Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 17th, 2020

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for the kind wishes for National Public Service Week. We really appreciate that.

The government announced a week or so ago that it had added additional exemptions for those coming to Canada to reunite with their Canadian spouse for the most part, although it includes other immediate family members as well. We're clear that people will need to be looking to come for a minimum of 15 days. They will be expected to self-quarantine for 14 days like others who are coming. It has been well received, and we've seen the first groups of people come forward under that exemption.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

Thank you.

As we know, there have been immense challenges from the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to slow the spread of the virus have been put in place all over the world. Some of these situations have resulted in substantial changes to Canada's immigration system. I know the minister explained some of it, but perhaps you could explain some of the departmental challenges and adjustments that have been taking place. What is the current state of our IRCC and the new normal you're experiencing?

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you.

The next normal is proving to be a bit challenging.

We looked at our lines of business in different categories, and one is that we worry about those newcomers, temporary foreign workers, other workers, visitors who are already here in Canada. We've put a number of measures in place, to be able to extend work permits, to look at implied status, to make it easier for people in closed work permits to move from one employer to another with a job offer. There have been a number of things we have put in place that way.

The second is generally around temporary foreign workers. We've put a number of measures in place to accommodate demands, particularly with agricultural workers. In some cases, we've looked at the first advent of a counterfoil-less visa, and accommodating that as part of a move to make sure that people can arrive smoothly.

The others we have done with our colleagues at the Canada Border Services Agency, such as some collection of biometrics on arrival. We've also worked closely with other governments and with some of our partners to make sure that things can continue to move.

The other area is with respect to our immigration programs themselves.

For permanent residents, we have been working hard at something we call the virtual landing, so being able to land people, especially those who are already in Canada. Last week alone we landed more than 5,000 new permanent residents to Canada.

If your application was approved prior to March 18, then you meet exemptions to travel [Technical difficulty—Editor] from overseas. However, there are many who apply for permanent residence who are already in Canada, either as former students or temporary foreign workers, and we're really concentrating on making sure that we can land those and land them smoothly.

The other would be with respect to our citizenship ceremonies.

I'm really proud to say that we have found some accommodations around this, and we are doing a number of online ceremonies. I think we did about 300 online ceremonies or virtual citizenship ceremonies last week.

Maybe I'll stop there.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

Madam Chair, how much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have 30 seconds.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Ms. Lalonde.

Now we will move to Ms Normandin.

Ms. Normandin, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you.

Once again, I want to thank the officials for joining us.

I have a few questions about temporary resident visas. I gather that the processing of applications has slowed down and in some cases stopped altogether. I was wondering about the situation of international students.

Several schools in my constituency welcome students from Morocco, Senegal, Algeria and Guinea. The normal processing time for these applications is 11 weeks for Morocco, 12 weeks for Senegal and Algeria and 13 weeks for Guinea. Given the normal processing time, if you begin processing the applications now, the session will have already started in the fall. Does the department have a plan to fast-track study permit applications?

[Catrina Tapley]

I want to be clear that we have processed student applications throughout this period, and we are continuing to do so. We have put a number of accommodations in place with universities and colleges to make sure that online classes can continue, and we've made accommodations around postgraduate work permits so that people are not penalized for this online portion of their learning.

The other one I would note is that many of our partners are now coming back online. Visa application centres have started to reopen in China, South Korea, Vietnam, France and parts of the Maghrib. That's good news for students, because it means we can collect biometrics that way and complete applications that are there.

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

Okay.

Regarding the biometrics issue, not all countries have a biometrics collection centre. This is causing problems for some students, who must travel to another country to collect the biometrics. This could also be an issue in the future, if restrictions on international travel are maintained. Does IRCC plan to open and approve more biometrics collection centres in the future?

I'm also thinking of issues such as the problems that Cubans are currently encountering. They must travel to Trinidad and Tobago for their medical examination and the collection of biometrics.

[Catrina Tapley]

I'm happy for the question about in-Canada biometrics collection. We worked really hard with our colleagues at Service Canada to be able to use Service Canada points of business to collect biometrics in Canada. We launched that a few months ago, and it has been working really well. We are keen for Service Canada offices to reopen so we can continue with biometrics collection in Canada.

In other areas, we work through third parties, called “visa application centres”, to collect biometrics abroad, and we are always pushing for ways that we can improve that and make it more client-friendly.

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

Can we expect that international students will be included in the exceptional cases, meaning the people whose biometrics will be collected in Canada rather than in their countries of origin?

I'm asking this question for students who are currently abroad and who want to come to Canada this fall.

[Catrina Tapley]

For those who are outside of Canada and would like to be here for the fall session, as I indicated, a number of visa application centres are now reopening abroad, so biometrics collection will not be an issue for those that have reopened.

For those that haven't reopened, we're looking at this issue very carefully and trying to assess a number of options on how we can deal with this in a constructive way.

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

Thank you.

I now have questions regarding the temporary foreign workers who are already here.

Measures have been introduced to expedite the processing of essential worker applications. However, some workers aren't considered essential. I'm thinking, for example, of construction and landscaping workers and welders. These people are here and they're eligible for the CERB in some cases. However, when the CERB expires, they'll be left without financial resources and without a work permit.

Are there any plans to expedite the processing of new or renewed work permit applications for these workers as well?

[Catrina Tapley]

For those workers who are already in Canada, we've put in place measures to make sure that those with closed work permits can move to a new job. We've put exceptions around that and we have implied status during the interim period so they can start working quickly.

Temporary foreign workers who are here and not on a closed work permit, which is the vast majority, are free to find other employment and to take advantage of any opportunities that may come their way.

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

Can you elaborate on the current exceptions for employer-specific permits?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have 10 seconds left.

[Catrina Tapley]

What the minister has indicated is that people can move to employers now on a closed work permit, provided they have a job offer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

With this, Ms. Normandin, your time is up, and now we will move on to Ms. Kwan.

Ms. Kwan, you have six minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to the officials for joining us today.

I would like to ask about individuals who have put their application in through the one-year window provision. If they have submitted their application before the deadline and it has been acknowledged by IRCC that the application has been received, yet it has not been finalized in the processing, will they still have the application honoured, even though the December deadline is coming up?

[Catrina Tapley]

What line of business are you referring to?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm referring to the family reunification for refugee claimants under the one-year window opportunity.

[Catrina Tapley]

If those applications have been received and we have those applications in, even though they haven't been processed under the one-year application, if we've received them, they should be fine.

I wonder if Mr. Mills would like to comment further on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry. We have stopped the clock. We can't hear.

[Daniel Mills, Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Sorry. Can you please repeat that? Everything was frozen on my computer, so I missed the question.