Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 18th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Good afternoon, everyone. I call meeting number six of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to order.

Before we begin, I will clarify something with regard to the technical difficulties we had during Monday's meeting.

The clerk has invited the witnesses from the last meeting to submit supplementary remarks further to their testimony, and these submissions will be appended to the transcript of Monday's meeting. Additionally, the clerk has sent the blues of Monday's meeting to the witnesses and has invited them to propose amendments to their testimony to ensure that the evidence reflects what the witnesses said in their testimony.

With regard to health and safety at today's meeting, I remind all attendees in the room to physically distance themselves from others by at least two metres and wear a mask unless they remain more than two metres from anyone else.

This is a hybrid meeting, so some members are appearing in person from the parliamentary precinct and others are appearing remotely.

I remind all members to please speak at a pace slow enough for interpretation to keep up. The clerk will be tracking raised hands and will keep a speakers list if needed.

All questions shall be decided by a recorded vote except for those decided unanimously or on division.

The meeting is being webcast and is available on ParlVu.

With that, I welcome all the members of the committee. I also welcome our witnesses and thank them for appearing before the committee today as we study the impact of COVID-19 on the immigration system.

Today, appearing before the committee, we have a representative from the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario, Helen Francis, president and chief executive officer; Fadia Mahmoud from Centre social d'aide aux immigrants; and as individuals, Kelly Goldthorpe, senior associate at Green and Spiegel; Elizabeth Long, barrister and solicitor, partner, Long Mangalji, LLP; Alastair Clarke, lawyer at Clarke Immigration Law; and Mark Holthe, lawyer at Holthe Immigration Law.

I'm sorry, but because of the vote in the House we are starting late. Since we started at 4:11, we will end the panel at 5:11. All witnesses will have five minutes for their opening remarks.

Ms. Goldthorpe, I invite you to please start. You have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Kelly Goldthorpe, Senior Associate, Green and Spiegel, As an Individual]

Good afternoon.

Thank you for inviting me to discuss these very timely immigration matters today.

In the early days of the pandemic, it was understandable to expect service disruption. Prioritizing critical infrastructure, essential services, and the containing of COVID-19 was rightly made a top priority. However, we're now eight months into the pandemic, and though there may be some light at the end of the tunnel, there's no clear indication that the pandemic is ending any time soon, and IRCC processing of applications is falling behind.

We've all had to learn to live with this virus in various ways, and the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship is no different. The department's delays can no longer all be attributed to COVID-19.

In the context of family reunification, estimated processing time is about 12 months. This was the case pre-pandemic, and it's still communicated to be the processing time right now. One year is a long time for families to be separated.

The recent expansion of exemptions on COVID-19 travel bans in place presents some inequities too; namely, that extended families such as long-term romantic partners may be reunited in a matter of weeks, while married spouses and common-law partners overseas have to wait upwards of a year.

Timely reunification is becoming even more urgent for families adversely affected by changing conditions in countries such as Hong Kong and Lebanon.

We've all had to adapt and innovate, improve and take advantage of the new tools available to us to be more efficient while working remotely, and IRCC has to be creative and innovative in its processes and flexible in its approach to assessing and processing applications.

In Canada, ministerial instructions allow the department to make changes quickly. As a suggestion, therefore, we'd like to see the deferral of biometrics to the back end, when foreign nationals are entering Canada at an airport or land border, instead of up front, at the time of the application.

Right now, temporary resident applications are delayed at the biometric stage. Applicants in certain parts of the world are waiting weeks to get their biometrics scheduled. Their applications aren't even in the queue for processing until the biometrics are completed.

My suggestion is that the solution is to defer biometrics until their arrival in Canada. We know that border services officers at CBSA ports of entry are operating at much lower capacity than the pre-pandemic levels, in some cases at 5% or 10% of those in 2019.

The ports of entry have the equipment to do biometrics and the capacity to do so. Why, then, do we make applicants do biometrics up front and then wait several weeks for an appointment, when they can be doing them at the back end.

