Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2020

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister.

We will now move on to Madam Normandin.

You have two and a half minutes for your round of questioning.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you again, Minister Mendicino.

I'll address the issue of Quebec skilled workers. Last Monday, we heard from people who applied for permanent residence but who, since 2019, have no longer been receiving an acknowledgement of receipt. As a result, they can't find out whether their file has been received and whether it's complete. They told us about how much this affects their file, particularly with regard to the Quebec health insurance board, or RAMQ; the other documents that they must obtain; their status; or the renewal of their Quebec selection certificate, or CSQ.

My question is quite simple. Will the people who haven't received an acknowledgement of receipt since 2019 receive one?

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

The short answer, Ms. Normandin, is that we are working very closely with the Government of Quebec to ensure they are meeting their immigration needs. As I have said on a number of occasions, we respect the decisions and the jurisdiction of Quebec to select its immigration levels.

For our part, we are putting in additional resources, we are innovating through technology and we are making tremendous progress when it comes to notifying individuals. I believe we're in the area of approximately 6,100 people who we've reached out to, and we are going to reach out to the remaining number of individuals who are awaiting a response. This is work that we do in close collaboration with the Government of Quebec.

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

With all due respect, Minister Mendicino, the acknowledgement of receipt concerning the admission of candidates, hence permanent residence, is solely a federal responsibility. It isn't necessary to work with Quebec to send an acknowledgement of receipt.

I'll repeat my question. Will the people who haven't received an acknowledgement of receipt since 2019 receive one?

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

As I said earlier, Ms. Normandin, we've made a great deal of progress on the issue of permanent residence. We've notified a number of individuals and we'll continue to put in the necessary resources to inform applicants that they can continue and complete the process.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister.

We will now move on to Ms. Kwan.

Ms. Kwan, you have two and a half minutes. You can please start.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Following up on that with the minister, who offered to work with our office, I should note that on the Quebec skilled case I've written to the minister on this since November 17, and we have yet to receive a response. Perhaps he can direct his staff to follow up with us on that case.

With respect to deportations, CBSA has announced that they will resume deportations. Since the minister says that they will not be rendering people without status and that they would not proceed with deportations, can we be assured that CBSA will not deport people whose status has run out?

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

The first thing I would say is that we are minimizing disruptions caused by COVID-19, as you know, and ensuring that those who have lost status can apply to restore it where they are eligible.

With respect to removals, as you know, Ms. Kwan, we pride ourselves on due process. There are many avenues that individuals can exercise, including appeals and pre-removal risk assessment. No one will be removed without having exhausted those rights, and that's one of the reasons why Canada continues to be acknowledged as one of the most progressive and strongest immigration and asylum systems in the world.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you for that talking point, Minister, but that is not my point. The reality is that many people actually face a very difficult situation because of COVID, and it seems that CBSA is saying that those who qualify for the guardian angels program will be safe, but the rest of them are not. That means, then, for the government, that only those who fall into the guardian angels program are deemed to be essential by government, because that's in essence what the government is doing.

I want to move on to another issue and that's paragraph 179(b), which is one of the biggest frustrations for spousal sponsorship applications. Even with dual intent, they're routinely denied because of paragraph 179(b). It is within the minister's power to make adjustments to that regulation. Will the minister reduce the barriers surrounding paragraph 179(b) for loved ones to reunite?

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

I'll just quickly go back to your initial question.

You're quite right. We have said that those who are eligible will not be removed, under the guardian angels program. With regard to others who have made similar exceptional contributions that are not eligible, my door remains open to working with Quebec if they wish to broaden those parameters.

With regard to dual intent, all of—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, but your time is up.

We will now have to move to the next member.

Mr. Saroya will have five minutes for his round of questioning.

Mr. Saroya, go ahead, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Mendicino.

Mr. Mendicino, can you commit to something? Some of the files for family reunification are four to eight years old. Would you look into those things first? I sent one of the files to Deputy Minister Catrina Tapley this morning, and she was nice enough to respond in 30 seconds that she would look into it right away.

There are a number of files that have been outstanding for many, many years. Could you do something? Could you commit to taking care of them first?

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

First, it doesn't surprise me at all that you heard back so quickly. We do pride ourselves on being responsive to you and to all members.

In fact, when it comes to family sponsorship, we have dramatically reduced wait times from the multiple years that they had been prior to 2015 to where we are now. I'm confident that based on the investments that we are making throughout this pandemic that we will continue to see a very efficient system so that as many families can be reunited as possible.

Yes, of course, Mr. Saroya, we're happy to work with your office on the individual case you mentioned.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Perfect.

There's another case I want to talk to you about. Really, we all look bad—all of us. I wrote to you twice a couple of months back. This was the student in Surrey, B.C., who drowned—whatever happened. The case was covered by Global TV and the CBC and everyone else.

When the kid died here in Surrey, B.C., he was a student and his parents had a 10-year visa, but they were back in Punjab. They tried their level best to come to cremate the body and go back. They completely failed, and finally they came to me and I wrote to you twice—and nothing happened.

