Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

But it is an IRCC-approved panel physician?

[Dawn Edlund]

No.

[Dr. Arshad Saeed, Director, Centralized Medical Admissibility Unit, Migration Health Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

It's not necessarily. These are specialists the applicant has already seen in the country of origin. The recommendation comes from them. They're not IRCC panel physicians. They could be specialists.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

All right. Thank you.

I like it when the analyst asks questions like that, because it will help our report, so thank you.

Mr. Maguire, you're going to get a little extra bonus. You get six minutes.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to get right into it.

Mr. Minister, has any province or territory explicitly asked for the excessive demand clause to be eliminated?

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

No. In my discussions with the provinces and territories, my first question to them was this: do you believe we should move ahead in terms of bringing this policy up to speed, to where Canadians are, in terms of our vision of being more inclusive as a society? The overwhelming response there was that, yes, we should move this policy into the 21st century, in line with our values.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

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

There was no particular explicit feeling from one province or territory that said let's get rid of it.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Have you met with any of the provincial or territorial health ministers?

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

No, I met with the ministers responsible for immigration, but before that meeting we had a teleconference where we discussed this issue. They then went back and consulted with their respective health and education and social services ministers, because this impacts those ministers as well. The feedback reflected those consultations.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Is there any empirical evidence to suggest that the excessive demand clause is affecting our ability to attract high-skilled immigrants?

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

I don't understand the question. Could you clarify that?

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

From the discussions you've had, is there any evidence that the excessive demand clause is affecting or prohibiting anyone, or just simply affecting our ability to attract high-skilled immigrants?

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

Not to my knowledge, no.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

There are some cases, I guess, in some communities that have rallied behind a particular individual or family—

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

Yes.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

—to stay in Canada, but it was determined they had an excessive demand on the health care system. Is there any way we can ensure that Canada is still screening for excessive demand individuals but allowing greater flexibility for individuals or families who are deemed to fill a high-skilled labour shortage?

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

Look, that could be one of the ways in which we could change the evaluation mechanism with respect to this policy. It could be one of the ways to address the particular example that you raised. So my answer is that we would examine it if it's something that stakeholders felt we should take into consideration.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.

It has also been suggested that we eliminate immigration medical examinations due to the cost. These are the examinations that determine, as you pointed out, danger to public health, danger to public safety, and excessive demand. Do you believe that Canada should not be conducting immigration medical examinations on potential immigrants to screen for such things as tuberculosis, dementia, and schizophrenia before they immigrate to Canada?

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

I don't believe we should eliminate medical examinations related to immigration.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

If they were eliminated, have you done any analysis, in the discussions, of the future impacts, which would include the future numbers of applications and the cost?

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

I don't believe we should eliminate medical examinations related to immigration. That's not the policy of our government, and therefore we haven't done that analysis. We're not moving in the direction of eliminating medical examinations, because they do screen for public health—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

But if section 38 itself were eliminated—

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

Well, even if we moved towards that direction, it's paragraph 38(1)(c), not (a), (b), and (c). So public health is still an issue, right? We would still screen for—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

But if you eliminated it, have you looked at whether there would be more applicants coming to Canada with disabilities in the future and what the cost might be?