Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 17th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Welcome to meeting number 6 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. The committee meeting today is being held at the request of four members, pursuant to Standing Order 106(4), to discuss undertaking a study of the government's spending priorities under Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

I hope all of you have been keeping yourselves safe and that everyone is well. It has been a difficult last few months. The last time I went back to Toronto from Ottawa was on March 13, and I just drove yesterday. We have to make sure that we keep ourselves safe. We are still not out of the woods yet, so please continue following public health advice and keep yourselves and your loved ones safe.

Today's meeting is taking place in person and is being broadcast on ParlVU. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. Just to ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules that we all need to follow, as we are all going through these unprecedented times.

First, occupational health, safety and environment has requested that we all limit our movement in the room. Individuals should always respect social distancing rules and remain at least two metres away from each other. Also to minimize health risks, you will note that limited personnel have been permitted to attend today. Staff have received a phone number where they can listen in to the proceedings in real time.

No paper documents have been distributed. All documents have been distributed electronically to members. Should you require a copy of a document, please advise the clerk of the committee immediately by emailing the committee at [e-mail]. Also, please follow the directions on the floor signs indicating which way to walk in and which way to walk back. Even when we finish the meeting, please don't go out as a group. Try to maintain the social distancing rules. We need to make sure we leave a difference of a few minutes and not go out as a big group. Make sure that we follow all of the rules of physical distancing. These were some of the instructions from the logistics point of view.

Welcome to meeting number 6 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, and welcome to Ottawa.

Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, colleagues, for assembling in something closer to our regular committee meeting, and thank you to the clerk for arranging and enabling today's gathering, which is, in effect and however briefly, closer to a procedurally normal exception to the deficiencies of the virtual committee in the House and other committees.

Chair, our Conservative members wrote the letter to you requesting this meeting. I won't go through the entire letter. I'm sure it's been consumed by all. Essentially, it was because, on May 26, the government, as we said in the letter, used closure, supported by the NDP, to end debate and to pass a motion that modified the usual process for consideration of the supplementary estimates at the end of the supply cycle.

In the interest of the short time available between now and one o'clock—now and noon for the minister—I would like to suggest that the committee accept the motion as set out in the letter: that the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to appear before the committee for no less than one hour to answer questions from members on the spending priorities of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will have to suspend for a minute or so. Because of the physical distancing, we cannot have the witnesses here, so it will be through a video conference. We will have to suspend for a minute while all the video conferences can be set up.

I'll just mention one more thing. Because we are sitting at a distance, I will try to be vigilant, but if I don't recognize you or don't see your raised hand, please do it a second time so that the person who wants to speak is recognized. I will suspend the meeting for a minute.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I call the meeting to order.

The committee has adopted the motion that the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to appear before the committee for no less than an hour to answer questions from members on the spending priorities of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Welcome, Minister, and welcome to all the other witnesses.

The minister will have five minutes for his opening remarks. After the minister's opening remarks we will go into the round of questioning.

With this, I would like to welcome the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, to please give his opening remarks.

[Technical difficulty—Editor]

I will suspend the meeting for a few minutes until we figure out whether everyone is on the video conference.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I call the meeting to order.

Do I have unanimous consent to have the minister in person?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, everyone.

We have the Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, here before the standing committee.

Just to provide some clarification to our viewers, we had some technical difficulties. The minister was not able to get through on the video conferencing because of some firewall issues, so a member of the committee, Michael Barrett, voluntarily gave up his seat so the minister could join in.

I welcome Minister Marco Mendicino before the committee, to answer questions from members of the standing committee on the spending priorities of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Minister, you will have five minutes for opening remarks and after that we will go to rounds of questioning from members of the committee. The floor is yours.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank all members of the committee for indulging us as we've overcome some of the technical difficulties this morning.

I want to thank the members of the opposition as well for their collaboration in allowing me to appear in person.

Madam Chair and members of the committee, let me first acknowledge that this committee gathers on the traditional territory of the Algonquin nation.

