Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 23rd, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome.

I call to order meeting number seven of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

This is a hybrid meeting. Some members are appearing in person in 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 keeping a speakers list, if needed.

Today we will be continuing our study on the impact of COVID-19 on the immigration system.

I will take this opportunity to welcome our witnesses.

In the first panel, we have Canadian Immigration Connections, represented by Manprit Aujla-Grewal, immigration consultant. We also have the City of Greater Sudbury, represented by Meredith Armstrong, acting director, economic development. We have the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association, represented by Bela Ravi, president.

In the second panel, we have Robert Thiessen, as an individual. From the Hope Welfare Society we have Amit Kumar Verma, lawyer. From Collège Boréal, we have Daniel Giroux, president, as well as Baptiste Alain Bourquardez and Marc Despatie.

I welcome all the witnesses.

The witnesses will have five minutes for their opening remarks.

We will start with Canadian Immigration Connections. I welcome Manprit Aujla-Grewal. You have five minutes.

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal, Immigration Consultant, Canadian Immigration Connections]

Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Manprit Aujla-Grewal and it's an honour to appear before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

By way of background, I started my career in immigration with the IRCC in 2005, as a service delivery agent at the case-processing centre in Vegreville, Alberta. At that time, I processed in-Canada extensions for visitors, students and workers. I also processed in-Canada spousal sponsorships. After my work experience with IRCC, I went on to work with the Alberta immigrant nominee program, with the Ontario provincial nominee program and with the University of Alberta, as an international student adviser. In 2011, I incorporated my company, Canadian Immigration Connections, and have been an immigration consultant for almost a decade.

COVID-19 has presented unexpected challenges for IRCC, and of course, for individuals submitting applications to IRCC. COVID-19 has been difficult for individuals looking to reunite with their partners. I can tell you from my first-hand experience working with IRCC that when a reduction in processing times is the goal, additional resources are required to achieve that goal. Processing times for spousal sponsorships will definitely require attention.

I can also tell you from my work as an immigration consultant that when the processing of spousal sponsorships is kept within Canada, these files are processed very quickly. I have seen spousal sponsorships processed in as little as four months, when the path of the file was from the case-processing centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia, to the processing centre in Mississauga. When files are sent overseas for the finalization of processing, we are looking at timelines of up to 12 months or sometimes longer. Therefore, we need to keep the vast majority of spousal sponsorships processing within Canada. This could be achieved through a dedicated and specifically trained business unit within Canada.

Recently IRCC announced updated procedures with regard to visitor visa applications from individuals who have reached stage one approval on their spousal sponsorships. A way to apply this efficiently would be to allow individuals to submit their visitor visa application with their spousal sponsorship. This is already being done with in-Canada spousal sponsorships and their ability to apply for open work permits. COVID-19 has left many parents and children uncertain about when they will be able to reunite. It appears IRCC has not been able to strike the right balance with regard to the parent sponsorship program, as demand has always exceeded supply. We can take the current lottery system and as others have suggested, we could put in a weighted draw to those sponsors who have entered multiple times but been unsuccessful.

COVID-19 has also left many deserving international students with challenges outside of their control. For many international students, the work experience accumulated while on the post-grad work permit is essential for them to qualify for a permanent residency option. Post-grad work permit-holders unable to find employment as new graduates and facing the challenges of COVID-19, those stranded abroad and recipients of CERB or EI would find their permanent residency options limited. Allowing post-grad work permit-holders a one-time, one-year extension would give these individuals additional time to gain the required work experience to possibly qualify for permanent residency.

I also believe that targeted draws for the Canadian experience class under express entry should continue, as this allows those individuals already in Canada a chance to be selected.

Those are my comments today. I welcome any questions the committee may have. Thank you once again for this opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you for your testimony.

Now we will move on to Meredith Armstrong representing the City of Greater Sudbury. She is the acting director of economic development.

Ms. Armstrong, you will have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Meredith Armstrong, Acting Director, Economic Development, City of Greater Sudbury]

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

It is an honour to be asked to present with you today.

I am Meredith Armstrong. I am the acting director of economic development for the City of Greater Sudbury, which is a beautiful city of about 165,000 people about four hours north of Toronto, in northern Ontario. I'm sure MP Serré has boasted of our beauty many times.

We are very proud of our long-standing history in immigration from the roots of our community. We are also very proudly in the Robinson-Huron Treaty and on Anishinabe land, and we try to balance these considerations on an ongoing basis. We also have the third-largest francophone community outside of Quebec.

Given this foundation, immigration has been very important to us. We have been a long-standing host of the local immigration partnership. Bela has been a great partner, and you'll hear from her very shortly. We have also been officially designated, through IRCC in 2019, a welcoming community to francophone immigrants and newcomers. All of these have been very important stepping stones.

On top of this, we have faced a labour gap, and we have a great need for new talent. This has been a long-standing issue. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. This has been compounded by COVID.

I would like to say that we are relatively new in terms of being this close to current immigration processes. Our city and our community has really committed to extensive training, because—as you know—immigration is a very complicated sector.

