Evidence of meeting #34 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was class.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd like to thank both Ms. Garcia and Ms. Albert for appearing before us today with their comments. It will help in our report to the government.
Ms. Albert, you stated in your remarks that you are concerned about the financial impact that increasing the levels of parents and grandparents will have on the Canadian economy. You went into that to some degree. I wonder whether you could elaborate on that.
4:55 p.m.
As an Individual
A number of research studies have shown that people use the health care system the most in the first couple of years of life and at the end of life. If you visit an emergency room, you see mostly older adults. Yes, it's great to reunite family, and maybe an individual would have the benefit of having their parent or grandparent there to look after their children, but the question is, who pays for that individual? Statistics show that there is an increased burden on our health care system, and that's what the provinces spend the most money on.
Yes, there is that burden on the system with our own seniors, with our own population. Now we want to increase the quotas, or even remove them, to add that additional burden, and we don't have that additional revenue going into the system to pay for it.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
You commented that in the 2016 immigration levels plan, the minister has made a marked shift away from economic migrants towards family reunification. Why do you feel that this is the wrong approach?
4:55 p.m.
As an Individual
I feel that our economy is struggling as it is, right now. We need to generate more jobs. We need people to help grow our economy. We need people who are innovative, and that all comes when you're younger and you're better able to adapt to changes in the world, with what's happening in technology, with what's happening in our political environment, not only in Canada but throughout the world. We need people who can help us advance our economy and grow, and become more significant in the world in that sense. That's where the economic class of immigrants fits in. I believe we need to grow that base first, before moving further with aging parents and grandparents.
5 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
You referenced fairness, in your remarks, with respect to the utilization of benefits in Canada by those who may not have contributed to them. You spent some time on that. Could you elaborate as well on that issue?
5 p.m.
As an Individual
When we speak of people's parents and grandparents, we're already looking at an older age. They have lived and built up another society, then they move to Canada and are now entitled to the same benefits as someone who has worked and helped to build this society. We don't have a system where, if you move here after the age of 60, you pay insurance. I believe now it's coming in with the visas, but if you come here as a permanent resident and become a citizen, what have you paid to help build the system that you're now able to access at the same level as someone else who has helped to build the system?
5 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
You note that with Canada's rapidly aging population, we're in need of more economic migrants to support those heading into retirement with the aging population. You spent some time on that as well. What do you see as the biggest problem here?
5 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
You've emphasized that we need more economic migrants to support those heading into retirement, but that's not the direction the government seems to be taking. So the question is, what do you see as the problem?
5 p.m.
As an Individual
What's happening is that over time the number of working individuals to support one senior is reducing, so as we have more seniors coming from our baby boomers, and now we add more to that, it puts more of a burden on someone like myself, who is now trying to work to get set for my own retirement. I'm now paying into someone else's retirement—well, not retirement because they wouldn't have worked—paying into supporting someone who hasn't even helped with my education. We're all aware that our education system.... For university it's subsidized about 50% or something like that. I don't mind paying for someone who has helped me to acquire the skills I have now, to work and help to build the system, but I would have a problem supporting someone who has never helped me in that sense. It comes back to the issue of fairness.
5 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
The committee will be making a number of recommendations after hearing—
5 p.m.
Liberal
5 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I thank the witnesses for their presentations.
I'd like to ask Ms. Garcia some questions, if I may. I think you emphasized the importance of family reunification and you expressed difficulties with individuals you have assisted in your organization with their application, with processing time particularly, which is often a major concern. You're right. We hear this all the time, and one of the reason we're gathered here today is to look into this situation.
Do you have a suggested time frame that you think would be a reasonable approach with respect to the processing time?
5:05 p.m.
Settlement Worker, Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre
I think, for children, especially, six months or less is a time frame that is appropriate, mainly because I think being away from their parents for more than six months, as I mentioned before, can have very detrimental and emotional impacts on them and their development as well.
I think six months or under a year. I echo what the last panellist was saying that at about a year there should be something. I was very surprised, to be honest, over the years to see the that number of months hasn't decreased; in fact, it seems to grow. So it's 24 months at the moment, if you're making the application within Canada, but I think that should be lower as well. Since they're in Canada it could be a year and a half perhaps at the most, but abroad, I'm thinking about a year, and six months for children.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You also mentioned the difficulties for people to get information and updates about the status of the application. We hear that all the time as well. Our offices are inundated with constituents who want us to try to get them information.
I wonder if you can elaborate and give us specific examples of those issues with the call centre, and then suggest what needs to change in order for people to access information regarding the status of the application.
5:05 p.m.
Settlement Worker, Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre
I know personally, because I often have to make those calls myself as a representative of my clients. The call-in centre system seems to be getting more complicated as well, even for me, and I have been using it for about 10 years, as I mentioned.
Usually, the waiting periods are about an hour for now. Often half-way to accessing, it tends to hang up on me. The options it gives us, there are too many of them, too much information. And accessing an actual person who I can speak to, a representative on the phone, can be very difficult.
Sorry, can you repeat the second part of your question?.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
What do you think needs to change? How can they improve the system for people to access information about the status of their claim?
5:05 p.m.
Settlement Worker, Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre
One of the things my clients have often expressed is the need to have somebody, a person with a name whom they can have communication with. Sending an application is very personal. We're talking about their families here. I hear a lot about numbers, but it's also important to remember that there's a humanistic aspect to these applications. We're talking about reuniting people together, their families as a unit. Having that contact with someone, one on one, even a specific name, could be very helpful for them, so they know that so-and-so is actually looking at their application.
This is a problem with applications abroad, because they seem to go from different hands to different officers sometimes—sometimes even different offices. I've had many occasions where applications are sent from one office to another, because there are too many applications in one visa office abroad. Seeing those applications being shifted to different offices can be very stressful to a lot of my clients.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Some people say that, if you're good enough to work here, you're good enough to stay. We have situations where some temporary foreign workers come in, and sometimes they come in year after year to work, but they don't get access to permanent resident status. I wonder whether or not you have some thoughts about that.
5:05 p.m.
Settlement Worker, Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre
For sure. Over the years I've talked to many temporary workers, farm workers, specifically, coming through my doors. They work very hard, extremely hard, in jobs that are not easy jobs to do. They're paying taxes in one way or another here. They're putting in hard labour here for us.
I want to speak specifically about farm workers, because those are the populations that I tend to see the most. I think giving them access to bring their families, to have permanent residence here, for me it would be ideal because the majority of people I've seen in that program, specifically, just want to continue to work. They want to give their children a better opportunity. They want their children to go to university and become something, just as many of us have done here in this room.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
On the family reunification application, some in previous panels have actually identified the high cost of the application for individual families to submit, both in the fees and the sponsorship amount. I wonder if you have some comments about that.
