Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 15th, 2022

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Madam Chair, I believe the floor is mine and not the member's—

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Respectfully, I would just like to say that's why that happened.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We'll have one person at a time. Let him finish, and then we will come to you.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Was an election plan more important than an evacuation plan? Can you please answer that, yes or no?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. Time is up.

I would request that all members, if they ask a question, please allow the minister to answer the question. Only one person should speak at a time, and all questions should be directed through the chair. Please make sure that, if members are asking questions, time be given to the minister to answer the question. Thank you.

Now we will proceed to MP Ali.

MP Ali, you have six minutes for your round of questioning. Please proceed.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for your time.

There are approximately one million vacant jobs in Canada. As a result, more companies are looking beyond our borders for talent. What can I tell businesses in my riding that need workers about what our government is doing to ensure that they have the workers they need in a timely manner?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Just to put it into perspective, the economic recovery from COVID-19 in Canada has been as strong as in any developed nation in the world. Before the omicron variant landed in our communities, we saw 107% of the jobs lost during the pandemic recovered. GDP had exceeded prepandemic levels, and our labour force participation rate had hit an all-time high.

That said, we still had, at the end of the year, about 900,000 job vacancies in the Canadian economy. We need to adopt policies that will foster economic growth, and immigration is going to help drive the growth we need.

The immigration levels plan that I tabled yesterday has a strong economic focus, and it's designed to help ensure that we can get as many workers here as our system allows to fill those gaps in the labour force. We're talking about workers in our health care sector and our transportation sector. Go down any main street and talk to a restaurant owner, or go to a machine shop to see if they have talent on the shop floor to fill the orders that they otherwise could fill.

Immigration is going to play a major role, and with yesterday's levels plan that I tabled, we now have one of the strongest tools that we've ever had in our history to get workers here on a permanent basis. However, this only scratches the surface, because we also have the opportunity to use our demand-driven temporary immigration programs to get workers here more quickly who might not be needed in the long term as permanent residents.

The combined impact of the levels plan with our temporary programs is going to give us the tools we need to leverage immigration to get workers here to fill those jobs where business owners can't find Canadians in their own community to fill the jobs they need to maximize the economic growth potential.

I'll leave my answer there, but I think you can appreciate, Madam Chair, that I could spend several hours on this subject.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

Through the chair, Minister, many of my constituents have immigrated from Pakistan. They see that student applications from some neighbouring countries have approval rates of 75% to 85%, but student applications from Pakistan have an approval rate of 21% or 22%. Often my constituents wonder if this is because student visa processing is not done in Pakistan but farmed out to processing centres in other countries.

Minister, can you tell me how you might help increase approval rates to an equitable level in Pakistan?

Thank you.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

It is important that we don't just pursue large numbers of immigrants, which is essential, but that we also pursue fairness in the system, so people trust that the decisions made under the system are done in an equitable way, free from treating people from one country of origin differently than those from another.

We're looking for talent. We're looking for people who meet the eligibility criteria. One of the bright spots that I would point the honourable member to is what we've seen in the student direct stream, a program that's used to facilitate and expedite the welcoming of international students to Canada for the purposes of study. We've seen an increase in Pakistan with the student direct stream to, I believe, 46%—if I'm off from memory, I'll follow up with the member personally. That is going to be part of the path forward.

We are also seeing that in countries that have had more refusals, it's often a result of the fact that we're seeing so many applications coming in, and not necessarily that they're being treated differently than they have been treated before.

This is a huge opportunity to expand the student direct stream across different jurisdictions, so we can have a higher rate of acceptance, but more importantly, we can welcome more and more students here, because international students who settle in Canada show extraordinary social, economic, and cultural outcomes over the long term and have the opportunity, in my personal opinion, to make excellent permanent residents should they end up staying in Canada beyond their period of study.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

Family reunification is really important, and families have been waiting for a long time during the pandemic. Can you tell me how long families can expect to wait if they are applying to sponsor a spouse today?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'll give you the short answer first, and if time allows I'll give you the long answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have one minute, Minister.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

The short answer is 12 months. We are back to the service standard for processing times when it comes to family reunification. There are some real frustrations for people who got caught during that challenge I described in my opening remarks, about how the pandemic prevented us from welcoming as many people from other countries as would normally have come in.

Through the changes and investments we've made in the system, including the hiring of 500 staff, we now have the capacity to process new applications in family reunification streams in 12 months, in accordance with the service standard that existed before the pandemic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have 15 seconds, MP Ali.

