Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 29th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We will now end this panel with Mr. Dhaliwal.

Mr. Dhaliwal, you will have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the minister and the officials here.

Minister, on the recent announcement about the Indo-Pacific region, if we look at the region served by the Chandigarh and Islamabad offices in the Indo-Pacific region, it provides a major source of newcomers to Canada. It's also my understanding that the government is investing nearly $75 million in this region to meet those ambitious targets that you want to achieve.

Could you please tell me what exactly it means for the people who are represented by the region served by Islamabad and Chandigarh when these offices were earlier opened for visa processing and were closed in the past year?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

There will be certain decisions that roll out as a result of the spending decisions as to how to allocate that $75 million. The purpose of making this investment was to grow our people-to-people ties in the region and diversify our interest for social and economic reasons to allow for more people to be coming from those regions to Canada and to speed up the processing times in particular.

There are four different locations that we will be focused on. You mentioned Chandigarh and Islamabad. As well, part of the same announcement was our spaces in Delhi and in Manilla. In addition to growing the potential workforce in those spaces, we will be adding a complement of staff to our global network to focus on applications coming from the Indo-Pacific region more broadly.

In addition, we plan to launch initiatives to boost recruitment through the international student program so we can continue to attract more people from the Indo-Pacific region who will come to Canada as international students, many of whom I expect will transition to permanent residency over time.

I think it's a wonderful thing for Canada, and I think it will reduce processing times in the region more broadly.

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

Minister, diversity is the key to Canada and if we look outside Quebec, we need the francophone immigration to increase. When it comes to the B.C. Francophone Association, very near and dear to me, they have always raised this concern. Are there any efforts that are being made to meet those targets of 4.4% outside of Quebec?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Absolutely, it's a priority for me and our government.

To show how much respect I have for the French language, I'm working hard to improve the quality of my French. In fact, I thank my parliamentary secretary Marie‑France Lalonde, who is my French teacher. I also thank our colleague Alexis Brunelle‑Duceppe.

To ensure social cohesion in Canada, I need a plan to increase the number of newcomers in general. It's crucial that we increase the number of francophone newcomers to protect the demographic weight of francophones in Quebec and the rest of Canada. We must invest to help francophone newcomers establish themselves here. We need to open a new office in Dieppe to support innovation in francophone immigration. It's also very important that we increase the acceptance rate for francophone students from Africa.

There are many opportunities for Canada if we continue to increase the number of francophone newcomers. That's a good thing for those arriving in Canada, and it's an even better thing for our country.

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

Thank you, Minister.

Recently, you announced some important measures to help solve labour shortages when it comes to particular trades. You have included 16 new occupations. Could you please elaborate on how these additional NOC codes or categories will allow Canada to bring in global talent in some of the high-demand sectors?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

This is really important. We've gotten the one-minute sign from the chair, so I'll try to be quick.

We made an announcement very recently to expand the express entry system to 16 new occupations, including occupations ranging from heavy equipment operators to chefs, aestheticians, occupations in trucking and transportation, and many others. What's really important in the labour shortage context that we're living through right now is that we expand opportunities for different sectors that have very high demand to continue to share in the benefits of immigration.

When I look at the transportation sector in particular, this is a sector that enables economic growth across the economy. They are screaming for people, as so many other sectors are right now. By opening up the opportunity to benefit from immigration, we're going to help sustain certain industries that will grow the economy as a whole. I think it's the right thing to do, and I'm going to continue to work with our colleagues at ESDC, provincial partners and stakeholders across the country to better understand how we can continue to expand access to immigration to help grow the economy.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister.

With that, this panel comes to an end.

On behalf of all the members of this committee, I really want to thank you for your time and for all the work that you do on behalf of all Canadians to make sure that we have a vibrant immigration system here in this country.

We will suspend the meeting for a few minutes to allow you to leave. We will have some time with the officials, and then we will vote on the supplementary estimates (B).

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I call the meeting to order.

We will now go straight into a round of questioning with the officials. We will start our first round of questioning with Mr. Kmiec.

Mr. Kmiec, you will have six minutes. Please begin.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

I'm sorry again about my voice, but you have no choice.

There is a line in the supplementary estimates that says there's more money for “Funding to increase the reach of Temporary Foreign Worker Program inspections”. It's about $271,000 and change.

How many inspections are being done in person versus virtually right now?

[Christiane Fox]

There is definitely a line item in the supplementary estimates on TFW inspections, and we'll have to get you the specific data, because I don't want to give you stats that don't represent the full picture of how many are in person and how many are virtual.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Okay. I would like just the total number of inspections being done on each one, if possible, broken down by province as well.

