Evidence of meeting #42 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 safe.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Has IRCC ever been tasked to arrange for similar trips for the current minister?
1:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Not to my knowledge, no.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
In 2017, there was a dramatic increase in people walking across the border to claim asylum, and the Liberal government dispatched Mr. Pablo Rodriguez and Mr. Emmanuel Dubourg to the United States to communicate to various communities about respecting Canada's asylum system. Are you aware of these past efforts?
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
I believe these efforts were helpful in encouraging people not to walk across the border to enter Canada. Can you please table with this committee any memos, documents and reports that IRCC conducted after these trips to determine if they were successful? Do you know if they reduced the flow?
1:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We can take a look at the data from the flows after visits to see whether or not there are any changes or shifts that would be noteworthy.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
The numbers of people crossing into Canada are higher today than they were back in 2017. To date, has anyone in IRCC been asked to help arrange similar trips for MPs or other officials to discourage this or to encourage people not to walk across the border to claim asylum?
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We have not been asked to arrange such trips.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
The numbers of people, though, have increased. Is that correct?
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The numbers of people have increased, absolutely.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Would your estimate for this year be the 50,000 that we've heard of at Roxham Road?
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
From January to September, irregular crossings in this country have been at about 27,500. The total from January to September is 62,000, and we are anticipating that our projections for the full year of both regular and irregular would be between 84,000 and 94,000. That's sort of the projection at this point.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
In 2017, IRCC was specifically monitoring foreign press and other misinformation circulating about Canada's asylum system, which was contributing to the rise of people walking across the border. Is IRCC currently monitoring what is circulating in various media outlets or online about Canada's asylum system?
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I think as part of our regular media monitoring we look at all data and information that could be useful to the department, including any information on asylum.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Can you please table that with the committee, all relevant information that IRCC has collected?
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Madam Chair, I just wonder if I could get a response on the tabling of that information.
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I guess I'm not quite sure exactly what we would table in terms of all of our media relations activities and our reports. I'm not quite sure exactly what was requested.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Well, it's just the monitoring of what's being circulated in the various media outlets or online, if you are following it, as I think you indicated you were. I just wanted to know if we could have copies of that tabled for this committee.
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, I think we can table.... I'll take a look. I'll take a look at the media relations reports and see what's relevant to the question—absolutely.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you.
We will now proceed to Mr. Dhaliwal.
Mr. Dhaliwal, you will have six minutes for your round of questioning. Please begin. The floor is yours.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
Thank you.
Ms. Fox, welcome to this new portfolio. It's not an easy file. I have dealt with immigration for the last 20 years, and I can tell you right now that this is one of the most difficult files. Good luck with this, and the very best to you.
I will carry on with my friend Larry's questions on the safe third country agreement. Is there anything you haven't added that you wanted to add? I'm open to comments and discussions about modernizing this agreement.
1:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thank you for the question.
It is indeed a very complex organization. I look forward to working with the team here and others.
The objective of the Government of Canada in working with the United States on the safe third country agreement is really to find a system that is compassionate, fair and a good way to handle asylum claims. In our bilateral conversations with the United States, we are working toward an orderly process for us to work together to ensure that the processing of asylum claims along our shared border is done in a humane way. That's one of the important parts of why it's integral for us to be working in lockstep with the United States.