Evidence of meeting #3 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was visa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you, Mr. Farhan.
You bring up my next point.
In the cases where processing of a spousal sponsorship application is severely delayed—and this happened prior to COVID—one of the suggestions back in March 2017, again at the immigration committee, was that there should be a special temporary visitor's visa for spousal sponsorship applications for family reunification so you can come to Canada while your application is being processed. Does the SSA support—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Ms. Kwan, sorry for interrupting, but your time is up. We will have to move to our second round of questioning.
Mr. Saroya, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair. I really appreciate it.
I also want to thank all of our advocacy groups coming here, and especially Farhan Ali. You have the courage to come up. What you went through is a shame, I would say, on the current government system. They keep blaming the previous government, which has been gone for five years. Rather than fixing the issue, they are still talking about the previous government. Even in Surrey, B.C., last month, the parents of a 21-year-old kid who had drowned were not allowed to come to bury their child. Stop blaming the previous government. The idea here today is to fix the issue. This is what this committee is all about: fixing the issue. Regarding the 21-year-old kid, in India somebody felt sorry for him. They let the parents come without the special permit to come to this country.
Let's talk about the real issues here. Please stop blaming the previous government. Let's work together to fix the issues.
Let's start with the students.
The students come to this country. They spend about $23 billion a year. They bring this to the Canadian economy. As well, if you come to Ontario, you see every Tim Hortons, every Wendy's, every McDonald's, every Pizza Pizza, almost all the restaurants, are run by these students. The owners in this fast-food industry are asking to make life easier for these students, and to issue them the visas. We still have plenty of issues with that problem.
I would like to see if Chantale Munger and Santa Ono can speak a little more on this issue of the students who are going through that problem.
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
I'm happy to reply, if that's okay.
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
First, it certainly is an important issue. We have to solve it with urgency because other countries, as I pointed out, are streamlining their processes as we speak, and we're in competition for these outstanding students who do contribute in a major way to the Canadian economy.
I want to make a suggestion, and that is to lean on our universities through creating closer ties between IRCC and the universities to help with the permit processing issues and to streamline specific challenging individual cases. What I'm suggesting, to be very clear and succinct, is to think strategically, recognizing the role institutions already play in filtering and clarifying students' questions. We encourage the development of a case-specific channel for designated learning institutions. A case-specific channel for DLIs is critical to fill a gap in IRCC's client service model and increase the efficiency in IRCC's delivery model. It's a specific recommendation that I think will be a big help in the months ahead.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Absolutely.
Chantale Munger, do you want to add something? If not, I have another question.
Pedagogical Advisor, Cégep de Jonquière, As an Individual
Yes, Mr. Saroya.
There's so much talk about immigration and the considerable efforts being made to attract workers, but we already have trained workers who are here and want to stay. I don't understand the issue as far as the government departments go. From where I stand, there seems to be a disconnect between what the government says and what it does.
The Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship says it wants to attract French speakers with the skills the labour market needs, but when those workers are already here, it sends them back home. If they want to stay here, why doesn't the department take the time to assess their skills, determine whether they would benefit the workforce and, if so, give them a chance to stay and work here.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
We will now move to Mr. Serré.
Before Mr. Serré starts, I want to ask all the witnesses if it is possible for you to have headsets. It makes it easier for the interpreters, for the translation.
Mr. Serré, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Many thanks to all the witnesses for sharing their insight with the committee today.
I have a few questions. I'll address the first one to Ms. Munger and also to Syed.
Syed, I really want to thank you for sharing your story. I know that it's been really challenging for you and your family. I'm glad to hear that things have been approved in the process, but when we look at the pandemic and the difficulties and the challenges we've had here, I want to hear some comments on the operational issues and some of the immigration streamlining here.
For example, last month, we increased the number of decision-makers by 66%. We also are digitizing a lot of the processed applications, so we look at now finalizing 6,000 applications a month, and nearly 50,000 by the end of the year.
From your experience, and knowing how we're fixing the system, I want to get your comments to see how you feel about this. Will this help members of your organization?
Associate, Spousal Sponsorship Advocates
Thank you very much, honourable MP Serré, for giving me a chance to further clarify things.
As for my case, everybody knows that it took 34 months. We applied for GCMS notes: CSIS, RCMP and CBSA. We applied in August. We were in the dark: where does the application stand right now? There was no communication from IRCC. In the middle of September, we started getting the notes. Everything in the notes was clear. The eligibility was clear. As you said, that 6,000 was the target.
Now, what I'm trying to point out is that the security chapter was blank. There was no information there, as usual, so my wife and my two little kids went on a protest in front of Mr. Marco Mendicino's place for six days, rain or shine. That brought the attention of MP Stewart to my wife and my kids. MP Jenny Kwan, who is a very respected and honourable MP, contacted us. When Jenny Kwan's office contacted IRCC, she discovered that my application was only done in September. The file was collecting dust on the table. After she inquired, the very next day I got a decision made, and the day after that I got the express passport. That's the performance that we can see. There are so many people I know in my own country, my own fellow men in Pakistan, who have been stuck for years now, some for four or five years.
Thank you.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Exactly.
Ms. Munger, can you answer the questions about the decision-makers, the digitization of applications, the process we're going through now and how we're trying to fix the system moving forward?
Pedagogical Advisor, Cégep de Jonquière, As an Individual
I think Ms. Dubé would be a better person to answer that question.
Research and Content Writer, Spousal Sponsorship Advocates
Yes. Thank you.
We can say that our group was very pleased to hear about the announcement and we have begun to see some small indications of results. We do have concerns, however, in that the total amount of files that will be processed by the end of this year just does not approach the amount of PRs that were intended to be distributed this year for spouses of Canadian citizens.
We are very eager to know if increased measures will continue on into the new year in order to process those additional files that will need to be processed. We are also obviously very eager simply to be reunited for a visit as soon as possible, so we do urge the government to look at solutions for temporary resident visas for our spouses.
Thank you.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Ms. Dubé, were you aware that when we took over in government that there were 75,000 spousal applications in the backlog that we're trying to correct?
Research and Content Writer, Spousal Sponsorship Advocates
Yes. I have done the research and discovered a lot of the patterns that existed prior to this, and I do recognize that the Liberal government has increased the number of TRs issued over the years for spousal sponsorship.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting, but the time is up. With that, we come to the end our first round.
I want to thank the witnesses for their important input to this study.
If there is anything you want to highlight for the committee members that you have not been able to share today, you can submit it to the clerk of the committee.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
On a point of order, Madam Chair, we started our meeting at least four minutes late, according to my time, because of technical difficulties and what have you. It was seven minutes, according to Ms. Normandin.
If we hadn't actually started late, we would have been able to get through our second rotation, per our routine motions, wherein Ms. Normandin and I would be able to get our two and a half minutes' worth of questioning. I'm hoping to be able do that, and that there's goodwill from the committee members so that we can finish this panel with our two and a half minutes.
I see a thumbs up from MP Dhaliwal. I'm hoping we're able to do that, Madam Chair, before we move to the next panel.
October 27th, 2020 / 4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Allison Conservative Niagara West, ON
On that same point of order, my only concern is that if we go over the time here, are we going over in the next one?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I want to clarify, Ms. Kwan, that you want to take the time out of the second panel, because we have three more witnesses for the second panel, and we have to end our meeting at 5:30.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I would really like to get an answer from Ms. Dubé to my question, so I would prefer to get my two and a half minutes in this round, if I may.