Six weeks later those people kept going to the Delhi airport over and over and over. Six weeks later somebody at the airport felt sorry for them and they put them back on the plane.

Could you do something? Could you make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again?

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

It's a tragic case, and I express my sympathies to the surviving members of that family. Mr. Saroya, I would ask that you would share those sympathies on behalf of the government.

We're doing everything within our powers to reunite families as well as trying to address compassionate cases. We set up a separate pathway to provide the opportunity for those who want to come and grieve, or who want to be part of an end-of-life decision. That is a process that we co-administer with our colleagues in Health as well as Public Safety, and where there are individual cases, of course, we remain committed to working with you however we can.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you so much.

My next question is regarding the students. You know how many students are here. There are a number from India, China and many other countries. They are part of a $21-billion to $25-billion economy in this country. Most of the students are complaining that they are qualified but they can't find a job. If they can get the job, if they can find the job, it's not the supervisory job, but something else.

Mr. Mendicino, I have been in small business for my entire life. When I started—when I came to the country back in 1973—we started at the bottom. We need those people in the restaurant and transport industries and many other industries. They are young; they are willing to work and they want to work. They want to succeed; they want to stay in the country and they want to buy a house. This is how the economy grows.

Is there any different way or any new pathway you can bring to the table so these students can live in the country and can do all of those jobs? I can name 10 companies that would be bankrupt without the students, including Pizza Pizza, Tim Hortons, McDonald's and others.

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

I hear you, Mr. Saroya, and I agree with much of what you say about the value of international students. They do contribute over $21.6 billion each year to our economy. That's why we are introducing flexibility in the program to keep it a success. That's why I was very proud that we were able to revive the international student pathway on October 20, 2020, by doing important work with our provincial partners, as well as with the universities and colleges themselves.

We are going to continue to ensure that those international students are set up for success when they come to Canada, not only by getting a first-rate education here in Canada, but also by contributing to our communities. We are seeing that every single day, including by giving back in the context of COVID-19. I could not agree with you more on those broad streams.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry, but the time is up.

We will now move to our last round of questioning.

Mr. Dhaliwal, you have five minutes, and then we will end the first round.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Welcome, Minister, as always.

Minister, earlier my very good friend on the other side, Bob Saroya, asked you a question about this person. My sympathy goes to those families as well. You know that we had many cases like that one as well. We came to you and you [Inaudible--Editor] Before you brought in another minister's regulation or order in council, we were not able to bring those families here because they did not fit in that category. I appreciate all of the great work you have done over the last many months. Make sure that we keep up that great work.

Now going to the real question here, Minister, before the COVID-19 pandemic, permanent and temporary resident applications had been increasing greatly over the past number of years. At the same time, IRCC reduced processing times and inventories. By 2019, the number of temporary resident visa applications received from around the world had increased 80% from 2013 levels. Also in 2019, over 550,000 temporary workers were issued work permits, including extensions to work in Canada, and 87% of new work permit applications were finalized within 60 days of the service standard.

Could you please elaborate on some of the processes put in place that have allowed the department to process applications in a timely manner and reduce the backlog at the same time?

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Dhaliwal, for your advocacy on immigration. In every facet, I am always grateful for your perspective and the leadership you show.

As I said, we have made tremendous progress in numerous lines of business. I've talked about how we are making that progress by investing resources, by leveraging technology, as well as by being very innovative when it comes to minimizing the disruption of COVID-19 through policy flexibility. I've talked about how those strategies are yielding concrete results in very specific lines of our business—on permanent residency and on citizenship.

I'll also shed light on the progress we are making when it comes to our temporary workers. For example, in the seasonal agricultural worker program, we had 47,362 temporary workers arrive in that specific category. That's an 85% increase year over year from last year's volumes. It's a remarkable figure and one that is allowing us to ensure that Canadians are getting access to the safe and affordable food they need on the table. It's another way in which I think we are demonstrating the strides we have made from the beginning of the pandemic to where we are right now.

We will continue to be innovative. We will continue to invest where we need to and leverage technology so we can make the necessary progress to meet our immigration objectives.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

You mentioned the technology, Minister. In 2018 the IRCC launched two pilot projects using computer analytics to help officers to triage the online applications for temporary resident visa applications from China and India. The goal of the project was to help officers identify routine and straightforward applications for fast processing, and to trace files that are more complex and that need a complex or comprehensive review. Protecting the safety and security of Canadians remains a priority. In all cases, officers must screen, scrutinize and check all applications for criminality.

Could you please elaborate how successful these projects were and how you are going to implement this in other countries?

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

Again, it allows me to highlight how, through technology, we are streamlining our processes. You've already described the part of the sorting process that allows us to get to positive outcomes and to welcome the workers, the students and the permanent residents, which will allow us to achieve the fundamental goals of our immigration plan. Those are simple, straightforward cases. Some of the other cases can be a little bit more complicated and require a closer look from some of our highly trained and professional immigration officers, work that we are very grateful for. All of this is done, all of these technologies are used, with a view to achieving important goals in our immigration plan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister. I'm sorry for interrupting. The time is up.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you, Minister.