As well, do visa counterfoils have to be affixed to an original passport? For “visa required” applicants, the passport transmission process can take weeks. In contrast, an electronic travel authorization for visa-exempt nationals can be linked to a passport in mere minutes. Eliminating the visa counterfoil can save time and resources.

In Canada, there is currently no dedicated temporary resident program that allows overseas spouses and dependent children to be reunited in Canada while their applications are in process. In contrast, an “in Canada” sponsorship application can request an open work permit for the sponsored spouse while the application is in process. This is a great program, but it's limited to those who are currently in Canada or those who are able to obtain a visa and enter Canada before submitting the application.

For spouses who are in “visa required” countries, it's difficult to get authorization to enter Canada because of paragraph (b) of section 179 of IRPA whereby applicants must demonstrate an intent to leave Canada when their visa expires. This conflicts with the intention of applicants who have sponsorship applications in process and who intend to become permanent residents.

With respect to the parent and grandparent lottery system, we know there's a persistent high demand for the program in light of the limited number of available spots and the challenges of managing the intakes.

Since the program reopened in 2014, each iteration of the intake process has been frustrating. Currently, success in securing an invitation to apply in the lottery system is contingent on the luck of the draw. The lottery system does not adequately screen for eligible sponsors; it does not require supporting documentation to show that sponsors meet the eligibility requirements. More people can thus enter the lottery than are eligible, which then lowers the chances of selection for those who do meet the requirements.

Improving the lottery system to ensure that only eligible sponsors can enter the lottery can make the system fairer. As well, allowing unsuccessful sponsors from previous years to re-enter with weighted probabilities could increase their likelihood of selection in subsequent years.

An alternative to the lottery may be potentially for pre-screened eligible sponsors to be put on a wait list for sponsorship, which then could provide predictable timelines and better-managed expectations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Madam Goldthorpe, but your time is up. Maybe you can touch base on the other points as we go into the round of questioning.

We will now move to our next witness, Madam Elizabeth Long, barrister and solicitor, and partner with Long Mangalji LLP.

Madam Long, you have five minutes.

I will give a one-minute heads up. When we are at four minutes, I will let everyone know that one minute is left.

Madam Long, you have the floor.

[Elizabeth Long, Barrister and Solicitor, Partner, Long Mangalji, LLP, As an Individual]

Thank you for inviting me to testify.

Let me first speak to the issue of international students. This is an area that is currently filled with chaos and confusion, especially as it pertains to those students who have applied from abroad.

We often have the IRCC website saying two completely different things. For example, there is a question of whether someone could study online if they had already applied for their study permits but had not obtained an approval in principle. We had the instance where one IRCC website page was saying yes, and the other was saying no.

We also don't have clarity on what certain policies really mean. For example, what does “approval in principle” actually mean? Will their applications be approved pending medical and criminal checks, or are there going to be other checks that will follow?

There are also certain policies that are still being applied with pre-COVID conditions in mind. For example, the ministerial instructions for express entry still state that students need to study for eight months inside Canada and requires that the online component be less than 50% in order to obtain the points for studying in Canada. We know that this is not going to be the case for many students during these times.

We need clarity and reasonable outcomes to allow schools and students to properly plan their futures. We're currently in a tight race to attract these international students, and convoluted rules and contradicting information makes our system seem unfair and ultimately unattractive to potential students.

Secondly, I would like to address the parents and grandparents category. I would like to say that this category first of all serves not just a humanitarian purpose but also an important economic one.

COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of grandparents. We often need them to take care of children while the parents are at work. Oftentimes those who are most in need of parents to be here and take of the children because the family can't afford child care are not able to meet the LICO plus 30% financial eligibility line. That's why I think it's important for the sponsor's income to return back to the LICO line so that those who are most in need of parental help can have them here to care for their children.

