Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 23rd, 2020

[Bela Ravi]

Definitely. I could get that to you ASAP.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Ms. Aujla-Grewal, you know both sides. I have two people working in my office basically on these immigration files. From time to time, after four months, we still won't get the initial message saying that they received the application. You mentioned that the application can be done in Canada in four months and can take up to a year overseas.

What would you advise? What would you tell the committee needs to be done so that the applications are done in a decent amount of time?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

Mr. Saroya, this is already—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Saroya. Your time is up.

To end our last round of questioning, Madam Martinez Ferrada, you have two minutes.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As you know—and you have all brought this up—the pandemic has suddenly affected many employers and workers, especially temporary foreign workers.

We have actually implemented a temporary policy to help foreign workers who are starting a new job and those who had closed permits by allowing them to obtain open permits. That gave us an opportunity to deliver those permits earlier by reducing the processing time, which went from several weeks to 10 days.

In what way do you think that policy has been useful, especially during the pandemic, and what else could we do in terms of rapidly delivering open permits to foreign workers in sectors that need them the most, especially the agricultural sector?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

I think IRCC has adopted things quickly where they can.

With regard to applying for open work permits or an extension, or the post-grad work permit issue I spoke of, I referenced those things because I think those things can be done. There are certain things that are realistic and that IRCC has tried to do. I believe they have tried to deal with the pandemic as best they can. The situation keeps evolving and changing.

I do think that something could be done for individuals who require open work permits in essential sectors.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

What do you think we should be doing?

[Manprit Aujla-Grewal]

Again, the associations have to come to IRCC to advise what the issue is, present their case with what the situation is. We have to make IRCC aware of who is struggling.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. The time is up.

I would like to thank our witnesses from our first panel for appearing before the committee.

If there is anything you would like to bring before the attention of the committee, you can send us your written submissions. We will take them into consideration as we continue our study on the impact of COVID-19 on the immigration system.

I will suspend the meeting for two minutes to allow the witnesses for the second panel to log in and allow the clerk to get the sound checks done.

The meeting is suspended for two minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I call meeting number seven back to order.

I will take this opportunity to welcome our witnesses for the second panel. We have appearing before us today Robert Thiessen, as an individual. The second witness for today is Amit Kumar Verma, representing Hope Welfare Society. We also have representatives from Collège Boréal, Daniel Giroux, president; Baptiste Alain Bourquardez, director, immigration programs and services; and Mr. Marc Despatie, director of communications.

Welcome to all the witnesses.

All the witnesses will have five minutes for their opening remarks. I will start with Mr. Thiessen.

[Robert Thiessen, As an Individual]

Madam Chair, thank you for permitting me the opportunity to take part in this committee.

My name is Robert Thiessen. We are an adoptive family. In March of this year, we were in Accra, Ghana, desperate to get home. Ghana had closed its borders to all travel. The Canadian High Commission was organizing a repatriation flight for Canadian citizens. We were anxiously waiting for our newly adopted son's facilitation visa to be processed by the Canadian immigration office in Accra. We had submitted his application on August 29, 2019, and since September 9, we had not received any update from the immigration office.

We had travelled to Nigeria on July 3, 2019, to adopt our second son, Samuel. In preparation for our trip, we ended all of our employment, sold our house and put all of our belongings into storage. Our expectation was to be in Africa for at least six months to complete the adoption and wait for his facilitation visa to be processed. Our expectation was based on our first son's adoption from Ethiopia in 2015. We received Solomon's facilitation visa three months after we submitted his application.

Between September 11, 2019, and March 16, 2020, we made four personal inquiries to the immigration office via the prescribed channels. Our MP made three inquiries via the portal. In early March, when the situation with the COVID virus was serious, we tried to phone the immigration office three times. We received automated replies to our email inquiries. Our MP received an initial response that the ministerial inquiry unit had requested the immigration office to expedite our application. This did not happen. Five months later, our application had yet to be reviewed.

On our flight to Nigeria, we met a family from the Netherlands who were also adopting from Nigeria. Four weeks after their adoption was completed, they had all the necessary visas to travel home. In mid-March, Ghana's borders were closed, and we watched Prime Minister Trudeau urge Canadians to return home. We made a consular appointment at the Canadian High Commission. In the appointment, we emphasized that we needed advice on how to proceed. We didn't know what the status of our son's application was despite multiple inquiries, and now our government was urging all Canadians who could to return home.

