Evidence of meeting #45 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 program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes. I did some research after we discussed it.
Before the agreement came into effect in 2004, if an individual showed up at Canadian customs, they would not be turned back to the United States. They would be accepted and could submit their asylum claim.
Bloc
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That's right.
Before the agreement came into effect, a third of all asylum seekers came from the United States. Since the agreement came into effect, it only applies to people who show up at official checkpoints in Canada and the United States, and not to those who cross the border in an irregular manner. if an individual shows up at an official checkpoint, they can be told to return to the United States, because it is a safe country.
What we are trying to address now is the Roxham Road issue, because it's beyond the scope of the current agreement.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you.
We will now proceed to Ms. Kwan.
Ms. Kwan, you will have six minutes. Please begin.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the minister and his officials for coming to the committee.
My first question for the minister relates to the Hong Kong lifeboat scheme. Approximately 12,000 individuals have come to Canada and applied under that scheme, and 6,487 people were approved as of October 2021. Only 45 had permanent resident status approved by January 2022. According to research from Community Family Services of Ontario, 22% of the open work permit applicants graduated in 2016 or 2017, making them ineligible for PR under the scheme. By the time they complete their PR requirements, the degree, the limitation of five years will be over.
As the minister can see, there remain substantial barriers for Hong Kongers to access the open work permit scheme. It's set to expire on February 7, 2023. No replacement has yet been announced.
My question for the minister is this: Will he eliminate the five-year rule to make the lifeboat scheme actually workable for Hong Kongers? Second, will he extend the program?
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Thanks very much.
The program you referred to has provided some unique benefits to allow people from Hong Kong to come to Canada. I have no reason to question the numbers you've cited. We wanted to make sure we had a program that we could implement. I think having some objective criteria on the timelines that we could work with to determine eligibility would have been important at the time. Of course, this was before my tenure in the position.
We have not made a decision to formally extend the program at this stage. I'd be happy to follow up with further conversations, if you wish.
I would point out as well that access to Canada for people from Hong Kong was made easy some years ago with the expansion of the eTA program to allow people to travel here more quickly. It's different from a permanent residency stream, I'll acknowledge.
To answer your question, I think there has been some real utility to the program, but we have not made a formal decision on what will happen after the expiry of the existing program.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you for that.
I'd love to engage further with the minister on this, about the extension of the program but also the five-year rule. The current situation in Hong Kong has not actually improved. In fact, if anything, it has worsened. Consequently, a lot of these students, if they do not make PR here, will be sent back and will be faced with persecution. These are real issues. I'd love to work with the minister on that to see if we can find a path forward.
I want to bring another situation to the minister's attention. There's a group of 12 migrant workers, mostly women, in Niagara Falls who filed for a vulnerable workers open work permit on November 9. They're subject to harassment, racism and horrible things by the employer. According to the IRCC website, once the application is received, the worker will be contacted by IRCC within five business days. For this group of workers, it has been almost a month. There has been no contact from IRCC whatsoever.
Luckily, they are being housed by the union, by UFCW. This situation was brought to their attention. The union is paying for their accommodations so that they can actually be in a safe environment. The union is ready and willing to line them up with employment. They have good employers who are ready to hire them, but they need that open work permit.
Minister, I can put UFCW in contact with the officials to try to get this sorted out. I don't know why it has taken them more than a month when the standard is five days.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
First of all, thank you for raising this with me. I was not familiar with the individual details of this case. We'll discuss it with our officials immediately at the end of this meeting.
For what it's worth, my view on the temporary foreign worker program is that to maintain the social licence to have this program, we cannot allow employers to abuse workers. We need to provide an opportunity for people to seek alternative employment arrangements if they're in an abusive situation.
I will undertake to have this conversation immediately when this meeting ends and report back to you at my earliest opportunity.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I would appreciate that very much. These workers want to work, and they should not be subject to abuse. They've been waiting and waiting. Time is not on their side.
