Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 7th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting 34 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Today we continue our study on application backlogs and processing times.

I would like to welcome our witnesses for our first panel. Thanks to all the witnesses for appearing before the committee and for joining us today.

We are joined today by Mr. Leblanc, president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.

We are also joined by LUSO Community Services, represented by Irena Sompaseuth, settlement services manager.

Our third witness for today is the Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association, represented by the president, Stéphanie Valois, and Ms. Krishna Gagné, lawyer and vice-president for economic affairs.

Once again, welcome. Each of you will have five minutes for your opening remarks, and then we will go into the rounds of questioning.

Yes, Madam Clerk.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Stephanie Bond]

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe has his hand up in the room.

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

I'll try to be very brief, Madam Chair.

I have two things to say. First, I'd like to ensure that the witnesses did the preliminary sound check on their equipment, as provided under the committee's routine motion.

Has that been done?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, the clerk has told me those have been done.

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

That's great. We're working well here.

I don't want to waste too much of our witnesses' time, but I briefly want to introduce a motion that all members of the committee have already received.

The motion reads as follows:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(b), the Committee undertake a study as soon as possible on the conditions faced by asylum-seekers using the irregular administrative path maintained by the Safe Third Country Agreement; that the Committee consider the safety, security and health of people and families of migrants who cross the Canada–United States border at Roxham Road in particular; that the Committee hold no less than five meetings to hear witnesses; and that it report its findings and recommendations to the House.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe has moved a motion.

Before we continue, I want to inform all the members that we have scheduled a subcommittee meeting for Tuesday, October 18. Just for everyone's information, when we are in our subcommittee meeting, we can schedule with regard to which study needs to be done when.

Ms. Kwan, go ahead.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I support the intent of the motion. However, I'd like to make the following amendment to the motion. I'd like to change the five meetings to three meetings, and then add a clause, which is our standard clause, to say that the committee report its findings to the House and that pursuant to Standing Order 109, the government table a comprehensive response thereto. I would really like to hear the government's response to it.

Madam Chair, I'll have my staff send the amendment to the clerk for distribution.

To be clear, for the clerk, the changes will then mean that we'll strike out the word “five” and change it to “three”. It would read, “the committee hold no less than three meetings to hear witnesses”. Then we strike out the word “and” and continue with “that”, and then add the words “the committee”. We strike out the word “it”, so it would read, “the committee report its findings”. We strike out the words “and recommendations”, so it would read “report its findings to the House”, and then we add the phrase “and that pursuant to Standing Order 109, the government table a comprehensive response thereto.”

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

Ms. Kwan has moved an amendment, so we have an amendment on the floor.

I want to apologize to all of the witnesses for the delay in starting their opening remarks. A member has moved a motion, and then another member has moved an amendment. We have to deal with these before we go into opening remarks from you, so I'd ask for your patience for a little bit longer. Thank you.

Mrs. Lalonde, go ahead.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

I'm sorry, Madam Chair, but can I have clarification? Did Ms. Kwan say “no more than three” or “no less than three”? I didn't understand clearly. I want to be sure of the language she is proposing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Mrs. Lalonde.

Ms. Kwan, could you please clarify Mrs. Lalonde's question?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sure. It should be “no more than three”. I don't know if I misspoke or not. I apologize if I did.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

The amendment is “no more than three”.

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

That's good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Is there any further discussion on the amendment moved by Ms. Kwan?

Okay, we can go to a vote on the amendment.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

We have the motion by Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe as amended by Ms. Kwan.

Ms. Kwan, go ahead.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

When we finish this motion, I have another motion that I would like to move.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

Is there any further discussion on this motion as amended?

(Motion as amended agreed to)

Thank you.

Ms. Kwan, go ahead.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to move the following motion:

That the committee study the government's response to the final report of the Special Committee on Afghanistan entitled “Honouring Canada's Legacy in Afghanistan: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis and Helping People Reach Safety”, following the tabling of the report; that the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Minister of National Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, and their officials, with two hours allotted for each department, to provide an update on which of the 37 recommendations related to their portfolio they have acted on and/or its progress and which they will not implement with an explanation; and that the committee report its findings to the House.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mrs. Lalonde, go ahead.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

I want to say thank you very much to the member, Ms. Kwan, for the notice of motion she's bringing forward. But as we are seeing witnesses waiting for us to hear them and to continue the great work of the study that we are doing, I would move to adjourn debate.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That's a clear message.

Thank you for that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We have a motion to adjourn the debate.

(Motion negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)

We have the motion by Ms. Kwan on the floor.

Is there any discussion?

Mrs. Lalonde, go ahead.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

First, I'd really like to apologize to all the witnesses here. We think it's very important to hear their presentations and comments. They're here because we believe our Parliament should function properly. The witnesses are here and they're listening to us.

I must unfortunately move an amendment to my colleague's motion, and I would like us to be able to debate it now.

Once again, witnesses, please excuse us, but we must deal with this technical detail.

On the amendment that I would like to propose.... This is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, and there was a special committee. That special committee, as I understand it, was over six months, and many of our current members on this particular committee were on this special committee.

When you think about Afghanistan and the circumstances and the initiatives that were raised, it is heartbreaking. We are all collectively extremely sensitive on this issue. There are measures that were put in place just yesterday. The government tabled its response to the report that was presented by the Special Committee on Afghanistan, entitled “Honouring Canada's Legacy in Afghanistan”. I hope that we will have the time to read it over the course of the next week, as we are in our constituencies, and that we'll have a chance to see the government's response.

For that matter, what I would like to propose, possibly as an amendment—and I hope my colleagues will support it—is that after “following the tabling of the report”, it would say, “that the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Justice, with one hour allocated for each”.

Give me a second, Madam Chair. I'm looking at my notes. I just want to make sure I say it properly for our analysts. The way it would work is this: “that the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Justice, and their officials, with one hour allocated for each department, to provide an update on which of the 37 recommendations”. The rest would stay the same.

I would like to remove some of those ministers. I think as we are in immigration, we would see the IRCC. I know there's a particular interest from my colleagues, who sort of made their own amendment, that the Minister of Justice come.

I would like to propose those friendly amendments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Can you please provide that in both official languages?

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

I will certainly do that. We can suspend, and that would be forwarded to the attention of the clerk.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Ms. Kwan, go ahead.