The individual at the Canadian High Commission was unaware of the Canadian government's advisory and was oblivious to our concern. We were assured that someone from the immigration office would contact us within two days. Nothing happened. To be in Africa was our choice. We had expected to wait and be patient. We had no illusions of receiving any special treatment. We expected that we would need to be diligent in contacting the immigration office. The situation was different now. The immigration office was not responding to any of our inquiries, and the consular office was unaware of the Canadian advisory, so we decided to take action.

We started an email campaign. With the help of our friends and family, we sent out letters to MPs, explaining the urgency of our situation and asking them to help us in our case. The response was terrific. We also reluctantly shared our story with the media. Given our situation in a global pandemic—trying to get home—we felt that there was nothing to lose.

Finally, on March 24, the Accra immigration office requested additional information. Six months after receiving our application, they were finally reviewing it. Two days later, we received Samuel's facilitation visa, and on March 30, we boarded a repatriation flight back to Canada.

We waited six months for Samuel's application to be reviewed. While we waited, the Accra immigration office was indifferent to every inquiry we made. It was literally impossible to reach anyone by the prescribed channels, such as by email, by phone, through our MP and by consular visit. It took a global pandemic, creating noise through an email campaign, going to the media and having the deadline of a repatriation flight for the immigration office to respond. The transparency and communication from the immigration office is not acceptable by any standard. Canadians deserve better.

We were lucky and had Samuel's application processed, but there are other Canadian adoptive families who are in limbo. They need assistance in having their applications processed in a timely manner. Canadian families need to be treated with respect and given some form of priority. Adoption comes with many challenges. Dealing with an agency of the Canadian government should not be one of them. Future adoptive families can't afford the current level of service while they wait to be united with their children and to bring them home to Canada.

Thank you for this opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you for your remarks, Mr. Thiessen.

We will move to Mr. Amit Kumar Verma representing Hope Welfare Society.

Mr. Verma, you have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Amit Kumar Verma, Lawyer, Hope Welfare Society]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and committee members. It is my pleasure to appear before this committee to speak about the impact of COVID-19 on our immigration system.

COVID-19 has brought unprecedented changes globally, as well as for Canadians. I would like to draw your attention to the very important issue where immigration services were halted for everyone. It caused further delay for processing files for visitors and international students and to spousal sponsorship applications. It has even affected citizenship ceremonies.

In the meantime, some workers came to Canada on their temporary foreign work visas. They arrived in Canada, and they wanted to work for their employers, but due to the pandemic, their employers' businesses were shut down. They were shut down in such a way that they—

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Madam Chair, point of order. There is no translation. I don't know if it's just me or not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mr. Serré. We will allow the clerk to look into it.

Mr. Verma, the interpreter is asking you to speak a bit louder, and have the microphone near your mouth.

You may start again.

[Amit Kumar Verma]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and committee members. It is my pleasure to appear before this committee to speak about the impact of COVID-19 on our immigration system.

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

Madam Chair, I also have no access to the interpretation, but colleagues are telling me they have access through another system. My assistant, who does not use Zoom, has access to the interpretation. So this seems to be an issue related to the Zoom platform.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mr. Verma, please try again. Please speak a bit louder and have the microphone near your mouth.

[Amit Kumar Verma]

Thank you, Madame Chair and committee members. It is my pleasure to appear before this committee to speak about the impact of COVID-19 on our immigration system.

As all immigration services were halted during COVID-19, such as our refugee claim hearings, refugee eligibility hearings, visitor visa processing and issuing visas to international students, citizenship ceremonies and delays in landing permanent residents to Canada.

The COVID-19 situation has brought an unprecedented situation to Canadians and the rest of the world. This is a time that we should digitalize and innovate in order to meet the end objectives of the immigration act.

On this particular issue, I will talk about the family reunification and the amount of time consumed in order to process their applications. There is a substantial delay in issuing temporary resident visas to foreigners and processing applications of—

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Madame Chair, can you ask the witness to hold up his mike? We're not getting translation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mr. Verma, we're having some issues.

Can I request that you turn your video off? We might get better audio quality. Can you also have your microphone closer to your mouth?

[Amit Kumar Verma]

Okay, I will keep it nearer to me.