[Christiane Fox]

Okay.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Thank you.

My next question—

[Christiane Fox]

I should just maybe note that this is supports with our other department, Employment and Social Development Canada, ESDC, and Service Canada. They run the TFW program, but we do have some funding to allow for inspections.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

That's why I assumed there was a connection there.

On the Afghans who are being brought to Canada, the minister keeps quoting the 25,000 people and the 40,000 target. We've spent a lot of time focusing on the interpreters who helped the Canadian Forces while on the ground in Afghanistan and the target families that we first of all wanted to bring here.

What about the families of LCAs, the language and cultural advisers? These are Canadians—I think all of them are naturalized Canadians like me—who served in uniform for Canada. Many of their family members are still trapped in either Afghanistan or the region. What is the department doing to assist them?

[Christiane Fox]

Maybe I would start by saying—and I think you're aware of this—that there are three main categories of how Afghans are coming through: through SIM, through the families of the interpreters, and then through the humanitarian program, which has seen the bulk of the arrivals—over 14,000 through the humanitarian stream.

Absolutely, we appreciate the vulnerability of these clients. We're working through the various ways in which we can, through any of these three streams, get them back to Canada.

The reality, as the minister noted, is that the situation on the ground is complex. It's extremely difficult to get people out, and—

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

I'm sorry, but I'm going to interrupt you. LCAs are here in Canada. Their families are over there. These individuals have top-secret clearance for the duties they fulfill for the Canadian Forces. In many cases, the Taliban are actively looking for their family members so as to put pressure on them to have these LCAs, who are in Canada, reveal Canada's secrets to them. They're using their family members as pawns in this game, which is why I'm asking.

If you don't have an answer here, perhaps you could provide a brief, because I do have other questions specific to the supplementary estimates (B) that I want to continue with.

[Christiane Fox]

I think the answer would be that we are working with the families and looking at the risks on the ground. Because of what you have articulated, it is extremely challenging for people to get travel documents. If they manage to get out and get into Pakistan, for instance, because they've arrived irregularly in Pakistan sometimes they have lots of challenges finding ways to get out, because of the exit requirements of some of those countries in that region.

We are absolutely aware of the challenges and are working toward safe passages to help family members at risk.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Okay.

Typically in the supplementary estimates (B) the departmental results for the previous spending are provided. Those are missing here. I believe they're also missing all across government, because the last results that are available on the Treasury Board Secretariat's website are for 2020-21, and we're supposed to have 2021-22.

Where are those results? Does the department have them? Have you submitted them to the Treasury Board? Why don't we have them?

[Hughes St-Pierre]

To my awareness, there is nothing different with this cycle from any previous cycle. The departmental results report would have been submitted this fall, and I believe I have a copy here, so I'm happy to—

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

The Treasury Board Secretariat's website doesn't have any of that information, which is why I am asking for it. It does a pretty good job of providing them in a digital format so you can compare to previous years.

The minister talked a lot about how all these extra people and all this extra money are going to improve processing times. The problem is that the same departmental plan calls for a reduction of 1,000 FTEs, and an almost $1-billion reduction in spending over the next two years. That's part of the planned spending, the long-term trend for this department.

How can you square the fact that the department is being staffed up and budgeted up in order to reduce the backlog but the backlog has not gotten a lot shorter, while there is also a very high expectation of large volumes to increase into the future? The annual report on immigration calls for large volumes of applications, while resources are expected to be reduced, according to what the minister and the department have basically put forward to the Treasury Board.

[Christiane Fox]

I would start by saying two things. The first thing I would say is that our annual report and our levels plan really focus on permanent residency, and it's important for the committee to appreciate that for permanent residency, we get funding for the amount, and it is a capped amount. We determine that number, and it's a mix of economic immigration and refugees, so we map out that number. Every year, the department, through its processing, has been able to meet its target over the last few years: 401,000 and 432,000 this year. We get funding for that planned growth to be able to have the processing capacity to meet those permanent residency levels plans that we make.

On top of that, there's the number of temporary residents, which is uncapped. This speaks to the volumes that we see right now. What we have done—you're absolutely right—in light of the backlogs, in light of the pressures and in light of the increases, is increase our FTE complement to be able to deal with the backlog so that we can start putting a dent in it, but long-term planning—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Fox. The time is up for Mr. Kmiec.

We will now proceed to MP Ali.

MP Ali, you will have six minutes for your round of questioning. You can please begin.