Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 12th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Good afternoon. I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 30 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

The Board of Internal Economy requires that the committee adhere to the following health protocols: maintain a physical distance of at least two metres from others; wear a non-medical mask unless seated, and preferably wear a mask at all times, including when seated; maintain proper hand hygiene by using the hand sanitizer provided in the committee room; and regularly wash your hands well with soap. As the chair, I will be enforcing these measures for the duration of this meeting, and I thank everyone for their co-operation.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to House orders of January 25. I would like to outline a few rules to follow. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You may speak in the official language of your choice. At the bottom of your screen, you may choose to hear floor audio in English or French. With the latest Zoom version, you do not need to select the corresponding language channel before speaking. The “raise hand” feature is on the main toolbar. Should you wish to speak, all comments should be addressed through the chair. When you are not speaking, your microphone should be muted. The committee clerk and I will maintain a speakers list for all members.

Today we will be hearing from IRCC officials. They will be giving a briefing on the pathway to permanent residency for essential temporary workers and international graduates. They are appearing before the committee and will respond to questions on the new pathway program as well as respond to any questions on broader immigration figures.

I would like to welcome, from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Marian Campbell Jarvis, assistant deputy minister, strategic and program policy, and Daniel Mills, assistant deputy minister, operations.

Thank you both for appearing before the committee today, and for all of the hard work that you do on behalf of all Canadians. You will have five minutes for your opening remarks, and then we will go to a round of questions.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for inviting us here today.

I will take a few moments to make some opening remarks, and after that, we would be happy to take your questions.

As the committee is aware, immigration is crucial to Canada's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to our country's long-term prosperity. The importance of immigration for Canada underlines the need for an agile and responsive immigration system.

As you know, last fall, our minister announced an immigration levels plan for 2020-22 that aims to increase admissions to 1.2 million over three years.

At the time, and acknowledging uncertainty, we were optimistic that admissions would be supported by entrants from abroad, with the easing of border measures restricting travel for approved permanent residents. However, given the ongoing need for our current border and travel restrictions to protect the health and safety of people in Canada, the government is looking at some creative additional measures that aim to capitalize on the talent and contributions of immigrants who are already in Canada.

We have in fact known for years that temporary residents make good candidates for permanent residence, as many have formed community ties that help them make a seamless transition to permanent resident status. Accordingly, the government made a decision to use public policies to launch, on May 6, a one-time pathway to permanent residence for over 90,000 temporary residents already in Canada.

This initiative focuses on three particular groups. The first is the group of health care and some other essential workers who have been on the front line of getting us through the pandemic. The second group are international student graduates who have recently graduated from Canadian institutions, given the tremendous contribution these graduates make to our economy and our society. Third are French-speaking candidates who we hope will settle in and support the vitality of francophone minority communities outside Quebec.

These public policies will end on November 5, 2021, or once the program stream has reached its maximum intake limit. Those limits are 40,000 applications for international student graduates, 20,000 applicants for temporary foreign workers in health care, and 30,000 applications for temporary foreign workers in other selected essential occupations. As noted, we have established streams for French-speaking applicants in these three groups. We have not set a limit on the number of applications we will take in these streams.

In terms of reaction to these initiatives, the stream for international graduates reached its capacity at midday on May 7, about 25 hours after it opened. We are monitoring the other streams. Information on the number of applications we are receiving is available in real time on the IRCC website.

Madam Chair, this pathway to permanent residence acknowledges the extraordinary service of newcomers to Canada throughout the pandemic.

On a wider level, it aims to both engage immigrants who are already here and to provide Canada with the workforce it needs for its economic recovery from the pandemic.

I hope this gives the committee some background regarding our recent actions.

We would now be happy to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Ms. Campbell Jarvis.

We will now go to our six-minute round of questions.

Mr. Hallan, we will start with you. Please go ahead for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to take this time to really thank you, officials, not only for coming here on such short notice but also for making yourselves so available and doing such great work throughout this entire pandemic. Thank you again from all of us.

There are some immediate questions that come up for most people. First, given the big number of applications that are being accepted, do we have the capacity or resources with our current resources in order to handle the processing of these applications?

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

Good afternoon, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank the member for his question.

Yes, we are facing a significant challenge when it comes to processing capacity. However, we are convinced that we can process the applications we received last week. The department plans to process 35,000 to 44,000 of the applications received last week by December 31.

As you know, we focus our efforts on clients already in Canada. The fact that they are here makes it easier to process their applications. For applicants outside the country, the approach is different and a bit more complex. In addition, restrictions vary by country.

We have no doubt that we can achieve—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Mills, but can you please move the microphone a little above your upper lip? The interpreters were having a bit of a problem.

You can start, please.

[Daniel Mills]

Would you like me to start over?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Go ahead from where I interrupted you.

[Daniel Mills]

Okay, perfect.

To wrap up, I was saying that, with our current processing capacity, we are confident that we will be able to process between 35,000 and 44,000 applications by December 31 of this year.

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

Obviously, there are already so many problems with backlogs—and we hear this continually—especially when it comes to programs like family reunification, and we know the amount of mental stress the backlogs are causing.

Are we pulling resources away from other programs in order to process these applications first, or are we hiring new resources? Can you please elaborate?

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you for your question.

Yes, the department has redirected resources to prioritize family class applications, as previously announced. That is a top priority for us. I'm happy to report that we have made tremendous progress on those applications in recent months. We have processed more than 28,000 applications since January 1, a major increase in the past four months over previous years.

