Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 20th, 2017

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Higher admission levels require increased spending on application processing and settlement services at IRCC, as well as costs for external partners.

How much of the $18.1-million increase that was identified in the main estimates is to support higher admission levels, and how is this funding going to be allocated?

[Richard Wex]

In terms of the $18 million—I'll have my colleagues correct me if I'm wrong—it was actually part of a three-year investment, starting in 2016, to deal with the 300,000 new admissions target. Specifically, the $18 million in the main estimates is going to be dedicated to settlement services as a result of the increase in the admission levels. There are additional monies in the main estimates of about $8 million that allow the department to ramp up to prepare itself operationally to admit the additional numbers in the 2017 levels plans.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

There is an evaluation of the settlement program that has been under way by IRCC. How will the 2016-17 settlement program evaluation inform the delivery of high-quality settlement services?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

A 30-second answer, please.

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

It will really help us, because we will be able to better measure outcomes, not just outputs, and see how we can deliver settlement services even better with more efficiency, more impact on newcomers. We think this is the way to go.

We believe that getting settlement services right is critical for people to restart their lives well in Canada.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Tilson, you have five minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister, in my riding, my office has been trying to assist a prominent and well-established group of constituents since 2012 with their application for a refugee family from Sudan.

Why is the department telling us that there is an average 16-month processing time on refugee applications when we know that 45,000 refugees were processed in mere months?

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

Thank you for the question.

The issue of processing privately sponsored refugees or government-sponsored refugees always takes resources. It takes time. I can tell you that the privately sponsored refugee allocation for 2017 is almost quadruple what has existed in the past. That is to allow us to reduce the backlog that exists within the private sponsorship refugee backlog, but also to allow more Canadians to bring in privately sponsored refugees.

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

I understand that, Mr. Minister. The problem is that the reputation the department is getting is that some refugees are simply jumping the queue. You've given an answer to it, and I do understand. I also know you probably don't want to discuss private applications in a public forum such as this. I'm going to have my assistant give you a letter that we wrote to you last month, and hopefully you and your assistants will look at it.

Ms. Rempel has some questions for you.

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

Thank you.

In the IRCC departmental plan, it's stated on page 23 that the department plans to “Implement changes to the Citizenship Act following Royal Assent of Bill C-6, including corresponding updates to the Citizenship Regulations.”

Can the minister describe what the corresponding updates to the citizenship regulations will be?

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

On Bill C-6, we anticipate and are hopeful that the Senate will pass C-6 so that we can move very quickly on removing obstacles to citizenship brought in by Bill C-24. Whatever is in C-6 that would require changes to the regulations is something that we will also move very quickly in the—

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

Again, Mr. Chair, I'm asking the minister what.... There is a very technical statement on page 26 of your department's report. What are those changes and what are the anticipated costs?

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

I can't speak to the anticipated costs. What I can speak to is that Bill C-6 remains a priority for us because it removes the obstacles to citizenship that were implemented by Bill C-24.

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

A point of clarification, Mr. Chair....

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

Once Bill C-6 passes, we will be able to look at whatever corresponding changes that we need—

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

I have a point of clarification for the minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Rempel.

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

I'm not asking about Bill C-6. Just to clarify for the minister, and perhaps his departmental officials would like to show him this, it says that following the royal assent of Bill C-6 there would be “corresponding updates to the Citizenship Regulations”.

Can he please tell the committee what these updates would be?

[Richard Wex]

Mr. Chair, we could follow up afterwards with respect to this question. Normally after there is legislation, there are subsequent pieces of regulation to support the legislation and to fill in the gaps and provide more detail. I'm not particularly aware of this issue. I'd have to read it in context, and the department will be following up with the clerk according —

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

So that's an undertaking by the department?

[Richard Wex]

It is an undertaking, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

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

Thank you.

Could the department officials give a cost differential between a privately sponsored refugee who came in through the Syrian refugee initiative versus a government-sponsored refugee as it pertains to social assistance payments and language training services, if there's an actual cost differential between those two streams that has been done?

[Daniel Mills, Assistant Deputy Minister, Chief Financial Officer, Finance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

The cost for a government-assisted refugee is normally about $25,000 to $26,000, which includes the settlement and the resettlement costs. For privately sponsored refugees, it costs about $13,500.