I appear before you today at an important juncture. I'm here to provide this committee with an update on the critical priorities that are being advanced by my department as part of the Government of Canada's overall response to a once-in-100-year global pandemic. In marshalling a COVID-19 strategy, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has demonstrated its agility, efficiency and resilience in meeting the short-term urgent needs of our population, while keeping an eye focused on our long-term mandate to grow and strengthen the country through immigration.

From the earliest days of the pandemic my department has helped to create the necessary border conduits to ensure that Canadians continue to access the food, fuel and medical supplies we need, while putting in place the necessary health screens and mandatory isolation protocols to guard against the spread of COVID-19.

As the curve continues to flatten, we were also recently able to announce a new travel exemption that would allow immediate family members to reunite with Canadian permanent residents. We know it has been a difficult time for many families, but we are not free and clear of the virus yet.

Let me say a few words about how immigration has proven to be a lifeline in maintaining food security for all Canadians. This pandemic has etched into our national consciousness that temporary foreign workers play a key role in the production and distribution of Canada's food supply.

Temporary foreign workers are an essential component in the production and distribution of Canada's food supply. We've taken action to support them. That's why I want to take a moment to speak about the situation that we're currently facing.

Bonifacio Eugenio Romero and Rogelio Muñoz Santos were two migrant workers from Mexico. They were here to help feed Canadians and to support their families back home, and they died in that cause. This should never have happened.

We mourn their loss but that is not enough. We must do more. As a country, we are committed to the safety and well-being of all workers, Canadians and migrants alike. That's why our government took quick action to support this vulnerable community by providing financial aid for workers so they would have safer accommodations, wage protection, work permit flexibility and a compliance regime to enforce their rights.

However, numerous outbreaks along the supply chain have reminded us there is still more work to do to protect migrant workers, including considering pathways to permanent residency. Along with my ministerial colleagues, I am committed to collaborating with all parliamentarians, my provincial counterparts, farmers and advocates to explore this and other options.

I thought that it was important to take stock of the situation. I'll have the opportunity to speak about the various measures that we've put in place when I answer your questions.

In the same vein, I want to highlight for a moment how refugees and asylum seekers have distinguished themselves throughout the pandemic. Despite having overcome significant adversity just to get here, we've seen how they are stepping up to support the communities that sponsored them. In Quebec asylum seekers are contributing in exceptional ways by helping front-line health workers, especially in our long-term care retirement homes where the virus has ravaged seniors and the sick.

These uncommon acts of sacrifice and heroism should embolden us to fight against the stigma that refugees and asylum seekers are merely a burden. They are not. They are here to contribute. Therefore, in our supplementary estimates we are putting forward a proposed $102.5 million, reprofiled from the previous fiscal year, for the interim housing assistance program. This will provide crucial assistance to provinces and municipalities as they facilitate integration.

Specifically, these funds will be used to conclude funding arrangements with the City of Toronto and province of Quebec for costs associated with refugee protection claimants in 2019.

In addition to these highlights, I hope to be able to discuss during my appearance how international students will drive our economic recovery, as well as our 2020 levels plan, which is the blueprint for us to continue growing the country through immigration.

In closing, I want to emphasize that we've learned a lot over the last several months. We're adapting, accelerating and evolving our immigration system in a way that should inspire confidence among Canadians. Canada has long benefited from immigration, and the same will hold true as we restart the economy and boldly chart out our future.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister, for your opening remarks.

Now we will go to the first round of questioning.

The floor is yours, Mr. Kent, for six minutes.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for making that long walk across. I wish we had been able to arrange for you to appear in person originally.

Despite the finest efforts of the staff here on the Hill, the deficiencies of virtual committee meetings, virtual appearances, have been laid clear by this almost hour-long delay in getting the committee going today.

Minister, the Prime Minister's four-year suspension of the safe third country treaty has left Canada with an asylum backlog of more than 90,000. That's the highest in Canada's history.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer's report, “Costing Irregular Migration across Canada's Southern Border”, pointed out that your government has provided no guidance regarding the reimbursement of outstanding and future support expenses for asylums that are burdening cities and provinces.