To support processing capacity, we hired staff to handle applications in Canada and we also reallocated resources in certain lines of business such as the visitor class. As you know, international visitors are not allowed to travel because of the current border restrictions, so we shifted resources away from that area to help us make progress in other lines of business, including the family class and the Canadian experience class, and to support other departmental priorities.

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

Thank you very much, but this raises the same question: Are we pulling resources from another program? We heard that you're prioritizing, but I think you said you're prioritizing family. How about the program with 90,000 applications?

Second, please elaborate on where these 90,000 applications are going to be processed.

[Daniel Mills]

With the border closures and resulting slowdown in the line of business that processes visitor and temporary resident applications, we reallocated those resources to other key priorities and business lines.

You asked where the processing would take place. Currently, applications are being processed in Canada. With our integrated system, officers across the country are able to process applications that fall under the priority line of business. Applications are not processed in a particular region, but through an integrated system.

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

Just to clarify, do you feel there will be any hindrance in clearing the backlog because of this new program?

[Daniel Mills]

We are cutting down on processing time and reducing the backlog in most lines of business. A few months ago, we received additional funding in the supplementary estimates, so thank you. We used that funding to hire people—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Mills, but the time is up for Mr. Hallan.

Mr. Sidhu, you have six minutes. Please proceed.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the whole department for all of your hard work.

Mr. Mills and Ms. Campbell Jarvis, we really appreciate your taking the time to join us here today.

I know the announcement of the new pathway to permanent residency for 90,000 was very well received by so many.

Ms. Campbell Jarvis, you mentioned that this pathway applies to three groups—health care workers, essential workers and international students—as well as French-speaking candidates. You also mentioned that the international student pathway filled up really quickly. Would you be able to provide some feedback or insight into what the update would be for the other groups? As I understand it, the uptake has not been as strong. Also, can you please provide some info on why you think the other groups have less uptake, in your opinion?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

There's always a lot for us to assess in terms of client behaviour when we start a new program. I think one of the reasons why we saw such a strong uptake by the international graduates is that we've already seen quite a strong uptake in the past. What I mean by that is that, if we look at 2019 data, we know that a number of temporary residents transitioned to permanent residents. A large portion of those people were, in fact, international students. There's a bit of a known pathway there, unlike the one for the health care workers in particular and the essential worker stream. Those pathways might not be quite as clear or as known. We certainly do have other workers than those in an essential stream or in a health care stream who have made that transition. Typically with some of the other pilots that we've run in the past, sometimes it can take a little bit longer for a more innovative pathway to take root. We've had these pathways open for six months to allow time for essential workers and health care workers to submit their applications. That's why we've allowed that six-month window until November 5.

We'll see about client behaviour. I know that colleagues here in the department are watching this transition of temporary workers to permanent residents. We know that we'll also learn a lot through the process, as well as bring in permanent residents who are already here and already contributing to Canada's economy, which will help bolster our economic recovery and our society going forward.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you for that very detailed response.

I feel like a lot of international graduates would appreciate, should those spots not be used by the November deadline.... Maybe they can be opened up for some of the international graduates should the health care workers and essential workers not be able to fill up the capacity there.

We were just talking about capacity in terms of processing and backlog. I know that in the budget there was some funding for making the immigration system more efficient. Can you speak in more detail about that?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Certainly. I'll begin, and I think my colleague, Mr. Mills, may have some comments on the efficiency.

The pandemic has really encouraged a lot of innovation, some of it forced by necessity. As I think the deputy minister noted before CIMM, a lot of those innovations and efficiencies we're hoping to carry on afterwards. Some really good examples are virtual citizenship ceremonies online and the budget investments that are helping in the client support centre, as well as in the digital platform modernization, which is to modernize the legacy system here at IRCC. We wish to move beyond the paper-based processing onto a digital program, which will help us better meet the needs of clients and provide that service going forward.

Mr. Mills, I don't know if there's anything specific that you wish to add.

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you.

I'd like to add to what my colleague said about paper-based processing. We are digitizing applications so they can be processed remotely, given the restrictions in place throughout the world.

Digitization gives us the ability to process applications that would have normally been processed in a specific region either outside the country or in Canada. By digitizing, we can adjust processing capacity. That's one of the efficiencies that has resulted from the pandemic, one that is very beneficial to clients.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

I appreciate that. The minister is working really hard, I know, in terms of efficiencies and, obviously, adding more capacity.

Thank you guys for your tireless work. It definitely has been a challenging time, and I really want to commend the whole department.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mr. Sidhu.

We will now proceed to Madame Normandin.

You will have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the senior officials for being here on such short notice. The information they provide is always of great value.

I should start by saying that, since the program relates to Canada, not Quebec, I have just one or two questions. I will be giving the rest of my time to Mr. Manly, who is here today.

I am mainly interested in the applicants under the francophone stream of the program. We heard that spots for French language proficiency testing filled up quite quickly.

I was wondering whether you did any monitoring, given the number of people who have requested French testing in order to apply to the program.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Thank you for your question.

I'd like to respond to a couple of points.

We have indeed included a francophone stream in the new pathway. We are watching this very closely to see the level of interest, and we're certainly hopeful that the response will be strong.

Unlike the other pathways, we have not put in a cap. Part of the reason is that we do want it to be open, and we want those numbers to be as strong as possible to really help meet the target that our minister has set towards a francophone target of 4.4% by 2023.

We will continue to monitor, and we will look forward to keeping the committee updated over time as those results come in.