On the other hand, I have also known of many instances where parents who are sponsored are not able to adjust to life in Canada, and they are not willing to live in Canada on a permanent basis. That's why, to address the numbers issue, I would recommend a priority processing for parents and grandparents who have lived in Canada for over one year and who we know are able and willing to reside in Canada on a permanent basis, and have them processed on a priority basis compared to others.

Finally, with regard to family reunification and spouses, right now we have such a stark difference between those with family in visa-requiring countries and those in non-visa-requiring countries.

For those in non-visa-requiring countries, even if they have someone who has lived with them for a brief period of time, they can have their boyfriends or girlfriends travel to Canada. They are able to get on the plane right away or get a letter of authorization within 14 days. Once they come into the country, they can get their open work permits if they have applied for spousal sponsorships online, and there is also priority processing for these applications.

Now, if you compare that to families who are in visa-requiring countries, the situation is completely different.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Madam Long, you have one minute left.

[Elizabeth Long]

First of all, as my colleague has already said, the temporary resident visas for those who are married to Canadians or permanent residents are routinely denied because they are seen as having too many ties to Canada and not likely to leave Canada.

Even if they are able to obtain their visas, these visas right now are taking four to five months to process, and they require biometrics from centres that we know are often closed.

For the permanent residents, there's no end in sight for processing. They are not included in the expedited processing, and for most of our submitted applications we have not received a confirmation letter for anyone since March of this year. Furthermore, if the COPRs are not being issued, we don't know when they are going to be coming to Canada, and the realities of the situation are heartbreaking.

We have a client, for example, who is in a wheelchair in Canada. He has been trying to sponsor his wife for 19 months.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Madam Long, but your time is up. You'll have an opportunity to speak again when we go into the round of questioning.

Next we have Helen Francis, representing the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario.

Ms. Francis, you have five minutes.

[Helen Francis, President and Chief Executive Officer, YMCA of Northeastern Ontario]

Thank you.

As a charity, the YMCA is focused on the growth of all, in spirit, mind and body. One key area we focus on is employment services—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, but I think there are some interpretation issues. I'm hearing French interpretation while I'm on the English channel.

Mr. Clerk, can you please check this?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Leif-Erik Aune]

Ms. Francis, could you please switch your channel to English and try again?

[Helen Francis]

Absolutely.

The YMCA is a charity that focuses on the growth of all, in spirit, mind and body. One key area we focus on is employment services and immigrant newcomer settlement services.

My comments here today are primarily made through the lens of settlement work and workforce development versus direct work within the immigration process.

Through our settlement service experience, clients are experiencing long delays, be they for student visas, permanent resident status or work permits. As a settlement service provider, we obviously advise clients to be prepared for the delays. However, they can inhibit our ability to provide or connect clients to community services such as medical care.

As some know, immigrants are not eligible for OHIP without permanent resident status, and there are limited to no alternative options throughout the community. It is not uncommon for our newcomer clients to travel to Toronto to receive medical care.

Securing employment may also be challenging for clients who experience delays in processing their work permits and for those who require changes to their work permits.

Delays and lack of direct support available in our region require that clients must travel to Toronto to access key immigration resources such as legal representation. This is not ideal at the best of times and certainly adds the risk of COVID-19 transmission between the regions.

In northern and rural Canada, we are reliant upon immigrants to address the current skills gap that exists across various parts of the country. However, this can be more detrimental to regions such as northeastern Ontario, where the gap is widening at an alarming rate.

The current restrictions on immigration and the delays within the process may lead to long-term ramifications across the country, particularly in northern and rural regions known as “second migration centres”. Failure to address the current backlog will limit the rate of new immigrants arriving in Canada when restrictions begin to lift, potentially diminishing the rate of second migration in areas such as northeastern Ontario, the impact of which can not only hinder our country's ability to reopen for business as and when the pandemic allows, but also potentially negatively impact our long-term economic prosperity.