With regard to that $200-million line item in the supplementary estimates for the housing of asylum claimants, can you explain more specifically where those dollars are going? As I said earlier, in questions to you in the virtual committee in the House, this would seem to be a very small down payment on the costs assumed so far by municipalities and provinces, and their estimates of significant millions of dollars going forward.

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

Thank you, Mr. Kent, for the question. I'll begin by just expanding that the supplementary estimate request we put in today will be allocated towards the interim housing assistance program, which is a crucial initiative that facilitates the co-operation that exists between the federal level of government, the provinces and the municipalities. As I said, we've seen a number of municipalities that have played a significant role in enhancing the integration of our asylum seekers and refugees. The request we have put through the supplementary estimates builds on the $370 million that has already been invested in interim housing.

In addition to that, we had launched, approximately a year and a half ago, a border enforcement strategy, with an investment of $1.2 billion, to not only advance the priorities of facilitating integration through interim housing and help for refugees and asylum seekers, but also to maintain that integrity in the border.

I'm confident that these are important initiatives that will contribute to our asylum system, which is revered around the world.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

The City of Toronto is looking at something like $150 million, back due, with similar amounts ongoing, so I would hope you would address those issues in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Minister, you spoke to the willingness of some asylum claimants—a significant number—in Quebec to continue working in high-risk, long-term care home facilities, including some claimants whose claims have been rejected. We know you are under pressure from some of your Quebec cabinet colleagues to suspend the normal protocols of the Immigration and Refugee Board to accommodate asylum claimants who are working in those front-line care facilities.

Can you tell us where you are in your policy development to date? Are you looking to override the normal protocols and processes of the IRB?

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

Thank you, Mr. Kent. This allows me the opportunity to shed some additional light on the sacrifices that have been made by asylum seekers. As I pointed out in my introductory remarks, these are individuals who often overcome tremendous adversity just to get to Canada. As you well know, and as other members of this committee will know, these are individuals who are fleeing persecution, conflict, war and, increasingly, climate change, and have sought safe harbour in Canada.

It is true that there is a process by which those claims are adjudicated, and the Immigration and Refugee Board is charged with that responsibility. The individuals who have come to light in Quebec are stepping up in very significant ways, particularly in retirement homes, and I would just point out that asylum seekers, who often are living in shelters and in precarious housing, are already exposed and vulnerable to COVID-19.

Notwithstanding that, and notwithstanding any of the debate that has followed as a result of that, they continue to sacrifice themselves to support front-line health care workers and to aid the elderly and the sick, who, again, are disproportionately bearing the burden of this awful virus.

The debate we have engaged in is whether or not there is a way to recognize those contributions. Certainly, I hope to have more to say about that in due course.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Minister, you are aware that under the Canada-Quebec accord, and given that this is essentially a Quebec issue and the pressure is coming from advocates in the province of Quebec, Quebec has the power to use its jurisdiction to provide whatever comfort that province may see as adequate.

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

You make reference to the Canada-Quebec accord, and I would point out that this is a well-established agreement, which works well for both the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec. There are clearly delineated responsibilities around economic immigration, as well as refugees and asylum seekers, which remain within the remit of the Government of Canada.

At all stages, we continue to collaborate and communicate very closely with the Government of Quebec, which is also, I understand, considering this issue. As I said, I hope to have an update in the not-too-distant future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Your time is up, Mr. Kent.

Now we will move to MP Serré.

You have six minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the minister for taking the time to speak to us and for being flexible. I also want to thank him and his staff for their work on the immigration system. It's very important for our country.

My question concerns the rural and northern immigration pilot program.

The northern Ontario Liberal caucus has worked hard, because we've heard from MPs, mayors, municipalities, chambers of commerce and employers about the need for workers, and the provincial nominee program doesn't meet the needs of the employers in northern Ontario. Ninety-eight per cent of provincial nominee immigration goes to southern Ontario, very little to northern Ontario.

I want to take the time here to go over the rural immigration pilot project. I know that COVID has changed the landscape on the immigration side a wee bit, and I want you to be able to update the committee on where the rural and northern immigration pilot project is at and how it is helping to get pathways to permanent residency for our residents and also to support our employers locally in northern Ontario.

