Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 25th, 2016

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Going back to the quota, as I said before, we cannot bring everybody in 2016 or 2017. There is something like 102,000 files waiting in the queue. What should be the quota, in your mind?

[Erika Garcia]

I think I answered this question before in terms of—10,000 at this moment is the quota that is being given to parents and grandparents, but I can't answer that in terms of how many, a specific number. All I know is that it's not enough.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Any opinion on that?

[Erika Garcia]

It would be nice to double that, to be honest, and I'm sure if you double it, it'll take another two hours for that to be filled.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Ms. Garcia, what type of social services do newcomers to Canada under the family reunification plan require and how does this compare to immigrants under the economic or humanitarian cases?

[Erika Garcia]

I'd say that they are services that require, for instance, employment services. Many of them want to start working right away. As far as my personal opinion, I don't really see in my office a lot of people who want to fall back into the social service system. Many of them just want to start working right away, but in order to start working, many of them have to learn English, so many of them do at least a year of ESL. Many of them already speak English, especially my clients from the Caribbean, so they look for employment services right away.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

In the immigration plan for 2016, one-quarter of the family reunification slots were projected to go towards admitting parents and grandparents. Would you say that this proportion is appropriate or would it be beneficial to alter this quota in the future?

[Erika Garcia]

If I'm understanding, you're saying to increase the quota in the future. Is that correct?

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

In the immigration plan for 2016, a quarter of the family reunification slots were projected to go towards admitting parents and grandparents. Would you say that this proportion is appropriate or would it be beneficial to change this quota in the future, for 2017-18?

[Erika Garcia]

I'm pro for increasing it, as I mentioned before, because there is a demand for people to reunite with their families, including parents and grandparents.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have ten seconds.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I'll leave it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Sarai, you have five minutes, please.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you to the witnesses. Thank you, Ms. Garcia.

Ms. Albert, you had alluded to a number that we have more family-class immigrants versus economic immigrants. Can you tell me what the number is? You said family class now outnumber economic in our numbers for this year.

[Gishelle Albert]

I never mentioned it for this year, because I don't know what—

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Was it for last year?

[A Voice]

It's in the last part of your statement.

[Gishelle Albert]

For this year? I don't believe I have it for this year.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Do you think that we outnumber? “Currently the economic class of immigrants are in the minority, we need to change that policy”. It's in the last line of your statement.

[Gishelle Albert]

Okay, yes, but you were referring to this year.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

How are they in the minority? Do you know the number?

[Gishelle Albert]

Specifically, no, I do not know the exact statistics, but I know that there is, and over the years—

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Can I just correct you and let you know there are 160,000 economic immigrants that are expected this year, versus only 80,000 family class. It's 2:1 in favour of economic.

[Gishelle Albert]

Okay, but your question was for this year and I believe I said I did not put a statistic on for this year.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

No, last year was even higher than that, so there are more economic—