Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 20th, 2017

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'm just telling you, Mr. Minister, that in my office—other members can speak for themselves—that's not true. Constituents, at least in Dufferin—Caledon, simply are not getting status updates. I appreciate what you're trying to say, but I'm throwing it back to you as to what we get when people come into our office or are on the telephone.

[Robert Orr]

Mr. Chair, perhaps I could point to three things.

First of all, faster processing times will hopefully lead to fewer needs for status updates. The second point is that we're putting more information online so that clients are able to go online and get a better status of what's going on. That's still very much a work in progress, but that's improving quite significantly and there's a lot of effort going into that. The third thing I would say is that there's been a major reworking at the call centre so that we're able to respond and provide better information to clients when they do contact us, and, frankly, just the tone is more welcoming and helpful to our clients.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'll ask a question with respect to the Syrian refugee issue. This was covered to some degree by previous questions and comments that you made. It has been reported that the costs for the Syrian refugee initiative are soaring significantly beyond the funding allocated for last year. We are well past month 13 for the bulk of the arrivals. I know you're talking about privately sponsored versus government-sponsored, and I appreciate that, but the provinces are under significant strain in terms of providing the services they are mandated to provide. It is even difficult for the municipalities and their settlement agencies. Housing is stretched to the limit. Many of the arrivals have yet to find employment or enrol in language training.

I'd like you to comment on this. It's fine to say, “Well, it's the problem of the provinces and the municipalities now”, but they don't like that very well. For political or humanitarian reasons, the government brought over 45,000 Syrian refugees, and now there is a problem.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I want to communicate to the honourable member that I disagree with the premise of the question. The Syrian refugees who were resettled in Canada are progressing on their journey of integration in the same way other refugees have done. There are always growing pains with respect to starting a new life in Canada, especially when you don't have proficiency in one of the official languages, but we, on the federal side, are very dedicated to ensuring that people succeed in Canada—all newcomers, including refugees—and that is why we have spent a record amount of money on settlement.

We are spending a record amount of money on settlement for 2017—$664 million outside Quebec, which is $76 million more, with 7,000 new language spaces. When it comes to the provinces, we are not abandoning the provinces. We do provide funding, under the Canada social transfer, in the billions of dollars for those costs. Those are based on populations, including asylum seekers. We have also provided $504 million for housing, which includes shelters.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Minister.

With that, we conclude our round of questioning.

We will move to votes 1, 5, and 10 under Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and vote 1 under the Immigration and Refugee Board.

DEPARTMENT OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$545,294,901

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$23,756,038

Vote 10—Grants and contributions..........$1,170,171,545

(Votes 1, 5, and 10 agreed to)

IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE BOARD

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$113,251,545

(Vote 1 agreed to)

Shall I report the main estimates 2017-18 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

I would like to thank the minister and the department staff for appearing before our committee today. I know I speak on behalf of not just Mr. Tilson but everyone when I say that we look forward to seeing the minister before the committee in the not-too-distant future.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

The meeting is adjourned.