Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 12th, 2020

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I want to say that I had the opportunity recently to visit the member's riding and a local business called Mabata, which is a great restaurant and a success story involving an immigrant entrepreneur, a self-starter who is not only a great business leader but a great chef. I look forward to going back soon.

It's another example showing that the Atlantic immigration pilot, which is an innovation to ensure that we understand the needs of Atlantic Canada—the labour shortages, what the community's needs are—and bake them into our policy architecture so that we can tap into that knowledge and align it with the skills and experience of those who wish to come from around the world to settle in Atlantic Canada, is indeed part of my mandate.

What we hope to do now is take the successes of that pilot and make them permanent. Over the course of my mandate, and as I said in my remarks, we hope, in very short order, to be tabling our levels plans and take the necessary steps beyond that to ensconce the Atlantic immigration perspective as part of our year-over-year approach.

This is about working with local businesses, working with local chambers, working with local leaders in Atlantic Canada to encourage immigration to that part of the country, because we know that the demographic challenges there are very real—an aging workforce, retirement rates that are accelerating and the labour shortages we have seen and studied very closely. This pilot will allow us to continue to build on the successes of it, going forward.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Minister, as you know from personal experience, people come to our offices because they have a problem with a government department in some fashion. People who aren't having problems don't come to see us; it's people who have some frustration or delay or whatever. We tend to hear about the applications that experience a delay and for which processing time is longer than the average. I certainly know that when business people have in mind a particular timeline that they expect, and it is exceeded and they take actions, and that causes a concern for them....

How does your department deal with that situation? What is happening with timelines, and what is the picture nationally?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I recognized as a member of Parliament before I assumed this portfolio that doing immigration work on the front lines is an essential part of the job. I want to thank you and all the members of the committee and indeed all of my colleagues in the Chamber for being, in many ways, that first point of contact.

I work with members on all sides of the House. I am frequently approached to try to find ways to collaborate to meet the needs of all of your constituents. I want to commend the work of my department in making tremendous progress on our service standards. Questions were put earlier about how we're doing in turning around these applications and inquiries. I would say we've made great progress. Since I have become minister, we are now meeting our service standards at 80% across all business lines. I think that is a reflection of the priority we are placing on this department. We will continue to make advancements in that area.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thanks, Minister.

Can you give me an update in relation to spending in the estimates? Under the helping travellers visit Canada program, there is $2.46 million in the estimates. What impact will the coronavirus issue have on those numbers and that program and on immigration and refugee policy?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have about 20 seconds.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I see the line in the estimates.

Let me just say that we place the health and safety of Canadians as our top priority. We have a response that will put the necessary resources into the health care system, but it extends equally to our immigration system, in which, in addition to the special measures, we also have rigorous screening for every single person who comes into this country, whether as a visitor or for permanent residency.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Mr. Hallan, you have five minutes.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

I've had many constituents approach my office whose family members have applied for visas. When they are rejected, the letter is usually very brief and doesn't really explain much. It's a very generic answer that they get, usually along the lines that immigration officials don't feel that they're going to return to their country. Sometimes it's because they're single; basically, it implies that they might do a marriage of convenience at the time.

I'd like to know what objective criteria visa officers are using when arriving at those decisions, because I'm concerned that there may be potential for arbitrary and inconsistent judgements happening.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I want to thank the member for his advocacy. It has been a pleasure to get to know him in the early days of his time as a member of Parliament. I look forward to continuing that collaboration.

On the question of how visa officers are taking their decisions, we have put into place a very transparent set of procedural and operational guidelines that are intended to inform the decision-makers about how to take those decisions. The purpose of those guidelines is to ensure a number of things: that the decisions are taken fairly, that they're taken in a manner that is consistent and that they're taken in a timely manner.

Obviously, we take those decisions very seriously. They're made in a very professional way, and when there are questions about how decisions have been taken, my office remains open to try to answer them.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Thank you.

In the 2017 mandate letter to then-minister Hussen, there was a commitment to conduct “a review of the visa policy framework, including its application to the transit of passengers through Canada, in a way that promotes economic growth while ensuring program integrity.”

On May 31, 2018, in a meeting of this committee, my colleague the Honourable Michelle Rempel questioned the assistant deputy minister of strategic and program policy at the time. She said, “The department promised to deliver its review of the visa policy framework within this year. When will that be done?” The assistant deputy minister responded that it would come within a few months. Obviously it's 2020 now. It has been over a year; we're in a new parliamentary session.