We are a proud participant in the rural and northern immigration pilot program, one of 11 communities across the country, and this has really ramped up our game.

We work very hard to make sure that we're managing expectations because immigration is only one piece of a larger puzzle to address our labour market needs. Within that, the rural and northern immigration pilot is one tool. It's not necessarily the fastest, but it certainly gives us an opportunity to engage employers in a new way, and to engage candidates, who may not otherwise fit very well into an express entry program, in a new way.

COVID has created challenges for all of us. COVID makes it difficult to address all of the administrative pieces for the rural and northern immigration pilot, RNIP. It makes it difficult for us to get out to employers to do face-to-face site meetings and to address their issues.

We were lucky enough in the early stages of the immigration pilot to establish the expectation that we would draw from newcomers and immigrants who are already in the community. This allows us to tap into a really wonderful community of international students at our two colleges and our university. This also helps to establish the ultimate goal of our work, which is retention in the community. We are not a major metropolitan area, but we have a nice balance of quality of life and larger city things going on.

COVID has also made it difficult for some of the administrative pieces. Language testing has been delayed in some cases.

I think it was well stated by the first witness that the reunification of family members continues to be brought forward to us as a concern. Also, the fairness of a lottery system has been questioned. I think the question of whether or not to tweak it would be of great interest. The backlog obviously also creates real issues.

As a municipality, I would say that we have been really thrilled with the support we've been provided by our IRCC contacts. We've had a really great response time. We have a dedicated service channel that has made all the difference because employers are looking for hundreds and hundreds of people at a time, and we can only process people at a certain level to ensure the integrity of the system.

Finally, in terms of messaging, I would say that there are two key things we are working on in Greater Sudbury.

First of all, we recognize systemic racism throughout our community. It makes it difficult for employers who may otherwise not be aware of opportunities to bring in brand new talents, of the importance of new perspectives and of becoming a welcoming community. We're working with our local immigration partnership to start to address some of those pieces.

The other thing is that we are working to ensure people understand that immigration is a crucial piece of our country's economic recovery plan. This is not so easy when people turn around and ask how we can say immigration is so important when we're looking at the layoff of hundreds and hundreds of people.

I think it's really important to be unified in our—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting, Ms. Armstrong, your time is up.

You will have an opportunity as we go into the round of questioning.

Now I will move on to Bela Ravi, the president of Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association.

Madam Ravi, you have five minutes for your opening remarks, please. You can start.

[Bela Ravi, President, Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association]

Meredith, I could have given you a few of my minutes.

I want to introduce myself. I'm the president of the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association.

I've been in this community for 25 years. I'll tell you all it's a gem. I won't say any more than that. I'm sure Marc has informed you of that.

I'm also part of the local immigration partnership. We're showing how immigration matters, the benefits of immigration, and of course the cultural aspect also. Plus over 30% of our population is over 60 years old. We need that immigration.

We are trying to retain our foreign students here and hoping the process is going to give them some leeway. As Ms. Aujla-Grewal said, they cannot get the hours for their work experience to apply for the PR card. They are at a standstill. It is an emotional and financial drain on them, more so now because of COVID. We're hoping we can help. We get a lot of those questions at Sudbury Multicultural and would like to be able to help these individuals.

I'm part of the India-Canada Association. I'm very much involved with all the colleges and universities, and particularly with students.

I'm looking forward to listening to you all, to seeing how we can make this a better process to help our community grow and help us retain people in our community.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Ms. Ravi.

Now we will start with our first round of questioning.

Mr. Hallan, you have six minutes for your round of questioning.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for appearing at our committee today.

Ms. Aujla-Grewal, in my constituency office, and I'm sure most of the other ones as well, we hear complaints about the length of time it takes to process some of the study, work or TRV applications. In your vast experience—you said you work for IRCC as well—what can IRCC do to provide a standardized processing time across these different visas? How do you see that panning out?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

I continue to see a wide range of processing times even within my office. I think we can take two approaches to this problem. Similarly to what I suggested for the spousal sponsorships, perhaps a dedicated business unit within Canada is also required for overseas processing of certain lines of business. The other option I can think of is IRCC perhaps redistributing work among different visa offices so processing times across different visa offices are somewhat kept in line.

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

Again, given your experience, what are your thoughts on permanent residency options for people we call low-skilled. For people in the trucking industry who are providing such essential services right now, or people in the health care field who are also providing life-saving services, how do you see a permanent residency path for them?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

From my experience with the different immigration departments, as well as being an immigration consultant, COVID-19 has revealed that all skill levels are equally important, low-skilled, high-skilled, are all important. From truck drivers to hotel cleaners to meat processors and those providing services in health care, Canadians rely on temporary foreign workers for many essential services. These temporary foreign workers come as individuals on post-grad work permits. They may be in Canada on working holiday work permits or they may be tied to a labour market impact assessment, to name just a few. I think all levels are really important as Canadians and permanent residents are reluctant to take certain occupations. For example, a long-haul truck driver has an extremely difficult job and not many Canadians or permanent residents are necessarily lining up for those positions.