With regard to delays in processing for TRVs and study permits, the government website indicates that the processing time is 12 weeks, and yet our office and my colleague's office have been experiencing extraordinary delays in processing TRV and study permit applications. This is especially the case for students or individuals from Africa and Iran.
One student from Iran had to wait for over a year. They are still on track to miss yet another semester next year for their study permit, and there has been no word. No matter how we've tried to phone the urgent case line and phone the inquiry line, zero information can be provided. I don't know how this can be. It's the same thing for African students. One student we are aware of has been waiting for seven months.
I don't know if there are internal issues, or if it's the systemic racism that's been exposed within IRCC with respect to the Pollara report, or what is going on. How is it that cases, particularly from Africa and Iran, are so severely delayed and off the mark from the processing standards? I'm not talking about individual cases. I'm talking about a class of people.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Look, thank you for raising this with me. It's no secret that we need to improve our processing times. I think we've accomplished significant gains. I think the people who have been in the system for some time and who are getting approved today have taken longer than what a new applicant who makes their application today will take.
We expect that by the end of the year we'll be back to having 80% of cases processed within the 60-day standard, but there is a real issue that we need to continue to examine with people who come from particular countries, particularly countries that have a majority racialized population, because systemic discrimination is not okay with me.
You've referenced the Pollara report and some really troubling findings. That was something we did proactively and that we should not hide from. We should embrace the change that we need to make, not just internally to our organizations, but in the potential impact our policies have from an outward-facing perspective.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting. Your time is up. Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
We will now proceed to Mr. Redekopp.
Mr. Redekopp, you have five minutes. Please begin.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
I don't know if you know, but I was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, so that makes me an honorary Ukrainian citizen.
Back in the spring, when Putin was shamelessly attacking Ukraine, you issued a press release on March 3 that said, “IRCC will quickly implement a special family reunification sponsorship pathway for permanent residence.” Then you referred to working with the UCC.
In September, you announced additional pathways to permanent residence, but it didn't include Ukrainians, so my question is, do you intend to open up the TR to PR pathway for Ukrainians? If so, when should we expect that announcement?
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Look, I don't have a date for you. Frankly, I thought we would make the announcement very shortly after the initial program, but our focus remained on getting people here more quickly who were seeking safe haven and who needed to flee Ukraine. When we made the decision to extend the temporary status, along with a work permit for three years, I knew that we had established some time to develop the program in the appropriate way.
We've seen a significant number, tens of thousands of people from Ukraine who have now come here, more than 80,000 under the CUAET program alone, and we want to make sure that we develop the program to get it right. We still intend to develop a family reunification pathway for Ukrainians and potentially look at other ways to transition those towards permanent residency through the existing mechanisms should they wish to stay.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
As I look at the numbers you've presented here, it seems like we're always increasing the budget. Is the money for that program in these estimates?
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
There is some funding within the supplementary estimates (B) that pertain to the services for Ukrainians: $162.6 million to support some of the special immigration measures for Ukrainians. The different supports we've put in place include settlement services, temporary accommodations, income supports and other measures.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Yes, but I'm talking about the TR to PR program that you're going to be doing. Is that in these numbers?
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
No. This is separate funding for programs we have announced that are in effect now.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Yes. However, the development of a new program when we're dealing with spaces that would come from an immigration levels plan would be tied to funding that's accompanying that specific immigration levels plan. I don't expect that you'll see a massive increase in spending to accommodate it because it will be part of larger plan to continue to grow our immigration levels.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Speaking of massive increases in spending, for Afghanistan resettlement, previous budgets had $258 million. These estimates are adding another $195 million, for a total of $453 million, or just about half a billion dollars. For spending money, you get a check mark there.
Results, though, are another issue. I see on your website that 9,000 Afghans have come in under the special immigration measures, and 670 out of 5,000 interpreters' family members.
In the private sector, I was judged on outcomes. Here, we're spending nearly half a billion dollars, but a very small number of people have actually made it to Canada. Can you honestly, with a straight face, say that this program has been a success?
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Do you know how many Afghan refugees came here under the Conservative program that existed over four years before we formed government?
