Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 12th, 2021

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

Thank you.

As far as the other streams are concerned, applications will close in November, or once all of the spots are taken, whichever comes first.

The testing requirement for the francophone stream could lead to delays. If no testing spots are available, it could take longer. Do you have any plans to open up spots to French speakers after November?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Those are some interesting suggestions and ideas from the honourable member.

At the moment, the pathways are a special one-time, six-month measure. In terms of processing those for this year, that's something to which my colleague Mr. Mills could speak, but I would certainly share with the committee that part of the thinking behind this measure is to maximize the level space for 2021, given the borders being closed.

However, we're not only thinking about this year. We're also looking ahead to 2022 and beyond to 2023. All the levers we have to support strong immigration in Canada are ones that are being looked at, and the francophone targets are of great importance to the minister.

Mr. Mills, I don't know if you would like to add just a couple of comments on the processing.

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you.

I just want to add that we do follow up, keeping a very close eye on the applications that come in.

I mentioned earlier that we were getting ready to process between 35,000 and 44,000 applications this year. We will be making sure the various streams are fairly represented, despite the low volume of applications.

That said, as my colleague mentioned, we are always monitoring the situation and we will make adjustments as needed. We ensure the processing of francophone and anglophone applications is fair.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Manly can have the rest of my time.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you very much, Madame Normandin, for sharing your time.

Thank you to Mr. Mills and Madame Jarvis for being here today.

I'm sorry I missed the first part of this, but I do have some questions.

In terms of the temporary foreign workers coming here who are going to receive this exemption, is there something to help them bring their families here? A lot of workers come here on a seasonal basis year after year after year, and I'm wondering if there's a pathway for family members to join them.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Certainly the way we are looking at this pathway is that the principal applicant is here in Canada. We will be looking at the subsequent family pathways.

As I think committee members know, there is always a lot of interest in family reunification streams, and through the pandemic, the department has put priority processing on family. A number of the department's immigration streams support family reunification—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting, Ms. Jarvis. The time is up.

We will now proceed to Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much to all the officials for being here today.

The program explicitly excludes undocumented workers and those who are without status. What advice did the officials give to the minister to exclude them?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I don't know that it's a question so much of exclusion, versus inclusion and what was going to be the focus. If we look at the context we're in, we know that the borders are closed and there's an emphasis being placed on the in-Canada population. The minister noted, a few times, that temporary residents who are here—international graduates, health care workers, essential workers—are contributing.

One of the pieces we also thought about was that if there were those who were here without status or authorization, we didn't want to be penalizing those who had taken the necessary steps to secure their status. So there's a bit of a sense of fairness and a level playing field in this.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

With the exception of this, of course: The guardian angels program actually included people without status, but for this program, it excluded them. I would urge the officials to consider including them. It is about exclusion. When you don't include people in this process, it does exclude them.

Many of the folks I'm talking about are people who are already here. Some of them lost their status as a result of the pandemic, because they have an employer-specific work permit for which they were not able to secure another LMIA in order to regain their status. These are real issues that are happening on the ground with people.

I would urge the officials to consider that, and to give that advice to the minister to include those individuals.

With respect to the digitizing process, what is the timeline for all the applications to be digitized?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I'll turn to my colleague on the processing dimension, but just to note, the application process is digital from the outset, and that's to—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sorry, I don't mean for this program, I mean overall, because that's part of the process that the ministry is undertaking right now.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Mr. Mills, I'll ask you to speak to the timeline for the digitization that we've been doing on the paper-based program.

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you for your question.

We made a strategic decision at the beginning of the year with respect to digitization. To date, more than 30,000 applications for various classes have been digitized, ranging from—

the caregiver, parents and grandparents, Quebec-selected skilled workers, overseas family class and in-Canada family class. Those applications that we had in our offices were sent to a third party organization

to be digitized.

We are working closely with a number of partners to increase that pace, but we first had to make sure that all the requirements were met.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm sorry for interrupting.

Do you have a date when you expect the applications in the different streams would be completed in this digitizing process?

[Daniel Mills]

Yes.

For some classes, including the family class, the process is complete or will be by the end of June. All of our records at the department will be digitized. For family caregivers, the remaining applications will be digitized by late July or early August. Staff across the country will then be able to process them.

To answer your question, I would say, yes, we have a timetable for certain classes and we are making very good progress already.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Does that include making the intake digital, which is what it was referred to in the budget?

[Daniel Mills]

I would like to thank the member for her question.

At the beginning of May, we launched a pilot to support the digital intake of applications for certain lines of business.

The Atlantic immigration pilot and the agri-food pilot, among other programs, were integrated into the pilot project right away. Over the summer, we will be expanding the number of programs until all of them have a digital intake process.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Madam Chair, maybe I can ask the officials to table to the committee all the different streams and what their timelines are, including the digital intake as well as the applications that have already been submitted in paper form.

With respect to the new program, one of the concerns is that there is an unfair disadvantage for some of the TFWs who do not have access to Internet. They've already expressed that they don't have access to the equipment or the broadband in order to submit their application. Has the ministry considered this and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Kwan. Your time is up. You can ask this question when your turn comes next.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Maybe I can get that answer in writing from the officials.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

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

Just before you start, I see the analyst, Martin, has raised his hand.

[Martin McCallum, Committee Researcher]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just want to double-check with the official. Are you confirming that you will take up that undertaking? Sometimes we have confusion about which undertakings are agreed to and which ones are not, so if I could clarify with the official in this case, we would appreciate it from our end.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I think I understood the last question from the honourable member. There were two questions. One was about the timelines and the digitization across the stream, and then the second undertaking was the question we ran out of time for, which was about access to Internet and whether had that been considered.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Yes, those are the questions. For the TFWs who are not able to submit an application online because they don't have access to the equipment or have Internet problems because they're out in rural communities and so on, how will we address that from the department's perspective to ensure equitable access?