Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 17th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for that. I think you will have to answer these questions. The problem is persisting with her. Deputy Minister, if you can take the floor and answer the question, I'll start the clock

[Catrina Tapley]

I'd be happy to.

I'm sure Ms. Campbell Jarvis would have given a better answer than I'm about to, but implementation is going well. We're working with the college itself. I believe the regulatory package has been moving forward for the next pieces to come into force. As it stands now—and our fingers are crossed—we're not anticipating any hurdles, and it's gone quite smoothly.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

That's good to hear. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will go to Mr. Serré.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to go back to the rural immigration pilot project.

Deputy Minister, there are some criteria about the capacity of a community to integrate and to keep a newcomer or family. For larger and medium-sized cities, there are government-funded settlement agencies, but in smaller communities there are not. They do have church groups and old age clubs, but the IRCC staff have excluded small communities like St. Charles and Noëlville because they have populations of only 2,000 or 3,000 and they don't have any funded government settlement agencies.

In my opinion, they do have the capacity to integrate a few families, but those small communities have been removed from the pilot project. I just wanted to see if you have an explanation and to see if we could look at changing the criteria to include communities of 2,000 or 3,000 in the rural immigration pilot project.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, we're always happy to look at ways that we can improve these pilot projects. The minister has said that they're pretty near and dear to his heart, but they are to ours as well, in terms of both the Atlantic pilot and the rural and northern pilot the member has referred to, and soon, we hope, one that's focused more on municipalities.

We're always happy to look at ways in which we can improve, but one of the things that we know helps is having good professional settlement support. It doesn't mean that we can't use the resources that are there in the community from church groups and others who have some good experience in doing this, but it certainly helps to have a service provider organization or professional settlement support there.

One of the things we've done in some communities is look at a satellite operation. For towns in Alberta, one of the major service provider organizations out of Calgary has set up a satellite office in Brooks or in other communities, and we've been able to move forward, so I'm happy to take that idea back to see what we can do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Mr. Serré, your time is up.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

I also want to thank all the staff for their work in the communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mr. Serré.

Now we will move on to Ms. Normandin for two and a half minutes. The floor is yours.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I already want to look ahead to the post-crisis period, when the economy will recover. I want the officials to speak about the possibility that the labour market impact assessments, or LMIAs, could be extended.

A company can't know whether it will need employees in one month, three months or six months. The LMIA may have expired by the time the company needs to start up again. I want you to speak about the possibility of extending the LMIAs in this context.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, we're happy to continue working with employers to make sure we're not inadvertently penalizing them for things that may have expired when visas come through.

A magic switch will not be thrown when a recovery takes place, or at least we don't think that's going to be the case, so there's a need for us to constantly examine the measures we put in place and look at the right time for the interim measures to end. It's a system of constant improvement in the department in this regard.

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

Let me rephrase my question.

I was wondering whether the plan is to ensure greater flexibility with regard to the labour market impact assessments when the economy recovers. Companies that will gradually reopen may need someone in one month, three months or six months. One company may close, but the company next door, which has exactly the same needs and which doesn't have an LMIA, could use another company's LMIA. I want you to speak about future flexibility.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have 20 seconds.

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you. I understand better now.

That question is more in the purview of our colleagues as ESDC, but we're happy to work with them on that, and to work on the requirements of the temporary foreign worker program particularly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Now we will move on to Ms. Kwan for two and a half minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Until the minister tables the immigration levels numbers in the fall, can the officials provide this committee with the information they have on the different immigration and refugee streams, including how many people came in during this fiscal year up to this period?

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, we're happy to look at that, but I don't have those numbers in front of me today.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Could those numbers be submitted to the committee by the end of the month so that we can have that information, please?

[Catrina Tapley]

We'll put a number of caveats around the honourable member's question just because of the imperfect nature of some of our own data sources, but we're happy to provide the information.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

On a different issue, for those whose work permit expired at the same time as they lost their job due to COVID-19, as it stands right now, it is my understanding they would not be able to apply for a new work permit under the newly announced temporary measure. Is that correct?

[Catrina Tapley]

It might depend on the specific case. If the member has cases in mind, we're happy to look at them.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

It's not just a specific case but an overall policy question. There are cases of a person's work permit expiring at the same time that they lost their job. They then didn't have an employer, so when their work permit expired, they didn't have implied status. Now they can't apply for a new work permit. What happens to those people?

[Catrina Tapley]

If people had not applied for a renewal of their work permit before it expired, you're right that there are then issues around implied status, and we can reach out. For those who have lost their job and whose work permit expired before they lost their job or as they were losing their job, it's a more difficult situation.

We do have some accommodation around that, but it's a little more difficult, and it would be on a case-by-case basis. However, you're right.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

The problem with that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting, Ms. Kwan, but your time is up.

Thank you, deputy minister, for answering all the questions.

With this, the standing committee meeting comes to an end.

This is National Public Service Week, so on behalf of all the members of this committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our public servants.

Thank you to all the officials from IRCC for your hard work during this pandemic. Thank you for all the work you do every day for all Canadians. I know the past three months have been very tough, especially for all public servants. This is the time to recognize your contributions and to thank you on behalf of all Canadians.

Thank you for appearing before this committee today and answering all these questions.