Our recommendations for areas of improvement for your consideration are as follows.

First, accelerate processing time for permanent residency and visas, as well as family reunification, to ensure individuals, including young people, and families are safe, secure and connected.

Second, consider the location of immigration lawyers outside of the typical large urban centres. Specifically, we would like to see one in Sudbury.

Third, provide satellite immigration services to serve northern and rural communities. Sudbury is a centralized location for northeastern Ontario and would greatly benefit from key satellite services.

Fourth, provide easier access to IRCC to enable service providers to connect clients to immigration consultants. A representative dedicated to regional areas would facilitate access to key immigration services.

Fifth, provide universal access to English as a second language for all newcomer clients. Current services are exclusive to IRCC's eligible clients—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Madam Francis, you have one minute left.

[Helen Francis]

—such as permanent residents and conventional refugees.

Sixth, offer support to provide settlement services for international students. The current funding model does not reflect this demographic, and the provincial funding is insufficient to adequately serve this growing population.

Finally, our team is very successful at connecting people on a social level within the settlement circle. However, there is a local gap in addressing systemic racism. Adequate support for settlement service providers to drive and actively engage in anti-racism efforts would be helpful, although we acknowledge that IRCC has launched programs recently to support such initiatives.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Madam Francis.

Thanks to all the witnesses for your important testimony.

Now, we will move to our first round of questioning, starting with Mr. Hallan.

Mr. Hallan, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to all the witnesses for coming to the committee today.

Family reunification and the impact of COVID-19 has been a very important issue, as we've heard. Earlier this year the government put the program for parents and grandparents sponsorship on pause. They committed to making a new announcement in the spring, but it was further delayed. There have been many criticisms in the past, and even with this new system we see many people who have a lot of issues with it again, as we've heard.

In the past, Canadians placed their hopes for bringing their loved ones to Canada more efficiently. Many were very disappointed with the overrun in minutes that happened with the first program, and now, with this new system, again there are many questions.

There is a saying about what insanity is. It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In the last five years, that's what we've seen.

My questions are for Ms. Long and Ms. Goldthorpe. I would like to hear your thoughts on how you think the government has handled this program in the past, the impact of the pause that happened earlier this year and the decision to reimplement the lottery.

Please, go ahead Ms. Long and Ms. Goldthorpe.

[Elizabeth Long]

For the clients I have seen, it has become an extremely stressful situation to have your parents' ability to join you be the subject of a lottery. This is almost as though we're playing with people's lives.

What we are seeing is that people are really suffering, with their families not being able to join them and their parents not being able to be here to take care of their kids. It's been devastating in the past five years, with the very small numbers of people who can actually go through the system. It's unfair and it's unjust.

What we are suggesting is that we return to the first-come, first-served situation, and that we also increase the numbers, so that people can have some peace of mind that they've submitted their application and will be able to eventually somehow sponsor their parents.

[Kelly Goldthorpe]

With the delay in launching the lottery or parent/grandparent system this year, it was only earlier this month that people were going into the lottery. We haven't yet seen the results of people who have won basically their “golden ticket”.

We don't know what the process is. There's no transparency; there's no indication of how people are selected, of what they do with duplicates or of how eligible applicants are selected. There is just no transparency in the process.

That's what's frustrating for my clients. This is what I'm seeing and hearing from my clients concerning the frustration of the parent and grandparent lottery: that there's just no transparency.

The other thing we're seeing is that people are going into the lottery who are not necessarily qualified as sponsors, who may not have the required income levels, or who are going in twice and duplicating their chances. Because there's no transparency about the way the winners are selected, this is really frustrating the clients. To go through this over and over again is frustrating.

As to the long wait, the suggestion of having a weighted lottery system has been repeated over and over again. It's an easy fix whereby, if somebody has been in the lottery before and has been unsuccessful, they get two kicks at the can in this lottery. This is an option that I recommend that the committee look into urgently.