Due to COVID, there are different situations that have arisen for the immigration department, as well as to individuals who are in the process of obtaining their necessary paperwork. For example, the refugees file their refugee claims online, and it's taking them more than the usual time to process their applications. Reaching their eligibility hearing is taking a long time. I would request some changes to it, for example, the eligibility meetings can be done through Zoom using the app.

There could be digitalization of applying for post-graduation work permits. They should create a portal through which students can put their information rather than to add on or upload any paper-based applications. The e-mail portal should be designed in such a way that they automatically send an e-mail to the concerned educational institute in order to verify their transcripts or any other related matter.

It would reduce the workload from the immigration department or case processing centres, and it would work towards our advancement so that students could get their work permits as early as possible.

That's all of my introductory part about the immigration matters that I'm seeking to talk about.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mr. Verma. I'm sorry for all these technical issues.

I will just say it again, if you could please speak a bit louder and keep the microphone close to your mouth, that would be great.

Now we will move on to Collège Boréal, being represented by the president, as well as the director of immigration programs and services and the director of communications.

Mr. Giroux, you have five minutes for your opening remarks.

I think you will be sharing your time with your other colleagues, so please start.

[Daniel Giroux, President, Collège Boréal]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I thank Marc Serré, member for the Nickel Belt riding, which is located here, in the City of Greater Sudbury.

My name is Daniel Giroux, and I am the president of Collège Boréal. Collège Boréal has 38 institutions in 26 communities across Ontario. In addition to offering 80 post-secondary programs and ongoing programs in French at the collegiate level, we provide training in skilled trades, continuous education and a number of other related services.

Collège Boréal has been focusing on the accelerated institutional, economic and social integration of newcomers for 15 years. The programs and services available to newcomers include integration and settlement services, language courses, French tests related to permanent resident and citizenship application files, as well as bridging programs.

The funding of those programs was renewed for a five-year period last April. Services were provided in Sudbury in 2017, and in Timmins in 2020. Those communities are taking in more and more immigrants, mainly owing to an aging population and migration toward large urban centres. Collège Boréal has welcomed over 3,300 individuals in 2019-2020, spread out throughout 11 of the province's communities.

Our rapid labour market integration programs, which are bridging programs, have an employability rate of 84%. We are taking in all newcomers, regardless of their mother tongue, thanks to our settlement and socioeconomic integration services.

According to recent figures, 78% of newcomers choose to settle in large cities. Collège Boréal is one of the innovative forces in relation to the immigrant regionalization concept to attract newcomers outside large urban centres. For a number of years, the rate of francophone immigration outside Quebec has been estimated at less than 2%. In 2019, the rate reached 2.82%, but the target of 4.4% the federal government set to be achieved by 2023 is far from being reached.

The number of dismissed applications concerning francophone countries in Africa is high. We are wondering what the reason for that may be.

According to data from the Democratic Republic of Congo, from January to May 2019, the applications for study permits from non-francophone countries had an approval rate of approximately 63%. That rate goes up to 68% for India and China. Applications for study permits from francophone countries had a rate as low as 36%. That rate goes down to only 26% if France is excluded.

According to Collège Boréal and a number of other stakeholders, it is certain that the COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a number of challenges. Language training, which is provided only remotely or online, is also presenting major challenges for us. That clientele needs the support of the 25 or 30 other students and clients, as well as the possibility to network. That is absolutely crucial.

Another element is giving rise to many challenges, and that is the shortage of part-time jobs, as it has been mentioned. For us, that creates nearly a 30% drop in the number of international students. We have three major objectives: improving the rate of study permit obtention for francophone students, fostering francophone immigration and facilitating access to permanent residency.

We are issuing five recommendations. First, we recommend adding human resources in study permit processing offices, especially in Dakar, Senegal.

Second, a direct stream should be established for studies, which would help accelerate the processing of study permit applications filed by people from specific countries. That should be provided everywhere, and not only in Senegal and Morocco.

Third, we recommend access to existing federal settlement services for temporary residents—in other words, holders of study and work permits.

Fourth, investment should be made in francophone international students, the quotas of acceptance for applications from francophone countries should be increased, and steps likely to facilitate the acquisition of permanent residency should be created.

Fifth, francophone quotas should be implemented in pilot immigration projects for rural and northern communities to satisfy the needs in terms of bilingual qualified workers and maintain the current demographic weight of francophones.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Thanks to all the witnesses for their opening remarks.

We will now move to the first round of questioning, and we will start with Ms. Dancho.