Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 5th, 2017

[Niall Cronin, Director, North America Advocacy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

My name is Niall Cronin, and I am the director of the division at Global Affairs Canada responsible for coordinating advocacy and engagement on behalf of the Government of Canada in the U.S. and Mexico.

We have been working closely with IRCC, CBSA, the provinces, and others since the summer on the issue that we will discuss today. At the request of IRCC, and in order to provide correct information and gather on-the-ground insights, Canada's embassy in Washington and our network of 12 consuls general in the United States are presently engaged in outreach on this issue. Our focus has been to detect and correct inaccurate information with respect to Canada's asylum process, which has been circulating in some communities in the United States. Specifically, our embassy and consuls general have worked to build connections with local representatives, local media, and community organizations in the United States that can help correct any misinformation that may be circulating about Canada's immigration processes. We are also working to gather information and insight from representatives and community organizations about any potential movements or patterns of migration. Finally, we are supporting outreach by members of Parliament and ministers, including Minister Hussen, MP Rodriguez, and MP Dubourg.

Since Labour Day, our representatives have engaged close to 25 U.S. decision-makers, including members of Congress, governors, and lieutenant governors. They have also met with numerous diplomatic representatives, NGOs, community leaders, and municipal, county, and state-level officials in communities across the United States. This information is collected and reported back to IRCC.

I should also note that the in-person outreach in the United States is supported by way of digital engagement. The social media accounts of embassies and consuls general are sharing Government of Canada messaging in English, French, Spanish, and Creole in order to correct misinformation about Canada's immigration system.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee. I look forward to answering the questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you, Mr. Cronin.

Brigadier-General.

[BGen Lise Bourgon, Director General, Operations, Strategic Joint Staff, Department of National Defence]

Hello, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

I am Brigadier-General Lise Bourgon, director general, operations, strategic joint staff, Canadian Armed Forces.

Operation Element is a CAF contribution to the whole-of-government response to the influx of asylum seekers crossing into Quebec from the U.S. At the height of the crisis, the Canadian Armed Forces was tasked with providing temporary accommodation and making it available to our federal and civilian partners for their use.

As a result, the Canadian Armed Forces built tentage for up to 1,200 personnel in Lacolle, Quebec, and 500 personnel at the NAV Canada Centre in Cornwall. CAF also prepared our cadet camps in Valcartier, Trenton, and Gagetown, in case interim lodging capacity in Quebec could not handle the demand.

Throughout this operation, CAF had a supporting role to CBSA and IRCC, with the Government of Canada's Public Safety operations centre as the overall coordination organization.

Those are all my words today. I thank you for my appearance. I will answer any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Tabbara, you have the floor.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for appearing before the committee today. My first question is for both of you. Feel free to respond.

In the response to and preparation for the influx of asylum seekers crossing the border, Canada is developing a national strategy on the asylum seeker influx—our national strategic response plan—as part of the contingency planning. Can you give us an update on how this planning is going, and what kind of best practices are being incorporated?

[Niall Cronin]

From the perspective of Global Affairs, my apologies, but I think it's probably a question better answered by IRCC and folks who are working more directly on it.

What we're focused on is trying to get the right information out to communities in the United States, to avoid the kinds of things that happened over the summer.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Can you elaborate on some of the things you have been doing in the United States to address the misinformation that maybe some of the individuals there have been receiving?

[Niall Cronin]

For example, Minister Hussen talked a little about his trip to New York.

Events like that are being replicated across the United States. Our consul general in Minneapolis met with a number of representatives in both Minneapolis and North Dakota, who have connections into various communities, to answer their questions about the immigration process and how it should be done properly.

The goal there is that they will pass that information on to people who are coming to them.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you.

Can you maybe tell the committee how Global Affairs and National Defence have been working with the provinces, as well as with other institutions, to help asylum seekers who are coming over, and what additional resources have been provided?

[Niall Cronin]

Do you mean resources that have been provided at the provincial level?

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I mean at the provincial level, and how you have been working with the provinces.

[Niall Cronin]

Again, with regard to resources to handle the influx, that question is probably for IRCC. They are more in touch with folks.

At Global Affairs, we have certainly been working with the provinces, keeping them updated on what we're doing in the U.S. to get the right information out. For example, every two weeks we have calls with provincial representatives. We talk about what our consuls general are doing in the United States and what they are hearing, and we just keep the provinces up to date.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Okay.

The next question is for Ms. Bourgon.

What are some of the resources the Department of National Defence have been providing at the borders?

[BGen Lise Bourgon]

The request for us was purely logistical and for accommodations.

We provided, as I said, tentage in Lacolle for 1,200 personnel and at the NAV Canada centre for about 500. The number of personnel allocated from CAF fluctuated. As we were setting up the camps, we had up to 116 CAF members building the tents in Lacolle, and about 130 at the NAV Canada Centre for the tent city—if I can call it that—the interim lodging site. Day to day, about 25 CAF were doing the maintenance of those tents.

To answer your question about the contingency, the CAF role was a supporting one. The Government Operations Centre asked CAF if we could provide some planning capability. We are really good planners. We lent two CAF members to the operations centre to provide some support for planning activities for the contingency.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Is there some coordination between the Department of National Defence and the United States? If there is, what type of coordination has there been across the border?

[BGen Lise Bourgon]

There has not been any coordination. Again, CAF's role was solely in supporting logistics, so we have not done any coordination. There was done by the other governments.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Okay. With regard to the support you've given to these asylum seekers, at the peak how many were you assisting and what has that gone down to now? How many people have been assisted? Has that been progressing? Have people been assisted and then processed through the proper streams?

[BGen Lise Bourgon]

Again, with regard to the CAF involvement, we didn't have any direct contact with the refugees. That was CBSA and IRCC. Our role was solely to assist CBSA and IRCC with the proper accommodations and the proper resources on the ground. We built tents. We also provided soldiers to help the Red Cross, because the Red Cross was responsible for the provision of the daily humanitarian services. CAF soldiers helped with the food distribution, but we didn't have any role in the processing or the handling of the refugees.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Ms. Rempel.

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

Thank you.

Earlier this week we heard a figure for asylum claims made by Mexican nationals. It had already reached over the 900 mark, which is a significant number when you compare it to, let's say, numbers for 2015, or even for 2016 numbers prior to the visa lift being put in place. I'm wondering if Global Affairs has reached out to either the Mexican embassy or the Mexican government to ask them to put in place any sorts of processes to stop this trend from increasing, and if so, what those requested measures were.

[Niall Cronin]

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer, but I'm happy to go back and check both with colleagues at headquarters and also with the embassy in Mexico City to see where that stands.

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

Okay. And you'll table that with the committee?

[Niall Cronin]

Yes.

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

Thank you.

We've also heard that internal briefings to the government have shown that there are over 300,000 people in the United States that may have their TPS status revoked in the next year. I'm wondering if there has been any analysis in terms of how many of those are likely to seek asylum in Canada through legal or unofficial points of entry, and if that has started to be accounted for in next year's immigration levels plan.