Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Mills. The time is up.

Deputy Minister, you can look into the information you said you would communicate to us and send it to the committee. That would be good.

We will now move on to Mr. Hallan.

Mr. Hallan, you have five minutes for your round of questioning.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the officials.

I don't think we got proper answers, especially for my constituents. A lot of them have been contacting me, as have people all across Canada. They're still concerned that they've applied to get their grandparents and parents here. We don't have any information or transparency as far as how many have been applied for. What are we are looking at in terms of when we are going to start seeing any type of information at all?

[Catrina Tapley]

We received a considerable number of applications for the parents and grandparents program when it was opened. We are in the process now of going through those applications to ensure some integrity. In other words, we're reducing duplicate applications we may have received. Once we have finished doing that, then we'll proceed with the next stage of the process for the parents and grandparents program.

Mr. Mills, would you like to add some specific operational comments on that?

[Daniel Mills]

Yes. Thank you.

As the deputy minister said, the program was open from mid-October to early November. People who wanted to use another method to submit their application, such as a paper application, were given a few extra weeks to do so.

Now that the program is over and we've received all the applications, we're proceeding with the internal audit of program integrity. As the deputy minister said, we just need to move on to the next step and invite people to submit an application. We anticipate that this will happen in late December or early January.

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

When can we get some actual numbers, though?

[Catrina Tapley]

I think once we have finished quality assurance on the applications that we have received and we have a good, clear handle on the numbers of duplicates, then we'll be happy to release those figures.

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

I think there was some sound issue; I couldn't really hear the answer.

[Catrina Tapley]

I'll make sure my microphone is okay, too. I apologize for that.

Once we have finished the quality assurance on the applications and gone through to make sure that we have eliminated the duplicates, then we'd be happy to release information on that.

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

Okay, thank you.

This is something we've brought up multiple times. I know that Mr. Dhaliwal has brought this up as well. We didn't really get a clear answer about this, but we're looking for a stream or some type of pathway for PR.

Mr. Saroya talked about this as well when he was asking the minister. We want to give dignity to these “low-skilled workers” and also to the international students. When can we see things moving on this front?

[Catrina Tapley]

I'll start with students, Madam Chair.

A full 25% of those who came through our economic pathways in 2019 had been students in Canada or were coming through a postgraduation work permit and were successful in that. We have, then, a really good incidence of students moving into permanent residency. We would indeed like to see that continue and grow as we try to reach high levels.

Depending upon the pathway they come through, there are a number of different skill levels, including differences among the provincial nominee programs as well, that provide pathways for lower-skilled workers as they come through.

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

Right now we're seeing that there has been an announcement for 1.2 million new immigrants over the next three years. At this committee, we've discussed before whether it would make sense.... Low-hanging fruit would be those who are already here. Those who are on temporary foreign visas and people who are here on work permits are already contributing to our society in many essential and crucial ways.

Is there something we can do for them to give them a better pathway? They don't have one right now.

[Catrina Tapley]

Absolutely, Madam Chair. Those who are already in the country, whether they're students or temporary foreign workers who are here and are already working, are people we absolutely want to attract as we try to meet levels targets in 2021.

There—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry to interrupt, Deputy Minister. Time is up.

We will now move on to Ms. Dhillon.

Ms. Dhillon, you have five minutes for your round of questioning.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you.

I'd like to start with the minister's mention in his speech that in an average week in November, they processed a higher percentage than in a similar week last year. Do you see processing continuing to outperform last year's, despite the pandemic? Can you elaborate on the changes that are needed to make it happen?

Thank you.

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you for the question.

When the pandemic hit in March, we realized that some parts of our workforce were better equipped to work from home than others. For about 55% of our workforce—and we have about 9,000 employees here in Canada—it was easy to disconnect a laptop from their workstation and continue to work at home. “Easy” may be a stretch.

However, for many of our workers, particularly those on the processing side, where we run shifts—two shifts and sometimes three shifts a day—it's pretty difficult for one person to take the equipment, and in most cases it's not equipment that is easy to take home. Part of the problem thus became one of equipping our own labour force to work effectively from home and to do it well.

We saw a real hit on productivity. As we've been able to equip our workforce, as we've been able to train and get people back up to speed, we've seen productivity rise steadily. In the fall, now that people have gotten used to this and gotten used to new equipment, we've seen very good results on productivity around particular files.

If you can indulge me for one second, I think a really good example of this might be found in the call centre. I know it can be a source of frustration from time to time, but it is a microcosm for how much of this worked.

We had to send employees home who were not equipped to work from home. It became a real conundrum to find out how to do this fast, how to get equipment to employees, how to find software that was going to work in both official languages, to test the software, to train the employees, and to get it back up and working.

We did it in about five weeks. We've just now reintroduced the call-back feature for the call centre, which I know is popular and I think provides very good client service. It acts as a bit of a microcosm for the things we had to reinvent in the department to be able to get the productivity numbers the minister mentioned back up.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you.

The other question is regarding sponsorship application times. When the applications arrive at offices, sometimes they sit there for a long period of time. Then, when both sponsors are approved—I'll give you an example—they both have different processing times. I'm wondering why one is so different from the other.

For example, there's a couple who have a son four years old. The applications arrived at the same time. One was approved and finalized after 11 months, and the other one, after 15 months, is still sitting there.

It's hard to tell constituents who meet all the sponsorship requirements that the delays are normal, when they themselves know so many other people and are comparing notes. It gets very difficult for us to answer why, if both applications are approved, it takes longer for one than for the other.

Thank you.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, it may depend on what's in the file. I don't have a clear answer; let me start there. It may depend on what's in the file. It may depend on particular circumstances associated with the file. I wouldn't have a better answer on a specific case. I'm sorry about that.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

That's okay.

The other question I have is about medical examinations for permanent residents. If there isn't a designated panel physician authorized by the Canadian government, for example, in Cuba, are there exemptions for them, especially now considering COVID? They have to travel nine hours to go get this examination done, but during COVID are there any safeguards? Is there anything in Cuba that can be designated...any panel physician? I know it's a very specific question, but I am just very curious.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Give a quick 15-second answer.

[Catrina Tapley]

Mr. Mills.

[Daniel Mills]

I don't have any details on this topic, but we can certainly give you some.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you. I really appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you. Ms. Dhillon, your time is up.

We will now have Madame Normandin for two and a half minutes.

You can please start.

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

Thank you.

I'll follow up on the situation regarding bridging open work permits. The idea here is to avoid situations such as the ones that we've experienced. The Bloc Québécois suggested that regional permits or permits by employment sector be used. This would probably have made the process easier during the crisis. Job losses resulted in a number of requests to change employers.

Could we consider making greater use of this type of permit rather than routinely using closed permits? Obviously, this would be done together with Employment and Social Development Canada.

[Catrina Tapley]

We are always happy to look at things that will improve client service in this regard. It's a complicated area, as you know, Madam Chair, between us, our sister department at ESDC and how we move quickly through this. Any suggestions are always welcome to us as we continue to look at issues with respect to temporary foreign workers.