Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 2nd, 2021

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you for your question and your suggestion, which I think is excellent.

We don't have a programme that specifically meets this criterion, but we do have good settlement programmes.

We work closely with our service provider organizations.

However, there are other programs within the Government of Canada. Canadian Heritage's community, multiculturalism and anti-racism program is really important.

We work closely with our colleagues who are there. I'm old enough, I guess, or have been in the department long enough, to remember when multiculturalism was part of our mandate as well, and how important it is for those things to go hand in glove to be able to have the celebrations you've talked about.

I do want to give a plug for our settlement service partners and how important the service they provide is.... It's not simply about learning English or French or having a—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Catrina Tapley]

—job opportunity. It's about celebrating what's there. It's exactly what you said.

More and more, we find that our settlement agencies are taking that on as part of their responsibilities in the establishment programs or the settlement programs that they give.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mr. Schiefke.

We will now proceed to Madame Normandin for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Once again, I thank the senior officials for being here. You always provide us with very enlightening answers, which fuel our reflections.

I would like us to address one aspect of retention in the regions. I am thinking here of a Bloc québécois colleague who has just introduced a bill to grant tax credits to students who remain in the regions for a number of years after completing their studies.

Has IRCC considered tax credits as an economic incentive for regional retention?

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you for your suggestion. I think it is worth considering.

We've done quite a bit of analytical work in looking at regional trends. We see some positive things and some things where we still think we need work to be able to do this.

Looking back on regionalization trends, here's one of the things that we see as positive. If I look at the change in admissions between 2009 and 2019 by city, the biggest increases are in Moncton, Halifax and Fredericton. I don't think that's any mistake, given the Atlantic immigration pilot that we've had and where we've worked on that.

We still see more than 50% of new immigrants settling in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, but looking at partnering with other agencies as we do this, I'll come back to Atlantic Canada for a minute and the work that we've done with ACOA and how important those regional development agencies are to be able to do these goals.

ACOA has done a lot of work in Cape Breton with the University of Cape Breton on exactly the point the member has raised, which is looking at those students and at what it takes in working together to get those students attracted and anchored in the region.

Those are two off the top of my head.

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

Thank you very much.

You talk about the fact that many immigrants stay in Montreal. But the language issue is what comes to mind. Unfortunately, it is said that it's much easier to speak English in Montreal than in the regions. Francization is an issue. Many people in the regions tell us about the importance of francization, which companies handle themselves by providing francization services to retain employees.

Has this aspect been covered in your analyses for Quebec with regard to retention in the regions? Have there been studies on this subject?

[Catrina Tapley]

I'm not aware of studies per se, but we can look into it.

Second, I think you make a really important point for us on the availability of our services en français hors Québec. For our settlement services, we need to be able to run quality settlement services in French outside of Quebec for immigrants who are coming to Canada and want to live and work in French and support the vitality of francophone minority communities outside of Quebec. This is key to this department.

We have expanded our French settlement services outside of Quebec. We're working closely with organizations like the FCFA and others, and we'll continue to do this.

I'll double-check, Madam Chair, on studies as we've done this, but that's on our settlement services.

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

Thank you very much.

My last question concerns the new program that allows 90,000 essential temporary workers and foreign graduates to apply for permanent residence.

I heard that this could drain Quebec of potential permanent residents, that they would leave Quebec. I was even told that other provinces were engaging in a form of raiding.

Have officials heard about it?

[Catrina Tapley]

First of all, I want to make it clear that this is not the aim of the program at all.

We have worked with and spoken to our colleagues in Quebec who have raised concerns around this. We're working closely with them. The Government of Quebec has space to increase its own programs in this regard. We've also offered our lessons learned on this because, frankly, it's a bit of an experiment for us on what this looks like and who is coming in. So we've offered to share our work on this. We have, as always, offered to be partners with them if they choose. But no, our goal is not to take immigrants away from Quebec.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mr. Regan, could you mute yourself.

