Evidence of meeting #114 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 students.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Roula Eatrides Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
We don't actually track information that way at the IRB. You'd have to ask the IRCC. With the way the asylum process works, we get claimant referrals from the IRCC and the CBSA, so they would have a list of who claimed from that stream.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
Ms. May, is that something else you could provide to us when you are providing other documents?
Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I believe the department could provide more information on that to the committee.
November 7th, 2024 / 11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
I have some follow-up questions. Have you seen an increase in workload for your department since the recent November 1 changes to the international student program were made by the minister? Have you seen an increase in referrals to your department?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
We're on track this year to having over 200,000 referrals. From April 1 to March 31 is our fiscal year and it's about 200,000, so it's been consistently high throughout the year.
In terms of referrals, eligibility processing happens at the front end before a claim is referred to us, so anecdotally, we don't have a marked increase. We have just had a significant volume for the past year.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
Is that a normal significant volume that you may have seen in previous years, or have you just seen that spike this year?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
In the past couple of years, we've seen a significant increase. During the pandemic, with the border closure, we saw a decrease.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
Did you agree with the Minister of Immigration when he said that there has been an increase in fraud, abuse and fake claims in the asylum program? Have you seen that in your department?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
We look at every claim as a claim.
In terms of how we look at integrity issues, there are a couple of safeguards in the system. The minister can intervene on a claim if they feel there's an integrity issue. We have the power to send red letters, which signify that there might be an integrity risk on a file.
As an independent tribunal, we look at every file individually on its merits.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
What is the average wait time for a case to be processed at the RPD, from it being referred to you to you making a decision?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
Currently, it's 14 months. We're funded for about 60,000 finalizations this year. However, with the intake right now at over 200,000 claims, the wait time for a claim coming in now will be about 44 months.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
That's a big number—44 months. Do you expect this to keep on growing?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
Yes, if intake keeps growing. About 70% of our inventory is about a year old, or less than a year.
Conservative
Arpan Khanna Conservative Oxford, ON
When was it last this high? Is this the first time you're seeing this in our country?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
This is the highest volume the IRB has had.
Conservative
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the officials for coming today.
My first question is for the IRCC.
In your communications with the provinces and territories, have they addressed any plans they may have to house the international students being admitted by the designated learning institutions they are responsible for regulating, to ensure they are not exploited by unscrupulous employers paying them under the table or providing unsafe working conditions?
Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The causes of the housing supply gap in Canada are many, and international students are among the cohort most affected by inadequate housing, or lack of access to housing. With the way the cap was designed, the federal government is allocating a number of spaces to provinces and territories, which they can then distribute to learning institutions.
There are factors that provinces can consider when making the decision about which schools should receive a certain number of spaces, like community conditions, the availability of housing and the degree to which institutions can provide housing to students. There is latitude for the provinces to consider that and make thoughtful decisions about how to distribute the spaces available under the cap.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
What about your communications with the educational institutions? Have the educational institutions, specifically private colleges, recognized the need to ensure there is adequate, safe and suitable housing for the number of students they are asking to admit? Also, have they outlined plans to ensure that housing will be available for everyone they admit into their institutions?
Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I think it's incumbent on institutions to recruit at a level that matches their ability to provide housing and to consider what the availability of housing is within the community. It's incumbent on institutions to moderate their recruitment based on those factors.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
We have heard about a lot of issues. Are you asking the provinces to ask these questions of the educational institutions? At the end of the day, provinces are responsible for that. Are you having any communications with educational institutions to ask for that?
Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Absolutely. We're in continual dialogue with provinces and territories. Not a day goes by that my team and I are not in touch with our provincial and territorial counterparts. We host a table every week where we spend an hour working through issues, problem-solving and meeting bilaterally. One of the issues discussed in that forum is housing, along with many other issues related to student vulnerability and the effective administration of the program.
We have similar conversations with national education associations. We have direct communication with the learning institutions. These themes also emerge in our conversations in those meetings.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
Specifically with regard to the province of Ontario, which has seen a substantial increase in international student admissions, particularly at private colleges, has the province shared any plans to address these substantial increases and fulfill its jurisdictional requirement to ensure these are all legitimate institutions providing a quality education and safe learning environment to students? They are charging very high fees too.
Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Ontario is part of the multilateral table that we convene. We work with the education ministry and the immigration ministry in Ontario. We have bilateral conversations on a regular basis with Ontario.
I would say that those conversations are constructive. There's not always agreement on the way forward or on all aspects every day, but it is a productive conversation that we are having at officials levels.
