Evidence of meeting #7 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 ircc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much.
On the subject of visas, several steps are required, including obtaining biometric data. This service is not available in all countries, and students sometimes have to travel to other countries to be able to provide this data.
What do you think of the solution that has already been suggested, which is to collect biometric data upon arrival in Canada?
President, Collège Boréal
I will give the floor to Mr. Despatie, who knows biometrics much better than I do.
Marc Despatie Director, Communications, Strategic Planning, and Government Relations, Collège Boréal
Thank you, Mr. Giroux.
I think it's a very worthy solution, especially for us. Our students come mainly from West Africa, where travel is rarely easy and public transportation is not available. Travelling from one country to another is also dangerous, because the countries don't get along very well in some cases. In addition, travel is expensive for these individuals, who are not always wealthy.
It would be nice to be able to collect biometric data upon their arrival. Of course, that carries certain risks because we don't know if these individuals will pass the tests and if they will ultimately be able to begin their studies.
Collège Boréal is not at a disadvantage compared to other francophone institutions. All francophone institutions in the system are at a disadvantage in relation to anglophone institutions.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much.
I would like to continue on the subject of complex paperwork and the issue of internships.
We often hear that students would like to come here not to study, but to complete internships. If they wish to do so, they must get labour market impact assessments done, which is a very complex thing. This puts up obstacles not only for students, but also for local businesses seeking a skilled workforce, and perhaps hoping to make them want to settle here for the long term.
Do you have any comments about internships?
President, Collège Boréal
You make an excellent point. I'd like to point out that 90% to 95% of Collège Boréal's programs offer internships as part of the curriculum. Before graduating, students must complete a mandatory unpaid internship. I feel one of the great advantages of our programs is that we've integrated the internship into our educational approach. Collège Boréal is very proud of this. We have set up a series of mechanisms to support students in carrying out their internship. However, when it comes to co-op programs where internships are paid, the situation is more much complex. On the other hand, internships that are part of academic programs are very successful.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
So it would be a good thing to facilitate the process for paid internships. Is that right?
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
You talked a lot about the integration principle. Do you feel that putting these individuals through CEGEPs and vocational training institutions first is really a way forward if we want to promote regional and francophone immigration? These are often young people who will build a social network and may want to start a family later on and stay in your lovely part of the country.
President, Collège Boréal
Absolutely.
I will let Mr. Bourquardez answer that question.
Director, Immigration Programs and Services, Collège Boréal
Thank you for the question, Ms. Normandin.
You are absolutely right. I feel the community college approach is essential to socio-economic integration, as it provides access to referrals and available community services, as well as short-and long-term training, which promotes the individual's full independence and development in their chosen field.
I will come back to the bridging program model. These are short courses also offered by institutions such as colleges. They offer five months of training and reduce employability barriers by providing language training, some technical training, cultural skills and an internship with an employer.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting. The time is up.
We will now move on to our last round of questions before we end this panel.
Ms. Kwan, you have six minutes.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and I thank all the witnesses for their presentations.
I'd like to direct my question to Mr. Thiessen.
First congratulations. I'm super happy for you and your family. You made it back, and that's wonderful news.
I too had a horrible experience with the adoption case of one of my constituents, Mr. Gary Lam. Back in March he and his family tried to get a permanent resident's application in and what they needed was the unique client identification number. They started this process back in March and by June they were getting no response whatsoever from IRCC. That's when they reached out to my office and we tried to intervene.
When we contacted IRCC, we were amazed to find that adoption was not deemed to be a case that would require urgent processing. That's what we were told.
I'm going to pause here and ask for your thoughts about that, because I was quite taken aback. If they did not proceed with urgent processing, they could lose their adoption placement and that's a serious thing for a family.
As an Individual
Yes, I'm definitely biased in this so take it with a grain of salt, but we're trying to make a better life, at the risk of sounding like.... We're here to form a family, grow our family, and to be put into limbo particularly with some of the adoptions out of western Africa, where you have to travel there and remain there until it's processed.... To find out that as Canadian citizens doing this you're not given any form of priority, that you're in the same queue with everybody else, to me—again, like I said it's a little self-serving now—it doesn't seem right.
I would say the number of people, Canadians, going to do these types of adoptions is not a staggering number, it's a small number, a small percentage of people. To warrant them some form of priority I think is the right thing to do.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Yes.
The IRCC office told us that the scope for adoption fell outside of “critical functions” for the office to expedite processing.
We, of course, escalated the matter and brought it to the minister's attention. Through that process we also discovered that a series of errors had been made. In fact, my constituent was given misinformation and contradictory information.
As an Individual
Yes, that's not uncommon. We weeded through that too with our second adoption. We were veterans and we helped a lot of other families, including the two families who were there with us.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
That raises a serious question. People follow the instructions from IRCC and then only months later discover they were given misinformation; they should not have followed that advice and here's another thing they should be doing. I can't imagine the anxiety the family would have to endure in that phase. What can the government do to fix this aspect of the issue?
As an Individual
I'm not sure if there's a government fix for that, because we used the website, which is basically accurate. We had an adoption facilitator who helped us here in Ontario whom we relied on strongly. To me it was specific to the office in Accra in our case. Misinformation was coming out of that office. The other thing is my partner is very tenacious so she knew what was on the website. She knew what the facilitator had told us. We had to become our own advocates, continuously going back despite information being given to us. I don't know if there's a government fix for that. That's the unfortunate thing, if people are giving out the wrong information. Even though there is information out there, you have to hunt for it.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'm a little troubled by it. I wrote to the minister about this entire situation, asking for the case to be expedited. Eventually I began this process myself through my office back in June. My constituents started the process back in March. We eventually just made the deadline so that family did not lose the child. They managed to bring the child home at the end of August. That's when the application was finally processed, when they were able to get their unique identification number.
I wrote to the minister about all of this back in July, and the minister said they would look into it, especially on the issue around contradictory information. I have yet to receive a response from the minister on that specific case. On cases like this and in other situations, we had a family sponsorship coming through where people's applications are constantly being rejected because the dual intent measure doesn't really work for people. People have been calling to say there needs to be some sort of independent complaint process to look into these kinds of matters. Would you support the idea of an immigration ombudsman so people can go to that person and have these kinds of issues dealt with effectively and efficiently—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
On behalf of myself and all the members of the committee I want to thank all the witnesses for appearing before the committee and providing important recommendations as we continue our study on the impact of COVID-19 on the immigration system. If any one of you feels that you need to put something to the attention of the members, please send the written submissions to the clerk of the committee and we will take that into consideration as we continue our study and compile the report.
With this, I thank everyone. Stay safe.
The meeting is adjourned.