Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 15th, 2018

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

I would argue that it's—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm afraid I can't give you a chance to answer that question. I know you'd like to.

We're going to go to Mr. Tabbara now for five minutes.

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

The question remains.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for coming here today.

I think what we're trying to achieve here is about our overall demographics. Since 1970 we have had fewer people working to support retirees. We had around six people working to support one retiree, and in 2030 that is projected to be two people working for one retiree.

I have some numbers here from Statistics Canada, now that we have reinstated the long-form census, thanks to our government.

In Canada, the average age of an individual is around 40. In Germany, the average median age is 46.1. We definitely see this number as very alarming, and this is why we need to ensure that we have more younger individuals who are coming to our country, ensuring their success in employment, so that we can make sure we have sustainable numbers so that we can sustain retirees. Other countries, such as Nigeria and Uganda, have a very low median age at around 15 years of age.

In my particular riding in Kitchener South—Hespeler, it's actually a little bit lower than the national average. It's kind of a younger population filled with commuters going to the GTA, at 37.1.

With the levels plan that was introduced recently, we're welcoming in 330,000 permanent residents in 2019, and 340,000 in 2020. Those numbers are up from previous years. For example in 2014, they were between 240,000 and 265,000.

Minister, with these numbers, the examples I gave of Germany's and our numbers, with a growing and aging population, can you elaborate more on why we need such great talent here at a younger age to sustain our retirees?

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

Thank you. It's a really important question.

I'll start by just giving you an example. In Newfoundland and Labrador, for every 100 Newfoundlanders who join the workforce, 125 retire. There's a gap of 25 people. One of the ways—not the only way—to address that is through immigration. One of the ways we have responded to that need from Atlantic Canada is to introduce the Atlantic immigration pilot program. It's a three-year pilot program. They get an additional number of permanent immigrant slots above and beyond their provincial nominee numbers. It is to address the skills and labour market shortages, but also to help them with their demographics because each skilled worker they're able to attract under that program can also bring family members. The two sort of go together.

The provincial nominee program is another program that helps address that challenge of rejuvenating different regions in terms of their populations, but also in terms of their labour market needs. It's very flexible because it allows different regions and different provinces to nominate the kinds of differently skilled immigrants that they need for their own particular regional labour market. It's a very flexible program. The same goes for the Atlantic immigration program.

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

Can you also just briefly explain about the global skills strategy that was brought in, in the summer? This is going to help a lot of different areas within our country to bring in high-quality talent. Can you elaborate more on that and how it will benefit all of our constituents?

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

Employers have been saying that in certain categories they needed to get talent here really fast. Some of that talent is very mobile. It's not permanent immigration. They need people to come in and do short-term work, high-value work, and then go back. The process was taking too long, so under the global skills strategy it's been cut down from about seven months for processing to less than 10 days.

Second, under the global skills strategy—

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

I'll stop you right there. If you're bringing them in, in less than 10 days, if there's a gap in our skills and our labour within the market, you're shortening that gap in less than 10 days.

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm sorry. I need to end that there. Thank you very much.

Is it Ms. Rempel or Mr. Maguire?

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

I'll start, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

You might share, though.

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

We might share. We'll see how things go.

In relation to my previous line of questioning, going back to the statement about the planned immigration levels being able to meet Canada's labour shortages, how many total immigrants out of these does the minister expect to have a job after, let's say, a one-year period?

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

If you look at the highly-skilled, economic class, principal applicants, for example, their annual earnings surpass the Canadian average very soon after landing—obviously, they would have to have a job to make those earnings—and they continue to increase over time.

The economic outcomes of immigrants in all categories improve the more time they spend in Canada. Especially in the federal skilled worker program, their earnings actually end up surpassing the Canadian average soon after they land.

I think it would be—

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

The question that I asked, again, was—

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

—safe to assume that they would do that because they have a job.

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

The question that I asked, though, was for the total numbers.

There has been a lot of messaging that this government has put out about its levels plan being able to, as the minister said in his remarks, address the “labour shortages linked to our aging population”. I am wondering how many of the total immigrants in this plan the minister expects to have a job after a one-year period.

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

We can certainly get that information to you. I'll ask my department to provide that information to you.

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

Thank you.

Since the Romanian visa requirement was lifted at the beginning of December, how many Romanian nationals have claimed asylum?

[Paul MacKinnon, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

It has gone up since December. I will search for the information. Let me see. It's 232.

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

Okay, and how many Romanians claimed asylum status in all of 2016?

[Paul MacKinnon]

It was very low. They were under the eTA 2.0 system before that. It was quite low.

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

How many Romanian nationals do you expect to claim asylum in Canada over the next calendar year?

[Paul MacKinnon]

As you know, with asylum claimants, there's no cap, and it's difficult to know how many are going to come in. This number isn't—

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

So one would argue that 300 in a month is a fairly significant increase over virtually none. Is that correct?