Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2017

[Michael MacDonald]

I have the number here reported by the RCMP for September 1 to September 25 for C Division, which is Quebec, which is 1,400, then you have others across the country. That total number for the RCMP of interceptions across the country of people crossing in between is 1,525.

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

Can you, just for committee, in short order clarify the September numbers in terms of the total number that entered across the country as well as the number of asylum claims that were made in September?

[Michael MacDonald]

I think what would be best, since the numbers are still being tabulated for the full month of September, is to respond to the committee in written form. That way we can provide the committee with both regular port of entry as well as between port of entry once the data is fully captured from September 1 to 30.

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

I'm just going to make a quick comment. It's very difficult for us to do our jobs as legislators given that we get disparate information from disparate sources. It's fairly embarrassing, so I would just encourage you to perhaps present that in a way that's better for us to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of some of these programs.

Going back to the question around processing time, you said that you've been happy with the way that processing is occurring. Just to clarify, there's a difference between processing the eligibility of asylum claims versus their being heard by the IRB. Is that correct?

[Michael MacDonald]

Yes, it is.

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

Thank you.

In terms of my colleague Mr. Saroya's questions around social assistance payments for people in this cohort, you're not tracking the number of people who are drawing social assistance in any way at this point in time.

[Michael MacDonald]

Those numbers are under the authority of provincial officials.

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

Is this a subject for the federal-provincial task force in terms of whether data monitoring has been raised in that forum at all for this type of data?

[Michael MacDonald]

The intergovernmental task force does talk about data.

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

If they are talking about data, can you table to committee any numbers that they have with regard to people claiming social assistance?

[Michael MacDonald]

We could ask the provinces and see what their response is.

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

Thank you.

I'm just going back to getting some further data. For the 2017 numbers of people who have entered into the country through illegal points of entry and made asylum claims, do you have a breakdown by country of origin?

[Michael MacDonald]

We do, yes. Would you like a particular mode of entry? That's how the data is broken down.

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

Yes, for the people who have entered the country through illegal points of entry, where their countries of origin are, and by number.

[Michael MacDonald]

When we look at asylum claimants, first I'll start with the land border ports of entry, They are largely Haitians. Up to September 25, there are 1,198. United States is next at 642. Colombia—

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

When you say United States, are they people who are citizens of the United States?

[Michael MacDonald]

Largely children who are U.S.... Yes, exactly.

Colombia is at 626. Burundi is at 493. I can keep going or I can go by another mode.

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

No, that's fine. Could you provide by each mode of entry, by country of origin for the committee? That would be good.

[Michael MacDonald]

Yes, that would probably be easier because there's a lot of data. There are a lot of different modes.

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

Do you also have that broken down by gender?

[Michael MacDonald]

No. I don't think it is broken down by gender by nationality. But I'd have to—

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

Okay, by gender would be fine, even if it's not by nationality.

[Michael MacDonald]

Sure.

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

I'm just curious as well. There's a bill in front of the House of Commons, Bill C-59. Has your department done any sort of analysis on that bill in terms of how it would impact the information that's shared from the RCMP should they find evidence of criminality or any sort of threat to the public with either the IRB or your department? Is there any change that the bill would present in terms of information sharing?

[Paul MacKinnon]

I must say, I'm not familiar with the bill. We're happy to look into that.