Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 1st, 2022

[Larissa Bezo]

I'm happy to jump in.

There are some very concrete, operational elements that could be introduced to address some of the concerns that you raised about perceived barriers or perceived systemic challenges.

One simple way of assessing if there are systemic problems in some of those visa offices and some of the country samples that you cited is to have IRCC analysts from other regions complete a blind review of a sample of applications that have been either favourably or unfavourably processed, to ensure that there's concordance on the findings.

Another option could be to initiate a pilot, where you enable candidates of high rejection regions—even thinking about colleagues in francophone Africa—to appeal decisions where there are obvious errors of fact. There are instances when scholarship holders are told that they lack the financial resources to pay for their stay. That's one example. Simply requiring candidates to resubmit their applications is not enough.

Another option would be regularly having IRCC analysts from across a number of regions review identical cases and compare outcomes. If there is no consensus on the result, this highlights that there is a need for new types of training on intercultural confidence and perhaps other areas of processing where discretion is factored into these decisions.

These are very simple examples, but ways in which we can really move some of this forward in constructive ways.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Mr. Brown Mastropaolo.

[Francis Brown Mastropaolo]

If I may, I would like to add to that answer.

I completely agree with Ms. Bezo. Canada receives a lot of applications; in fact, the number is increasing. So does IRCC have the resources they need or are the immigration officers overwhelmed and therefore straying from their mandate? That question needs to be asked.

I think an independent cross-check mechanism should be seriously considered, in order to ensure that the process is fair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have one minute left.

[Francis Brown Mastropaolo]

Finally, there is also the issue of training. We have to make sure that the officers understand where these students are and what type of system they are in. This is to avoid the pitfalls that we have seen in francophone Africa, but also in Bangladesh, in Pakistan and in other countries.

[Paul Davidson]

I'll quickly jump in here. I know the time is short.

I want to concur with my colleague witnesses.

I also want to express thanks for the recognition of what the Government of Canada has done through the pandemic, because Canada has really done an extraordinary job against some [Technical difficulty—Editor] circumstances. The fact that our international pathways have remained open is almost unique in the world. It's taken a lot of work from the sector, from provinces, from public health authorities and from the federal government to iterate in real time.

Let's not lose sight of the good work that's being done, but let's set our sights even higher going forward.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

On the other hand, universities have generated a great deal of revenue from the students.

Aside from—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

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

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, but I have to keep everyone on time.

Thank you to our witnesses for appearing before the committee today.

If there is something you would like to bring to the committee's notice and you were not able to discuss it today, you can always send written submissions to the clerk of the committee. Those submissions can be considered by the members when we go through the report.

Before we adjourn, there is a quick question from Ms. Kwan.

Go ahead, Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Based on the presentations from the witnesses and the nature of our study, I think it would be very helpful if the clerk or the analysts could reach out to IRCC and to the ministry to obtain some statistics and the breakdown of the rejection rates as it relates to our study. I think it would be very useful for us to have that information for consideration as we move forward.

We received some statistics from individual presenters but I think we should have a holistic picture from IRCC. And since Ms. Bezo used the date 2016 in terms of the 500,000 rejection rates I think that maybe we can start with data starting from 2016 and the rejection rates of the breakdown of the countries and where those rejection rates are and then, specifically related to Quebec, how many of those are in Quebec.

I think that would really help us as we move forward with this study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

We'll go quickly to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

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

Let me say that the Bloc Québécois is always ready to help our friends from other parties.

In fact, the written answers we received to our questions on the Order Paper on this topic include those statistics. So I will gladly share them with my colleagues on the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thanks, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, for your offer.

Mr. Ali.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity.

I just wanted to raise one concern. When a witness is talking I think we should have a better way of informing them, rather than cutting them off. Maybe we can have a watch or something that indicates how many minutes are left. I'll leave it at that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I can give a warning to everyone. I'll have some two-minute, one-minute, 30-second cards to show everyone.

Thank you, everyone.

On Ms. Kwan's suggestion, I will work with the clerk to see what data we can get from the department. Whatever information we get, we will circulate it among the members.

To our witnesses, thank you for appearing before the committee and for giving your input in regard to the study we have started.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adjourn the meeting?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

The meeting is adjourned.