Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 25th, 2024

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

We have lots of time, Minister. What are the numbers?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Can we ask the chair [Inaudible—Editor]?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

We still have two minutes in the round.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

We'll look in levels plan.

Harpreet, if you have that, feel free to share, or we can actually table those numbers.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

It's okay. Just give me the answer.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

The target for 2025 is 673,650. For 2026, it's 516,600. In 2027, it's 543,000 permits.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

If you do the math, we're expecting probably three million people, both permanent and temporary residents, to come to Canada in the next three years. Is that correct?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Again, you need to be able to look at what the net population increase is for that period of time. For the next two years, it'll be reductions, with an increase over the year after that.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Last week, your officials confirmed to us that you're seeing skyrocketing refugee asylum claims, with a wait time of 44 months for some of them.

What are you doing to bring those numbers down in terms of wait times and to make sure that these cases are heard as soon as possible?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

If you look in the last budgetary exercise, you'll see that we put in a substantial amount of money in to make sure that the IRB could process more volume. It is an independent body, so there's only so much pressure we can exert on it. It does a great job, but with the volume that we're seeing, it is admittedly heavily charged with the number of cases it's seeing.

I put forth a package—and you would know this, because your party rejected it—in the last budgetary exercise to reform the asylum system, but you all sat there, smiled and shot it down, with the Bloc and the NDP.

I plan to put forward more measures. I want to reform the system. It's not working the way it should. That's a function of volume, but also a function of efficiency. The growing claims that we now see inland are not unexpected. They're ones we saw with people having increasingly fewer hopes to stay in Canada and being counselled to file, I think unjustly, asylum claims when they shouldn't have the ability to do so.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much.

We will go to MP Ali for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister and your team, for the great work you have been doing since you have taken this portfolio. I know it's really tough, but you have been doing a great job.

Last week I had a meeting with a group of international students who came to Canada on the TR to PR program and qualified to the PR program prior to the paths in the program. They told me that they are being affected by the 50 additional points given to LMIA applicants.

Could you share how reforms to programs like the post-graduation work permit program and temporary foreign workers program align with our immigration goals?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Thank you, Shafqat.

I can't speak to individual cases. Thank you for meeting with people who are in challenging positions.

What we're trying to do with this levels plan—and it is something that became immediately obvious to me when we saw the potential growth in, for example, international students, if we hadn't put a cap in—is align a number of competing realities.

The fact is that we could not, even in our most ambitious iteration of any plan, have enough space to fully absorb everyone who was here temporarily, nor is everyone entitled to do that. At the same time, with this levels plan, we're reducing the number of people becoming permanent residents for all the reasons that I've spoken about, while focusing on the domestic labour pool that is here.

There's work that needs to be done in our point system. I'm not going to speak too much at length about it because there are many facets to this. Some remain to be analyzed. Clearly, 50 points for an LMIA creates value in something that shouldn't be given value in that context and creates the incentive for less than good behaviour, I would say, to be polite.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Minister, as you know, we have had numerous conversations at this committee regarding Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy. Our government invested $74.6 million to enhance Canada's visa processing capacity in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Manila and Islamabad. The first three of those centres have received their intended investments and achieved improvements, but Islamabad has not.

I'm constantly hearing from my constituents in Brampton Centre and from Canadians of Pakistani origin across the country about the visa processing situation in Islamabad.

Since the funding was made available, I've asked previous ministers, I've asked you, I've asked deputy ministers and I've asked other officials about this on numerous occasions at this committee, including emails and speaking face-to-face. At your last appearance at this committee, you mentioned that IRCC officials were waiting for their visas from the Pakistani government and that they expected to start their work in Islamabad during the summer of 2024. A community member told me that IRCC has not started any service from Islamabad yet.

Could you update this committee about the progress IRCC has made on this issue, please?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Thank you, MP Ali. I'd say a couple of things.

First, the Indo-Pacific strategy is extremely important in this context. Islamabad is a part of this in the context of a service delivery model that is increasingly more global, meaning it's less reliant on in-person activity on the ground. That's not to say it isn't indispensable, but it is important.

As I told you before, making sure there is a functioning office in Islamabad is key. We had some visa challenges that you are well aware of, but the update is that we currently have three people on the ground and we have additional people who contribute to a functioning office. That is news on the comment that you made: They are working, to the best of my knowledge, on the ground, and have been bolstered by a number of three.

I'm not juxtaposing this unfairly when I say I also realize the challenges we are facing in India. We are down to three or four personnel, given the context.

That's just to give you some form of comparison.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, MP Ali.

We will now go to MP Brunelle-Duceppe for two and a half minutes.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, in August 2021, your government signed a five-year rental contract with Importations Guay ltée, which is owned by Pierre Guay, who is incidentally a Liberal and Conservative donor. It concerns two previous leases and two existing properties on Roxham Road. The contract was valid for the period from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2027.

Did that contract terminate when Roxham Road shut down on March 25, 2023?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

First of all, I'm not familiar with that case.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I imagine that's good news.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

However, I should clarify one point for you, and my team may be able to update you on the subject. We looked at the leases, but I don't have any information to hand regarding that contract.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Rental contracts concerning Roxham Road were signed regarding leases, lands and building renovations. Those contracts will expire in 2027. Logically, when you sign that kind of contract, you add a clause providing that it will become null and void in the event of a closure. In this instance, we're talking about the closing of Roxham Road.

This is a simple question. Did the contracts contain a similar clause? If one wasn't included, would you please tell us the amounts that have been paid out since Roxham Road was closed and the amounts that are still payable until the end of the contract? Have the contracts become null and void or not?

It should be quite easy to answer that question. The year is 2024, and this isn't the first time these questions have been raised. If your department doesn't know the answer, maybe someone in the department didn't do his job.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

We can verify that information and get back to you at a later date. I don't have it to hand for the moment. It's also possible that the Canada Border Service Agency has that information. We'll look into it.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I'd like you to confirm for me that you will forward that information to the committee.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

We'll look into it and forward the information we have to you.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I hope you do because it's in the public domain.

I asked departmental representatives of yours about postgraduate work permits the other day, and I was stunned to learn that they didn't know how many international students were enrolled in Quebec's CEGEP system.

I even got the impression that your officials weren't necessarily aware that Quebec's education system is different from that in the rest of Canada. Shouldn't you train your own officials and explain to them that there's a difference between Quebec's education system and the one in the rest of Canada?

Is it normal for them not to know the number of international students in the CEGEP system? If you ask the average person in Quebec, everyone knows what a CEGEP is. How is it that no one in Ottawa knows?