Was this review ever completed? Can you explain the review's findings with respect to my concerns regarding the reasons for visa refusal, which I highlighted previously?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

As this predates my tenure, I'm going to defer to my colleague, the deputy minister.

[Catrina Tapley, Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you, Minister.

It predates my arrival back at the department as well. I will commit to getting back on this question.

One thing we have worked hard on is the transit without visa program, because it's so important to the airports in Vancouver and Toronto. It has been an important model. We've worked closely with those airports. We have put improvements of the program in place.

I'm happy to get back with the formalities of this, but we have continued to make those improvements.

Madam Chair, we'll get back to the committee with the study itself.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Just as a follow-up, could we find out why the review was late and also why that review doesn't appear in the new mandate letter? Is it still a priority? That's what we would like to know.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

As the deputy said, we'll be happy to come back to you and to the members of this committee with the answer.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Okay, thank you.

That's all I have. Can I pass my time on to my colleague?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have one minute.

[Kenny Chiu, Conservative, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Thank you, Minister, for coming to talk to us.

The cost of eliminating citizenship fees for new applicants is estimated to be about $75 million in forgone revenues just in fiscal year 2020-21. In the meanwhile, the department has suffered a reduction of funding of approximately $50 million. On one side you have a reduction of income, and on the other side you have a reduced amount of money coming from the government.

Is there any plan to help recoup immigration costs?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry, your time is up.

If you want to add, Minister, a quick....

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Would you like me to give a very brief answer?

I have this as part of my mandate, to be woven into our overall government's belief that we need to address affordability challenges and to continue the success of naturalization, the statistics for which I referred to in my opening remarks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister.

We'll move on to Ms. Martinez Ferrada, for five minutes.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

My question will focus on francophone immigration.

As you said, governments and communities have set a goal of 4.3% francophone immigration by 2023. This is an ambitious challenge. I think the percentage is currently about 2.3% or 2.4% of the objective.

Can you talk more about the government's policies for the integration of immigrants into minority language communities? What measures can we take to increase the number of immigrants entering the country? Not only do we need to work on integration in the communities, but above all we need to increase the number and the pool because the demographic weight of francophone communities is decreasing.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I thank my colleague for her question. I want to congratulate her on her work, particularly as parliamentary secretary.

It's very important that we continue to make progress in attracting French-speaking immigrants outside of Quebec. Our government is a champion of Canada's official languages, and we recognize the importance of immigration to francophone minority communities in Canada.

My department takes its responsibilities seriously. We aim to increase francophone immigration, with the goal of reaching a target of 4.4% of francophone immigrants outside Quebec by 2023, and we are studying measures to determine how best to achieve this target.

I would just say that very recently I travelled to Alberta, where we're seeing real concrete progress, in partnership with a number of settlement services organizations that want to help us.

They want to help us continue to make progress in this important phase.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you.

I have a second question. I'd like to hear from you on the issue of labour shortages. As you know, the committee will be studying this issue and how immigration can respond to it.

How can the different skill levels of immigrants be better integrated to achieve this? What are your department's linkages, particularly with the Department of Employment and Social Development, to ensure that immigration is one of the solutions to the labour shortage, and addresses all skill levels needed in the country?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

The issue of labour shortages is a priority that I share with my colleague Minister Qualtrough. This issue is extremely important to the success of the economy.

If we understand the needs of communities across Canada, we will continue to address this issue. So it's extremely important that we work together, including with the provinces. In fact, my provincial counterparts and I have begun the important work.

If we can continue to understand the needs of the regions and localities experiencing labour shortages, then we can align those gaps with the skills and experiences that exist from around the world.

We are seeing this kind of success through the express entry program. As I mentioned, almost every single person who comes through the express entry has a job—95% of them. This means they are hitting the ground running. More than 80% of those individuals are getting a job in the primary occupation of their choice, which tells us that this particular facet of our plan is working and working well.

I also would say in a last few words that the pilot projects we have introduced—the Atlantic immigration pilot and the rural and northern pilot—are a bona fide effort to work very closely with regional leaders to understand the needs and to align those needs with aspiring Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We have two or three minutes left.

Minister, if it's okay, can we do four minutes more?