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

Thank you very much. I think you both touched on some very important points.

Ms. Long, you also mentioned in your opening statement how important it is for people to have their parents here. Now more than ever, during this pandemic we know how much emotional support people need.

I want to ask you both again how we can make the system better. What are your suggestions on making this better so that we can reunite families?

[Elizabeth Long]

First of all, I think we should stop with this sort of lottery system or first-come, first-served system that sees those with best Internet getting in. I think we need to increase the numbers and give people.... With first-come, first-served, you submitted your application and then you had the peace of mind that you're waiting. We have a sort of system where you know how many people are selected for this year, and you know whether or not you can go through this year or next year, but you're there.

Second, a lot of times parents are sponsored and are not able to stay in. Then there are other parents who just want to stay in; they're needed in Canada. The best indication of the future is past experiences, so perhaps parents who have been living in Canada for at least a year or two on these super visas can receive priority processing in a separate line compared to other people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting. Your time is up.

Now we will move on to Mr. Serré. Mr. Serré.

You have six minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses for their testimony, which will help us and inform our study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I would like to focus more on employment.

My first question will be for Helen Francis from the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario.

First off, I want to thank you for all the work you do in the area. When you look at highlighting the satellite and the remote and the challenges that we have, and the importance of wanting to bring immigration newcomers to northern Ontario.... I want to thank you for the services.

As we look at the partnership with the federal government, IRCC, and immigration settlement services, what recommendations can you provide to us to strengthen that role between yourselves and the federal government to ensure that we can bring in more newcomers?

Second, you mentioned the lack of provincial funding for international students to study. Can you just expand on that part too, please?

[Helen Francis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Serré.

The [Technical difficulty—Editor] really circles back to the role of settlement services. Commonly we experience clients who will come to us and indicate that they can't get a hold of anybody at IRCC. The breakdown in the partnership there is that we, too, don't have direct contacts or a direct representative to work with at IRCC to really reach out to and understand where the breakdown in communication might be, so we end up really as helpless as the clients themselves. That's unfortunate, and it's possible that if we could strengthen the relationship there with our IRCC colleagues it would actually help everyone in this entire system.

When it comes to settlement services for international students, certainly for ourselves in association, the current funding models don't include funds for us to specifically support international students. Happily, we see that that a growing trend in our educational establishments is to attract and recruit those students, but they need a lot of support. In order for us, as a settlement provider, to be able to do it, we need those funding models to expand so that we can actually have the resources in place to provide the supports appropriately.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

I have a quick question for Elizabeth Long.

I want to shift a bit. You mentioned the importance of international students, and we're all going to agree that we need to attract more students, but I also want to hear your recommendations to the federal government. How can we, to meet our immigration targets, attract...? We've done some, and we could do better on that, but more importantly, how can we make sure that we fast-track the existing students who are here in Canada for permanent residency? What are you recommendations along those lines, please?

[Elizabeth Long]

Absolutely.

Right now, in order to attract international students, it's all about that path towards permanent residency. We are doing well in certain ways compared to other countries, but we could certainly do better.

First of all, right now, a lot of the rules for students coming into Canada, their ability to qualify for the post-grad work permits, and their ability to qualify under express entry are up in the air. It's very confusing to students, and whenever something is not clear, it makes students hesitate to actually apply.

The second thing is, with regard to permanent residency, right now we are putting students who have studied in Canada, who have worked in Canada, in the same pool as everybody else from around the world. For us, we should recognize that the international students who have studied in Canada, who have worked in Canada, are our key candidates for permanent residency, and we should really have a special category to allow them to immigrate instead of just putting them through express entry.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you for those recommendations.

Ms. Helen Francis, I want to hear a bit more about what we can do as a federal government to support settlement agencies such as yours to ensure that we provide better supports, especially for newcomers, for re-integration into the work force.

Along those lines of utilizing technology more and in innovative ways, what can we do to leverage some of the technology to increase employment supports?