Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 7th, 2017

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

I have something else regarding supplementary estimates. In the supplementary estimates (B) 2017-2018, the budget for health protection was $74 million. That number has now been revised to $126 million, an increase of 65%.

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

I'm sorry; that increase was for which program?

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

In the supplementary estimates (B) 2017-2018, $74 million was allocated to health protection. That number has now been revised to $126 million. The increase of $50 million is about a 65% increase over the previous budget.

What are we getting for this additional $50 million?

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

There are a number of things. First, let's start with the philosophical point. We believe in providing health care to refugees. Your party and your government cut the IFHP, the interim federal health program. We restored it.

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

Minister, I'm not disputing this.

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

No, but I'm getting to that. The point is that we have to spend money on IFHP in order to minimize the impact on provinces and territories. It's the right thing to do, and I'm proud that we're doing that.

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

The budget increased 65%. In the private sector, if it's more than 10% up or down, we're in trouble. It's a 65% increase.

[Dawn Edlund, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Chair, I can indicate that three different components are causing the increased costs for the interim federal health program.

One is the increased intake of asylum seekers in Canada. Second is the increasing number of resettled refugees to Canada and the interim federal health program cost that this incurs, including our having extended pre-departure services to resettled refugees, such as paying for the immigration medical exam and for certain vaccinations and health care treatments before they arrive. The third component of this $53 million is related to how long it takes for claims to be processed before the Immigration and Refugee Board.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

We started a few minutes late, so if the minister has three or four more minutes, that would be helpful.

Go ahead, Mr. Tabbara.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the department and the minister for being here today.

Minister, I want to talk a bit more specifically on the GTA and my region, the Waterloo region. I want to talk about the global skills strategy that was put out in the summer.

Over the last decade there has been a decrease in the tech workers who have been coming. If we look at tech sector immigration from 2008 to 2014, we see it hovered around 6,000 tech-sector immigrants coming to our tech sector. In 2015-16, we shot up to around 8,000 tech workers coming in. I'm just going to give you a little information on something that we export in the Waterloo region. We try to do what is called “the corridor”, and I'll get to the reason that this is relevant.

Between Toronto and the Waterloo region, there are 423,000 students, 200,000 tech workers, 15,000 tech companies, 5,200 start-ups, and Toronto is the fourth-largest city in North America. When the previous immigration minister visited our region and had consultations with a lot of individuals in the region, one of their critical issues was getting global talent. What was happening was global talent was being snatched from us. Individuals who had great skills, global skills, were going to Australia and other places around the world. Because of our immigration system, it was too hard to get people here quickly.

With the statistics that I just presented, how has that really benefited Canada? How can we move forward to maintain middle-class jobs for immigrants?

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

Thank you very much.

As the minister, I've actually met the same stakeholders in Waterloo, and I heard very loud and clear from them that we needed to do a better job at getting talent here and getting it faster. The global skills strategy was the answer to that. It's a great program. It came directly from businesses that suggested ways in which we can help them.

First, there's the two-week standard to get people here. When I went back to employers and asked them if it was really two weeks and if it was working for them, they said it was, absolutely.

The other piece that's really important about the global skills strategy is the ability for Canada to get academics here and waive the work permit for short-term stays when they come and do research and collaborate with other Canadian researchers and then go back. It's an amazing program. It's working well. I've seen the benefits first-hand, and it's the kind of program that addresses the real needs of employers and the needs for businesses to grow by getting talent here and getting it fast.

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

I have a number here that there were 1,600 people within the first two and a half months—

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

That's correct.

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

—of its implementation who have come, so those are great numbers.

My next question will be to the department staff. This is about visa offices overseas. I have a community of Sudanese people in my riding. People who want to visit them here in Canada have to do their processing in Cairo, in Egypt, and that's a long journey just to sign some documents and get pre-approval. Is there anything in the budget that allows for more visa offices in other places that are more isolated?

[Dr. Harpreet Kochhar]

Mr. Chair, in that regard, we are trying to put together a way to intake all those applications that are to be processed. Our intake methodology is through visa application centres. Most of our visa application centres are located at a convenient location where people can go and submit their application for processing.

As we move forward, we are expanding our visa application centre framework and also the footprint. This would allow more VACs, more visa application centres, to be in different locations, which will be much more convenient for folks to submit their applications. That is in the works. It will probably be toward the end of next year when we will have an expanded footprint.

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

Just to give you some context, we already have 130 visa application centres around the world. I'm proud that the department is coming up with a plan to increase that footprint, and hopefully those constituents would be able to use those visa application centres—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you, Minister. I know that you have another meeting to attend and that your officials are able to stay with us, so we'll give you time to exit. We look forward to your next visit, probably more than you do.

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

I'm always happy to come to this committee to answer questions and engage in debate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you. It's a privilege for us.

I'd ask that we stay here so that we can continue.

Ms. Kwan, you're next.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

For the officials, could you confirm for me that in the supplemental estimates that there are no dollars allocated to the IRB?

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

You are correct. No funds have been allocated to the Immigration and Refugee Board, the IRB, in supplementary estimates (B).

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Okay. Could you also then provide information for me? With respect to the order in council appointments to the IRB, how many of them remain vacant?

[Marta Morgan]

I would suggest that we invite Mr. Kipling to the table to answer that, if he's able.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

While we're doing that, I'm going to ask my next question.

I wonder if the officials can provide for me how many citizenship judges have been appointed since this government has come to power. How many vacancies are there?

[Marta Morgan]

We would have to get back to you with those numbers.