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

I'm going to give 15 more seconds to the minister.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'm glad you did, because I want to add something.

I just remembered that I skipped over one of your previous questions about local processing facilities. My own view is that we can have local expertise to facilitate the information and the understanding of local cultures and populations, but I do believe that by leveraging our global network, we have the opportunity to take advantage of certain offices that have the capacity to boost the productivity for countries all over the world.

That short answer didn't do it justice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister. Time is up.

We will now proceed to MP Brunelle-Duceppe. Because the members attending virtually cannot see the cards, I will just interrupt at one minute and at 30 seconds.

MP Brunelle-Duceppe, you have six minutes.

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

I want to raise a point of order before starting my round. I was just about to say that I can't see your cards and that I don't know how much time I have left. I just want to to be clear and make sure that the time I took to say this won't be deducted from my six minutes. I will now start my round.

Hello, Minister, thank you for being here with us today.

As I just said, I don't have much time, and so I may interrupt you, but please don't take it personally. The answers to many of my questions can be a yes or a no.

During your most recent press conference, you said that the 85 million dollars injected into your department would lead to wait times returning to normal within a year. Do you still think so today?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Yes, we need to be a bit more specific in our language.

The $85 million should get us back to the service standard processing time for work permits and study permits. It will allow us to get the PR card inventory back to a wait time of one to two weeks.

For proof of citizenship and TRVs, I can't say specifically when we'll achieve the exact service standard, but we'll see a marked improvement.

With temporary residence visas, it will allow us to process people more quickly. As you can appreciate, depending on who's applying and where they're coming from, the specific amount of time may be different for individual cases, but we will see a marked improvement with the $85 million.

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

That doesn't necessarily mean that backlogs will be eliminated in a year in Quebec, but that maybe we'll get back to a wait time that makes sense for people asking for a study permit.

Am I given to understand that the issue of 40 000 Afghan refugees promised by your government will be resolved by this time next year?

Minister, does that also mean that we will eliminate wait times for temporary foreign workers, which can be up to eight months?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Just for the sake of clarity, there are a couple of different issues you've raised that are distinct from the $85 million you raised before. The 40,000 Afghan refugees are at a pace such that we expect they will all be resettled in Canada by the end of next year.

With respect to the processing times for temporary foreign workers in Quebec, I would point out that Quebec is actually the jurisdiction where we process work permits more quickly than in every other jurisdiction. There is, of course, a challenge, because there are different documents that need to precede the processing of the work permits with respect to the equivalent of an LMIA, for example, and the particular document that's an equivalent in Quebec.

I appreciate that there were three or four questions there, Monsieur Brunelle-Duceppe.

Do you want me to clarify? I'd be happy to expand on my answer.

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

Thank you, Minister.

Your French is improving, and I'm very happy to see it.

The Bloc Québécois received your briefing note after making an access to information request. What's strange is that the staff from your own department said that the number of requests to be processed is at its highest peak for this decade, which will impact the forecasts for 2022 and lead to longer processing delays and long wait times that will continue well beyond the full resumption of operations.

That's what the employees from your department said, and that is included in your briefing notes. Last week, during your press conference, you seemed much more optimistic than your own staff.

Are we to believe the minister's optimism or the briefing note from the department's employees?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Look, I'm an optimist by nature, but I'm optimistic not just out of my natural attitude: It's because we have some very good news that has been put forward.

With respect to requests for information, I think there are a lot of people who are probably very frustrated because they've been seeking updates on their particular case. One example of how the measures we announced recently at a press conference will make a really serious difference is the introduction of the PR case tracker, for example. Eighty per cent of the cases that come through the MP line, which you'll be familiar with, are simply seeking a status update. If we go upstream and we proactively provide that information to people on their own device, they won't need to call IRCC. They won't need to call their member of Parliament's office. They won't have to wait months for an update, because it will be in their pocket.

The statistics you were citing, I believe, precede the impact that the $85 million and the new digital measures are going to have. To the extent that I'm mistaken about that, I would invite my officials to offer clarification in this regard.

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

I will nevertheless circle the date on my calendar. In a year, I'll know if you had reason to be optimistic.

You mentioned that applications have to be treated fairly. How do you explain the data from your own department, which shows a certain disparity between francophones and anglophones, especially for the international student program?

This is a fundamental issue not only for Quebec, but for francophone communities outside of Quebec.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'm pleased to provide you with some clarifications about this.

The situation in Quebec is very different...