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

Many of our constituents really appreciate your worth, especially for those long-haul truck drivers who we saw in the beginning of the pandemic weren't even able to use washrooms or drive-throughs. They were having many difficulties, and they were going coast to coast risking their lives to provide life-saving supplies.

All these jobs carry an amount of dignity. They take pride in their job, and we take pride in knowing they're doing that job. Thank you for that.

What type of permanent residency program, if you can formulate one, do you see for those people who are providing those services right now?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

Previously, the Canadian experience class seems to be a good fit for these low-skill occupations, as they're called. The Canadian experience class used to be a pass or fail system in which individuals with Canadian work experience, and a designated level of English or French, were able to apply directly to IRCC for permanent residency.

Individuals with Canadian study under work experience, combined with good language skills, are shown to integrate into the Canadian labour market more successfully than those that do not possess these attributes. The previous reiteration of Canadian experience class is something that could be considered for these low-skill occupations.

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

Do you think that the one-time extension that you talked about should apply to all the post-grad work permit-holders?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

First, an application would have to be made from those individuals who are interested, because not all post-grad work permit-holders may require extra time. Factors such as when the post-grad work permit was issued, and how much time is remaining are factors that can be considered. If the post-grad work permit was issued in 2020, and it is only a one year post-grad work permit, then definitely, I can see where an extension would come in handy. There would be a few factors that can be considered, but generally speaking, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We'll move to Mr. Serré, for six minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank the three witnesses for the information they have given us today. It will be a great help to us in determining how to move forward.

My first question is for Meredith Armstrong, from the City of Greater Sudbury.

I want to first thank you for the leadership you provided to the city in working closely with RC.

You mentioned during your presentation that you have over 2,000 international students, and that you want to keep them in the community. You also launched some of the new innovation programs like the rural immigration pilot project in the area.

How has that benefited the region? What recommendations would you have for us, at the federal level, to make some changes to the program to make sure we look at meeting the labour needs in the community?

[Meredith Armstrong]

We are still in the first year of our participation in the rural and northern pilot program, but I have to say that being part of a network with 10 other municipalities of all shapes and sizes has been one of the biggest points of value of our participation. As I mentioned and as you've reiterated, we do draw on international students.

I think, because the program is designed for communities that don't otherwise have the same numbers of newcomers coming each year, we need to make sure that these communities are supported with the funding and the staffing to ensure that they have the staff who are able to process the applications, ensure the program integrity and also just be available. We received hundreds and hundreds of emails just in Sudbury before the program even launched. That continues to be the case. Those are not only from candidates but from employers.

We've worked hard to make sure, as I mentioned, that we are managing those expectations. It takes a long time to meet a candidate, get to know that person and get to know their family situation, spouse and children. We often look for families with children because they have a much higher likelihood of residing in the community over the long term. So again, it takes time and it takes people. When you keep the same people in those roles over the longer term, because these are relationships.... We take it very seriously that we are affecting the destinies of individuals who believe strongly in taking a jump out of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and spreading out into other parts of the country.

I think the opportunity to be part of a program has to come with the right funding and support to ensure that the system is in place over a longer term.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Ms. Armstrong, thank you for that, because that leads to my second question to Bela Ravi.

Really, the work that you've been doing in the community for the past 25 years has been amazing. Thank you so much for the work like the Saturday night dances, and the wonderful food.

When we look at your experience, in the past, the multicultural centre used to deal with settlement agencies. The previous Conservative government cut the Immigration RC office in Sudbury. I want to get a sense from you as to what could we do better to support settlement agencies in a community, so that we could attract and retain more immigration levels all across greater Sudbury.

[Bela Ravi]

Thank you for this opportunity. Being at the multicultural centre over the last 15 years, I've been a part of the board there and I have seen the funding cuts that have come in. For us to maintain what we have for the ongoing numbers that we're getting now.... We are very happy to get the numbers, but our funding has been cut down drastically.

Like Meredith said, we need the funding and the personnel to have that relationship to retain and provide the services these people need. My request to you is that our funding get reinstated to a point where we can do what we would like to do. We at Sudbury Multicultural right now have a staff of really one and a half. We have two people who work four days a week to provide the services needed, so that has become a challenge for us.

I hate to say that everyone says we're always looking for money, but that's what lets us provide the services that are needed. We look really look forward to the numbers going up, but....

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

Do you have any advice or recommendations for how our government can support you, support the municipality to attract newcomers and integrate them more in the community? You talk about racism. How do we try to do better together and make it more welcoming?

[Bela Ravi]

One of the things that I have heard having conversations with universities and colleges here is that one of the people, Bill Best, said to me, “Not everybody can travel”, so we're bringing the world to people. The education and what they get out of that is so important. Bring the world here. They're here already and they're trained, so let's have the tools—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting, Madam Ravi. Your time is up.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

It goes by fast.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will now move on to Madame Normandin. You have six minutes.