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

Thank you for your question, Mr. Serré, and for your very important work in your constituency.

We know that immigration contributes significantly to Canada's economy. That's one of our reasons for creating this pilot project, which supports immigrants who want to start the next chapter of their lives in rural communities. We're using the expertise and experience of rural communities to match the immigrants' experience with the needs of the community.

Just to expand on that, the rural and northern immigration pilot is one of those innovations that seeks to tap into the expertise of rural communities—the experiences, the needs—and to align those needs with the skill sets of those who wish to start the next chapter of their lives in rural communities. I'm very pleased to report that nine of the 11 communities involved have launched their pilots already.

This is a good news story. It's one I hope that all parliamentarians will share in celebrating. Obviously, there's more work to be done.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

Also, I've been hearing from employers. Specifically, I have a mining company here in northern Ontario, in greater Sudbury, that wants to bring in an engineer from Venezuela, but because of COVID and the challenges, the English test cannot be done in person. Is there anything we could do as a government to support the employer and the skilled candidate who wants to come to northern Ontario, to greater Sudbury, by somehow completing the English test online?

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

You raise a really important point, and that is that COVID-19 has created certain disruptions within our immigration system. The department has looked at ways to stand up new alternative processes, in particular around moving applications forward electronically and remotely where we can. We've provided our staff and our officials with the additional technological tools they need to overcome some of that disruption.

When it comes to testing and other milestones that have to be reached to move aspiring immigrants who wish to come to Canada to ply their trade, whether it's in engineering or in a skill or a trade, we continue to explore ways in which we can do that.

Again, it's a real testament to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which has shown great resilience throughout the course of managing this pandemic.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

Also, now with international students, in Greater Sudbury and in my riding Nickel Belt have Laurentian University, Cambrian College and Collège Boréal. Together the three post-secondary institutions, which are bilingual, also have about 2,000 international students.

With COVID and the uncertainty of the school year, I wanted to take the opportunity here for you to elaborate what we are doing to support international students and also to support the colleges and the communities that have these important students in our community, getting educated and also hopefully staying longer.

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

As I've testified before this committee, international students bring tremendous benefits to Canada economically, socially and culturally, and as a result of that reality, we have certainly looked to continue the great successes of the international student program, notwithstanding the challenges COVID-19 has presented.

We continue to partner very closely with universities and colleges right across the country, not just in large cities but in small and medium-sized municipalities as well, many of which require this cohort, require international students, to attend and take that next step in their career by acquiring a first-rate educational experience here in Canada.

We've made a number of modifications to the program to account for the disruption. We have created more flexibility within the work permits that attach to international student visas for those who are taking a degree and are working in an essential service sector. Again, I think the health sector is a prime example of that.

We've also provided some relaxation when it comes to online education because campuses remain closed. Those who are here will be able to take their courses up to 100% online, without any penalty to their postgraduate work experience.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister. Your time is up.

We will now move on to Ms. Normandin for six minutes.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for joining us today. It's always nice to see you again, especially in person.

I'll address the issues raised by my colleague, even though this wasn't my original plan.

You spoke about the international students who are already here. However, I also want to hear about the international students who are expected to arrive and who often make up 20% to 25% of the CEGEP and university student cohorts in the regions. They're currently unable to obtain their biometrics. We don't know whether their study permit applications will be processed in time for the start of the school year.

What's being done for international students who must arrive in the fall?

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

Thank you, Ms. Normandin. It's always a great pleasure to be here in person to answer the committee members' questions.

As I said, international students bring tremendous benefits to Canada economically, culturally and socially. International students who had valid study permits or whose applications for study permits were approved when the travel restrictions came into effect on March 18, 2020, can travel to Canada by air or land. We're continuing to assess the impact and current situations, and we're making the necessary adjustments.

With regard to your specific question, we're continuing to look for solutions to the biometrics issues. In other immigration categories, such as foreign workers, we've allowed for greater flexibility. Your suggestion is one of the ideas that we'll keep exploring.