There are 30 seconds for Madame Normandin.

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

Thank you.

I will ask my questions, but I may get answers in the next round.

I would like to know, given the division of powers, how Quebec's role is considered.

I would also like to talk about the support that the federal government offers to non-profit organizations, NPOs, that work on regional retention.

These are the questions I will ask you in the next round.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Madame Normandin.

We will now proceed to Ms. Kwan for six minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Of course, the immigration process itself is part of the retention process. I'm wondering with the IRCC, are we back to normal processing times with respect to PR renewal, citizenship applications, and the like?

[Catrina Tapley]

Thank you. I wish I could have a more positive answer for you, Madam Chair.

We've made a lot of progress, but we are not back to pre-pandemic processing times—not yet. We continue to work away on that. We've had good success in working down the number of applications that we have and processing some of them. Work permit times are back within the service standard. I'm happy to give a positive report on where we are at with student applications, and some permanent [Technical difficulty—Editor] are a little better than others, but we continue to work our way towards getting back to those pre-pandemic service times and frankly doing better.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I wonder if officials can table with the committee just a quick update on each stream and where we're at with processing times, so that we get a sense of it. I'm sure that other MPs' offices are experiencing the same thing I am. My office is inundated with requests for help, as people are facing delays in processing, whether in urban or rural centres. It's everywhere, and that same applies to PR applications or renewal of PR, citizenships, and so on.

Whenever people phone in to make an inquiry—and this includes our office when we phone the department to make an inquiry—basically the only response back is that it's in process. We cannot get an update, we cannot get a timeline, no matter how long the delay is. For some people this has huge implications because it's tied to their job, for example. Some people may need to travel because of their work; therefore, getting citizenship is going to be key, as an example.

I wonder if I can get an update from the officials on that, which I want to raise as a major concern. I just cannot emphasize enough the importance of this.

With respect to another aspect of processing, I'm just wondering about IRCC's capacity. We're now experiencing applications that are being returned. In one instance, I had a case in my riding where someone had applied for spousal sponsorship and they clearly indicated in their application that this was a common law relationship and not a married relationship. Their application was returned after six months of its having been sent in, because IRCC says there is no marriage certificate associated with it. You can imagine the frustration the couple is dealing with.

Our office is trying to help with that. In those instances, I am asking for the IRCC agent to accept their application and to put them back in the queue on the envelope. Is that possible to do?

[Catrina Tapley]

Each case is different. I'm sorry about this case, and for the misunderstandings that were there. Being able to put it back in the queue is something that we can certainly look into because I think you raise a good point around fairness.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Okay.

Maybe I can follow up with you on that case.

I also have another situation where an application has been sent in by one of my constituents. It is a refugee sponsorship application. In that application, it is the father, the sister and the children of the sister who are privately sponsored. For some reason, IRCC has processed the application separately. The father has been approved, but the sister and the children have not, which is kind of odd. I'm not quite sure why that is. The other complication, of course, is that the father is elderly—86 years old—and the family is entirely uncomfortable with him travelling on his own on a long journey like that.

Again, in those situations, what can be done? Why are applications being processed separately like that?

[Catrina Tapley]

It's hard for me to comment on a specific application, Madam Chair.

We don't tend to process private sponsorship applications separately. We tend to look at the application as a whole. That's our practice. There may be issues where clearance may come back for one individual more quickly than the other, which would cause us to take a look at it that way.

I'm joined by Dan Mills.

Mr. Mills, do you want to comment on that? I don't believe that's our practice.

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

Thank you very much.

Indeed, it is not our practice to deal with these applications separately. As the deputy minister mentioned, there may be an aspect that is specific to this application. We can check it, find out exactly what was done in this case and why the family members were separated.

Having said that, it is unfortunately impossible for me to specify what happened in this case.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Perhaps I can then also follow up with you, Ms. Tapley, on that case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

When I spoke to IRCC, it said there is no reason why they are separated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry, Ms. Kwan. Your time is up.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.