Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

With this, our first panel comes to an end. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Honourable Marco Mendicino for all of the hard work you are doing on behalf of all Canadians and making sure that family reunification is at the forefront of your everyday thoughts. Thank you once again.

We will now move to our second panel. We have the officials.

Thank you, Minister. You can leave.

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

Thank you very much to all of our colleagues on the panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We have done the sound checks so we will move to our second panel. I welcome the officials here who are appearing before the committee.

We will go straight into the round of questioning. We will start our first round with Ms. Dancho.

Ms. Dancho, you have six minutes for your round of questioning with the officials. Thank you.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just want to circle back to some of the questions we asked last week. I don't feel that I got a lot of clarity. I just want to ask a couple more questions about the COPR specifically.

Can you share with the committee how many travel authorization applications for expired COPR holders approved after March 18 are awaiting review by IRCC?

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

Just to unpack that a little bit, if you have an expired COPR, your COPR was probably issued about a year ago. As long as it was issued before March 18, which would indeed be the case, then we've been going back. We've been contacting people. We've been looking at these. So far we've reissued or added letters to about 1,000 of them.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay, because my understanding from your remarks the last time was there were folks who were authorized, yes, but weren't authorized to travel. It happened to be that their authorizations came after the border closure. Those folks are really the issue.

Then I think you mentioned last time that a couple of them weren't able to travel at first because of subsequent issues in their country—or whatever—but you had mentioned that many of them are welcome to travel. However, we know that that's not quite the case. I only know that because I got an onslaught of emails and calls after our meeting last week.

Can you just reiterate what's being done? Where is that authorization at? I know you said that you started issuing them in September. I'm not sure why there was such a gap, but can you elaborate a little bit further on that?

[Catrina Tapley]

I'm going to ask Mr. Mills to chime in on this one, too, but we're talking about a couple of different things here.

First, if your application for permanent residence was approved prior to March 18, you're allowed to travel to Canada. When we finalize that application, we issue a confirmation of permanent residence. Typically, that confirmation of permanent residence is valid for about a year. Now we have some cases where those have expired. We've done a lot of work to process those applications. We would very much like those individuals to come to Canada. That's the part we're working on now, to deal with those who have expired COPRs that were issued before March 18, and to work through that.

Mr. Mills, do you want to add to this?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Pardon me, but could you also tell us how many travel authorizations have been granted or approved since the travel restrictions and border closures in March?

[Catrina Tapley]

Do you mean how many permanent resident files we've approved since March?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

The travel authorization letter—that's my understanding of what they need to get into Canada.

[Catrina Tapley]

If your COPR has expired, then you need an additional letter from us. We've issued about 1,000 of those.

Mr. Mills.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just want to clarify that the confirmation of permanent residence is related either to the validity of the passport or the medical certificate. The validity of the confirmation of permanent residence depends on one or the other.

People who had a confirmation of permanent residence before March 18 could travel to Canada. In some cases, the medical certificate or passport had expired. When the medical certificate had expired, we reassessed the certificate and automatically renewed it in cases where there were no issues. We contacted the clients to inform them of the renewal and to ask them whether they planned to travel to Canada. If so, we issued a letter of authorization to allow them to travel.

As the deputy minister said, we issued about 1,000 authorization letters. Over 675 people have already arrived in Canada with these letters. We contacted over 6,000 people whose confirmation of permanent residence had expired. We still need to contact about 4,000 people.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Mills.

You mentioned the medical certificate specifically. That seems to be a bit of a hang-up. Have you considered accepting an expired one, because of the pandemic and everything else? It's not their fault. In some of the communications we've received, that seems to be a huge barrier. Either they're not able to afford to get another medical certificate, or they don't have access to the services because of the closures. Have you considered waiving that, considering everything that's happening?

[Catrina Tapley]

We have extended medicals in some cases. We look at these on a risk basis. The health and security of Canadians still remains our number one priority. I think, as Mr. Mills indicated, we look at these on a case-by-case basis now, where they have expired, and where we want to see these work.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

At the rate you're going, how long do you think it will take for the remaining 6,000?

[Catrina Tapley]

I'm hoping it will be quicker. As you indicated, there are a number of cases where people have really put their lives on hold to be able to do this. We are anxious for them to be able to come and join others here in Canada and take their place in Canadian society.

We are working through this as quickly as we can, but I just should—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting, Madam Tapley, but the time is up.

We have to now move to our next member.

Mr. Regan, you have six minutes for your round of questioning.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Let me thank the deputy minister and her officials for being here today.

As you understand, international students, along with other immigrants who stay in Canada, help to alleviate Canada's skill shortage crisis. I know there have been a number of measures announced to make sure that students could come this year to universities and community colleges. I understand that private career colleges are also seeking to be eligible for the post-graduate worker permit program.

Is that something you're looking at?

[Catrina Tapley]

Private career colleges have asked us this question. It's an issue that we continue to look at pretty carefully with respect to a post-graduation work permit. There are a number of factors that I think we would consider. One is the integrity or the robustness of the program. Other countries have had issues with their student programs and student pathways, where people have come and not necessarily been bona fide students. That's what we want to avoid. The reputation of Canada's program is important for us. As a member mentioned earlier, it's a $21-billion industry. Ensuring that we're able to offer a quality education and that we have a robust program remains really important to us.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

As you know, we've been hearing about the issue of people whose confirmations of permanent residency are expiring, or may expire. When you're reaching out to the holders of expired confirmations of PR, what complexities are there that are involved, and what's the current estimate of expired PR holders?

[Catrina Tapley]

Perhaps I'll come back and just quickly finish the previous answer.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Oh, sorry.

[Catrina Tapley]

No, no, that's okay. It was the previous answer with respect to the confirmation of permanent residence.

Not everybody whose confirmation of permanent residence has expired has an intention still to come to Canada. Although that might be hard to believe from the number of emails we receive around this, and many of you receive, when we have contacted people, a number of them have still indicated that conditions are such that their intention is not to come to Canada at this time. It's a dilemma at the department. We have to figure out what we're going to do with those expired confirmations of permanent residence. It's not something we tended to worry about in the past.

That's part of what we have to work through and consider as we look at those 6,000 expired confirmations of permanent residence that are out there. These were all applications that had been approved before March 2018.

Mr. Mills, do you want to comment?

[Daniel Mills]

Yes.

As the deputy minister said, we must ensure the health and safety of Canadians. Prior to issuing the authorization letter, when we contact clients, we also make sure that they already have a well-established quarantine plan to facilitate their arrival in Canada.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you.

We're hearing, of course, about visa offices around the world. Some are closed. I don't know how many. What kinds of processing limitations exist, or have existed, at these offices globally? How have staffing changes over time addressed new processing priorities? What's happening in terms of the pandemic and getting those offices open?