondering about. Can the cost of submitting an application be a factor that discourages poor people or those with insufficient means from applying?

People from the Non-status Action Committee have told us that refugees are waiting for work permits. Will the processing of those applications be accelerated?

[Michel Dupuis]

My colleague briefly touched on the way we communicate with people. There are various ways to do so. It is easy to communicate with them quickly when we have information on them. In many cases, we have that information because they applied for refugee status. In addition to advertising, we can communicate with people through NGOs that are working closely with concerned groups and the department.

In those cases, the costs attached to applications for permanent residence apply to adults and children. They may potentially become a factor, but that is a standard, a process, that has been constant any time we have had suspensions of removal orders or special measures. We have not had a specific policy concerning the costs attached to the applications.

As for the last part of your question regarding work permits, our minister has often said that one of his concerns is client service. Processing times of work permits are a major concern for the department. We don't have a specific answer today, but that's truly an ongoing concern.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you.

My next question is again for you, Mr. Dupuis.

There are 1,038 individuals whose applications have been processed, so about half of the 2,200 are left. What are the wait times for those people? If those who have not yet applied were to submit an application two or three months from now, would their application be processed before the moratorium is lifted?

There are refugees among those people who are here because of the earthquake in Haiti. They no longer have any resources or family over there. That is why the Non-status Action Committee wants us to come up with some sort of a comprehensive solution. I know there is very little likelihood of that being accepted, but do you also take that factor into consideration when processing the applications?

[Michel Dupuis]

When it comes to application processing times, we could probably come back before the committee in a while with details on that.

In the measures I just mentioned, there is no specific point concerning Haitians. However, those people could benefit from it indirectly because the difference between the previous and the current measures is that the current ones will apply to individuals without status in Canada. They are the ones who are not subject to removal, who were able to come to Canada on a visitor visa or other, and who are in the country without status because their visitor visa expired. Those people are covered under the special measures, and they will be able to benefit from them. As for those who submit their application before the deadline in August 2016, even if their application has not been finalized on August 4, 2016, they will continue to benefit from the suspension of removal orders until a final decision is made regarding their application.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I want to thank my Liberal colleagues for giving me this opportunity to speak.

Mr. Chair, do I have any time left for another question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

No, you don't have any more time.

Ms. Kwan, you have three minutes.