Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 19th, 2017

[Gerry Mills]

I think people will come and will stay for three reasons: job, family, and community. If they have family there, that's going to attract them there and keep them there. As for the community, absolutely, it's incredibly important, but the most important is the job. As everybody has said, if that job is there—a good job—then the other ones will come along with it as well.

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

Somebody else—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 20 seconds.

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

Somebody mentioned last week that more students should be coming to Atlantic Canada. When they go to school, they will learn the language. They will get educated there. They will understand the customs, etc.

Does anybody have any opinions on bringing more students to Atlantic Canada, and maybe reducing their tuition fees because it's triple that of local students?

[Wadih Fares]

We do have 7,000 international students in Nova Scotia. The international student is a big factor in our immigration programs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Unfortunately, we're significantly over seven minutes.

Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses for their presentations.

Mr. Chair, I would like to put a motion on the order paper, if I may, before I start my questions. I'll put this motion on the order paper. It is that pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(c), the committee establish a subcommittee of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to study the issue of internally displaced persons in order to determine how Canada can best respond to the increasing trend of internal displacement and the growing role of non-state actors in global displacement; that the subcommittee be comprised of seven members; and that the subcommittee report its findings to the committee.

That's the notice of motion.

I'm going to move on to questions for the rest of my minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

We can resume the clock.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The issue around immigration, we've heard, has to do with immigration level numbers, as well. I know there's a special program for the Atlantic provinces, but really, as Mr. Fares was saying, we need more immigrants. The truth of the matter is that we have an aging population across the country, although that is more severe in the Atlantic provinces. We also have a situation in which people are just not having as many babies. My mom had six and I have two, case in point. That's the reality we face today.

Should we be looking at increasing the immigration level numbers? Right now the number is 300,000. Should we be looking at increasing the number for the Atlantic provinces, but more to the point, increasing that number for the rest of the country as well? It's just a quick question to get your sense of this, and then I will have a couple of other sets of questions.

Mr. Fares.

[Wadih Fares]

I definitely believe that we should increase the number of immigrants allowed to come into Nova Scotia under the nominee program. We always call for the cap to be lifted, as Gerry mentioned. Let us do our own thing and see what we can do. If we're successful, we'll keep going. If we're not successful, obviously we'll stop. I strongly believe that we should increase the number of immigrants to Atlantic Canada, and we should lift the cap we have to work with.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

I'll go to the folks with us by video conference.

Ms. Mills, we'll go to you.

[Gerry Mills]

Yes, we should.

As part of the settlement sector—actually we were just debating that this morning—we are going to be putting out a 2020 vision in the next few days. It will go out to the federal government as well as provincial governments. It calls for a significant increase in immigration numbers.

In terms of the Atlantic, you can't mandate people to come to the Atlantic. You have to attract people to the Atlantic. We need some of those tools. As I said, and Wadih has just said as well, allowing the caps to be eliminated.... I know that is quite a political decision, because other provinces would also request that, as well. If we're really talking about Atlantic immigration, then we need those tools, because the vast majority of people who come into our province come through the provincial nominee program.

There are other tools, such as the community identified.... Let's look at what would attract and keep people in our provinces.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

I think it's actually fair to say that we need to increase the numbers. Right now, at 300,000, I think it's deficient. In fact, the government's own special expert panel recommended 450,000, so the numbers should be increased to that end.

I'm going to park it there. You're recommending we should lift the cap on the PNP for the Atlantic provinces, to be sure, but potentially for other provinces as well.

I'm going to move to another question. There's this notion that if you're good enough to work, you're good enough to stay. That's certainly my position. Really, by extension, if you're good enough to study here, you ought to be good enough to stay. As it stands right now, our express entry system has created a problem whereby people have to compete to get points to even make an application for permanent resident status, which is really a wasted resource because they've already studied here. We should be working hard to retain them, not saying, you studied here but we don't really want you here anymore, so go away.

On that premise, do you think we should be changing our immigration policies to reflect the notion that if you're good enough to work here, you're good enough to stay, and if you're good enough to study here, you're good enough to stay, and give folks a direct pathway to permanent resident status?

I'll open it to Mr. Fares.

[Wadih Fares]

I believe strongly in this, and we picked up on it in Nova Scotia. We have two different programs that deal with the international students so that after graduation they are allowed to work and apply for permanent residence. We're promoting this throughout the universities in Nova Scotia, and we've been very successful in it.

I agree with that 100%. If I had the time, I would tell you about the “mattress king”, but I don't have the time. The chairman is very strict.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I know. I have two minutes, but it will be less than two minutes now.

Can I hear from the folks on video conference—a quick word from Adam, and then maybe from Gerry as well?

[Adam Mugridge]

In Nova Scotia, for example, there is a mentorship program in place offered through EduNova. It's a mentorship program for recent graduates who are immigrants, or who would like to be immigrants.

Our company has worked with five or six of them since January, and in every case they've been excellent to work with. I could see them filling a position within our company immediately in most cases. That's just a great example of some of the people who are studying in Nova Scotia, who I think could immediately move into—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, so you support it.

Sorry, I'm going to cut to the quick, because I have less than a minute now. I'm going to move to my next question, because I think it's essential. It's on family reunification for refugees that are already here. We have this one-year window of opportunity in the program, but it takes forever for people to process the application. As well, siblings—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 20 seconds.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

—would not be included, by way of definition of “sibling”, in a family reunification process.

Can I just get a quick round? I'll go to Mr. Fares. Would you agree that we should broaden the definition for family reunification and also invest in resourcing and processing for that?

[Wadih Fares]

The biggest problem we have in immigration is the process.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Yes.

[Wadih Fares]

It takes forever to do anything when it comes to the federal government immigration process, and that's something we would like to stress, to do something about minimizing—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Make it less than 12 months, or up to one year for processing time. Would you say that really is the upper limit?

[Wadih Fares]

It should be less than 12 months. If you're going to wait two or three years, life changes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Zahid. I understand you will be splitting your time with Ms. Lockhart. You have seven minutes, please.