Evidence of meeting #104 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was kongers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
We're not all experts. I will leave it to the officials to respond.
Madam Kwan, please go ahead.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm just trying to get clarity here with respect to that. Just to be clear, the request for that data was made on May 27, so by next Monday it will have been two weeks—not just a couple of days—for this data to be made available for this committee. It's the same data that we requested be sent to our committee. It's been two weeks, and time is of the essence here.
Am I hearing, then, on the unanimous consent motion that you asked committee members about, that Mr. Chiang is voting no, or is there unanimous consent? I'm just not clear.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
No, nobody's voting “no” yet. It's only debate right now.
Now, Madam Kwan, the members have questions to ask the officials, and that is fully appropriate. As I said, I'm giving this additional time to discuss it. There's no vote, and no one has said that they don't support it. They were just asking the question to make sure that the officials have the appropriate time.
Every member has the right, as I said, and I have not called the vote yet.
Go ahead, Madam Dzerowicz.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Mr. Chair, can I just finish? I just wanted that clarity on where we're at with respect to that vote, so thank you for clarifying. I very much appreciate that.
I want to have a quick response from the officials with respect to potential data that might compromise individual privacy, such as names and so on. I want to reiterate that the undertaking is about the larger data number and not about the individuals, their names or their specific case in terms of processing.
It is for the government to advise this committee, based on the immigration levels plan of this year under the H and C category of 18,500—next year it is 8,000, and the following year is also 8,000—how they're going to target the various different needs of the special immigration measures and other H and C needs in the global community that IRCC is contemplating and trying to address as well as the protected-persons category.
These are broad numbers, particularly what those targets are for each of those different countries or regions, so that we may know how these numbers will measure up in terms of processing.
I just want to be clear that there's no personal information here.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
In the debate, Mr. Chair, I was just going to ask officials how much time they felt they needed, whether they felt they needed one extra week or a couple of extra days. I wanted to see where they were at.
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We're aware of the request, and I believe that it's being acted on as expeditiously as possible. I just can't tell you exactly that it will be ready on Monday, but I will tell you that we're working on it, and it will be ready as soon as possible.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
That will be appropriate, Mr. McNamee, if I see consensus in the committee.
Mr. McNamee, what do you feel? Whatever you feel confident in, just give the answer. If I need to go to a vote, then I will. If I see the consensus in the committee, then that will work.
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I think in a week's time it would be possible to produce it or to finalize whatever product we are in the process of producing, because the request has been in place now for a while, as Ms. Kwan has indicated.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Okay, Madam Kwan and other other members, I think it's appropriate. I see heads nodding, so we'll give the IRCC time to produce the requested information by next Wednesday.
Thank you very much, Madam Kwan. Your time has long been up, so we will go to—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
It's approved—unanimously agreed.
We have Mr. Kmiec for five minutes.
Please go ahead.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Thanks, Chair.
Mr. McNamee, at the beginning here, we were debating this PR card. There is a person who has now corresponded with the committee saying that she's affected by it. She gave an example, so that's the example I'm using.
At the previous committee on the Canadian PR card, it appears as “GBN”. That's how the Hong Kong government, the Beijing government, is identifying people who came to Canada on a BNO passport. We're told now that these are ICAO rules. Are these standards or recommended practices?
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I will ask Ms. Mascoll to take that question.
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The ICAO does have a standard for machine-readable travel documents. Contained within there, the country code for British nationals overseas is GBN.
Conservative
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It's a standard.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
It's a standard. There are differences between the two. One is like a recommended thing to do. The other one is like an obligation to do it, because we're a member of the ICAO.
In all the discussion here, since you are aware of this issue for certain Hong Kongers who've entered Canada and who become permanent residents—there will be more of them, as thousands more continue to apply for PR and eventually, after all the delays, will get it—have you communicated with the ICAO?
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm not aware of whether we've communicated with the ICAO on this particular issue.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Is it that your branch in the department has not, or are you just unaware of whether anyone in government has communicated to the ICAO that the Hong Kong administration is using Canadian PR cards to identify people they want to oppress transnationally because they're Hong Kongers who are fleeing that country and obtaining permanent residency in Canada?
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm not aware of whether anyone in the Government of Canada has raised that issue with ICAO.
Conservative
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm not aware of who would be leading that, so at this time I can't comment on why or why not it hasn't been raised.