Evidence of meeting #21 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 families.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kerry-Lynne Findlay Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
All right.
In Ukraine, Afghans who were evacuated there were not offered any accommodations. In Pakistan, accommodations were offered to only a select group. We understand it's very hard to access. You mentioned the difficulty with accommodations. Has Canada addressed the accommodation issue in Pakistan that is plaguing this response?
Former Afghan Interpreter, As an Individual
Basically, what happened is that for those who made it to Pakistan, a few select people were accommodated. However, the majority of the people who made it to Pakistan have been left on their own, without any accommodation offered by the IOM or any other resources.
We have brought this issue to the IRCC's attention. We've been told that the International Organization for Migration will contact the applicant once the applicant passes eligibility in all the other criteria, but some of the families have already cleared those criteria, and it's been weeks since we have received any notification from the IRCC or the IOM for accommodation in Pakistan.
Conservative
Kerry-Lynne Findlay Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
That's what I had understood, that it's very hard to access.
Prior to the explosion at Karzai airport on August 26, 2021, IRCC was issuing G numbers, and in fact issued some safe travel letters validating the names identified as Canadian citizens who had been granted visas to enter Canada. My understanding is that a lot of the holders of these documents had to wade through the sewage trench that circled the airport.
Is it correct that there was no arrangement made by Canada for perimeter defence at the airport or a manned gate to accept people to get through? Is that correct?
Former Afghan Interpreter, As an Individual
I think it is correct. They used the military at the front gate when the Canadian applicants were going there to show their documents. There was no presence of the Canadian military to escort them inside, so they were left out of help. More than 300 or 400 people reached the front gate, but they were unable to board the flight because of a lack of communication and support.
Conservative
Kerry-Lynne Findlay Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
My understanding is that there are currently 34 embassies and one consulate open in Kabul. Has the government advised you that they have created any kind of agreement to do biometrics at any one of them to satisfy their requirements?
Former Afghan Interpreter, As an Individual
They say that they do not want to do biometrics in Kabul since the Canadian government does not have any recognition of the Taliban, so they do not accept that yet.
Conservative
Conservative
Kerry-Lynne Findlay Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
I'll just say that our hearts and prayers are with you. What your families are going through is incredible, and we just hope that there will be some movement that comes out of these committee hearings. Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you, Ms. Findlay.
We will now proceed to Ms. Kayabaga. Ms. Kayabaga, you will have five minutes.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to start by also thanking all of our witnesses who have made time to be here today.
I'm going to start with Kareem. Thank you for coming here and testifying.
I heard you talk about the backlog on the express visa. Obviously, you work in this field and you're aware of what's happening. There have also been a record number of admissions.
Do you think that the higher number of demands eventually causes backlogs? What would you suggest the government do to respond to that higher demand?
Director of Policy, CanadaVisa
There certainly is a higher demand to immigrate to Canada. It's a good thing that all these people want to come here.
At the same time, the government has significant tools at its disposal to manage the demand. To give you an example, I believe you're referring to express entry. Express entry was launched in 2015 to give the government the ability to throttle the number of applications that were being submitted, because for you to submit your application, you needed to receive an invitation from the government.
What happened at the start of the pandemic was that even though there were shelter-in-place restrictions that resulted in staff working from home, the government continued to issue invitations. Then, at a certain point, it realized it couldn't process all these applications. This resulted in the implementation of a pause in the federal skilled worker program, effective December 2020. This has been by far the number one pathway of skilled immigrants coming to Canada since it was launched in 1967.
In early 2021, the government increased the number of invitations for Canadian experience class candidates to transition more people within the country to PR. In September of last year, they realized they couldn't process all these applications either, so they paused that program as well.
With a bit more foresight and planning at the start of the pandemic, we could have avoided this situation. What it's ultimately resulting in is more work for the department, because what's happening is that all these people who are in Canada waiting for CEC draws to resume are losing their status and are required to submit new applications to IRCC, which is increasing the backlog.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
I agree with you that better planning would help, but what other things could the government look at to make sure that they're prepared if they want to relieve a certain stream versus another? Is that even useful? What other tools would you say the government should be looking at?
Director of Policy, CanadaVisa
We do it now with certain programs. For instance, although it's not ideal, with the parents and grandparents program, in the past we would have a cap. People would go ahead and submit their applications, and once the cap was achieved, the government would close the program for the year.
It's not a perfect system, but it's a system that the government felt was necessary because, in a given year, there are 200,000 potential sponsors in Canada who want to bring their parents and grandparents in. If we were to go with a system of all 200,000 submitting their applications, you would have a backlog in each single year that would take the government 10 years to process.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
I'm going to go to Madame Veronis quickly on francophone immigration.
We are currently making every effort to increase francophone immigration.
What other tools could be used? What more can we do to continue to increase francophone immigration to Canada, but especially outside Quebec? You're a Franco-Ontarian; I personally live in London, where there are francophones.
How can we do all that and make sure that people know they can live outside Quebec?
Associate professor and research chair in Immigration and Franco-Ontarian communities, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
In the case of francophone immigration, we could think about decentralizing the system. This could be done through a more collaborative process involving other institutions.
I think that by facilitating francophone immigration, we can therefore help unclog other categories.
We could unclog the express entry and the other streams that are clogged, because now they're all in the same pool.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Your time is up.
We will now proceed to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe for two and a half minutes. Please begin.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I already had a great many questions to ask, but Ms. Veronis' intervention caught my attention.
Basically, Ms. Veronis, you suggest that we use a different, separate system for francophones. I imagine that your proposal relates more to francophone immigration outside Quebec. In fact, you suggest that Quebec repatriate more immigration programs so that it can manage that on its own. So it would be a different system in the case of francophones.
Do I understand correctly?
Associate professor and research chair in Immigration and Franco-Ontarian communities, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I'm not sure of the details in terms of implementation.
Quebec manages its own system. I'm talking about francophone immigration in a minority context, so outside Quebec. Instead of having a francophone subcategory in, for example, the express entry stream or the Canadian experience class, there should be a separate system that operates differently and according to other criteria, other procedures. I don't know if it's feasible, but perhaps—
Associate professor and research chair in Immigration and Franco-Ontarian communities, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
It is not ideal, but it could be facilitated, decentralized and accelerated.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
That could also have an effect on the time frame.
I will now turn to you, Mr. El‑Assal. In your opinion, if Quebec were to repatriate programs such as the temporary foreign worker program, the scholarship program for international students and the permanent resident program, would that impact current delays?
Director of Policy, CanadaVisa
By “repatriate”, do you mean they would have authority over admissibility as well?