Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 3rd, 2022

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Maybe I'll conclude with this thought. I want to say thank you to each of my opposition critics, to my Parliamentary Secretary and to my caucus colleagues as well.

I've had the opportunity to engage with folks over the past few days, and I've never seen such a collaborative spirit as I have in the past week over the situation in Ukraine, whether it's my conversations around family sponsorship, the urgent need to get people here or making sure we do it in a way that keeps people safe. I just want to say how much I appreciate it and to let you know that our conversations have directly informed some of the decisions that I've made. I hope that on issues going forward we're able to continue to pursue that collaborative approach to advance the well-being of Canadians and some of the vulnerable people we're trying to get here.

Thank you all for your co‑operation. It's a pleasure to work with you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister.

On behalf of all the members of this committee, I want to thank you for appearing before the committee.

I want to thank you for all the work you are doing on behalf of all Canadians in these unprecedented times. Thanks once again.

We will suspend the meeting briefly so that we can have the officials do the sound checks, and then we will resume with our second panel.

Thank you, Minister.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Thanks, everyone. I look forward to seeing you in person again soon.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I think officials have done their sound checks, so we can begin if the officials are ready.

Are we good to go, Madam Tapley?

We will go directly into our round of questioning. We will start with Mr. Genuis.

Mr. Genuis, you will have six minutes for your round of questioning. Please begin.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to pick up on some of the questions around private sponsorship of a bit more of a technical nature.

If I or a group I was part of were to file a private sponsorship application today, how long would it take to process that application? When could I reasonably expect to see the family that I was sponsoring arrive here on Canadian soil?

[Catrina Tapley, Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thanks, Madam Chair. Congratulations on your re-election.

If you were sponsoring a group under a private sponsorship stream now, given the inventory that we have of applications that are there, I think it would probably be close to three years before they would arrive.

Mr. Mills, do you want to add anything to that?

[Daniel Mills, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Right now, we are talking about 35 months, or three years, for processing applications in this category. It's really due to our backlog of applications, plus all the other situations we manage in parallel with that.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Is the government working on structural changes to try to bring that down, or are we just accepting that as an okay situation?

[Catrina Tapley]

No. We're working hard to make improvements to that, both to bring our processing times down on this, as well as to look at what supports we are offering to groups who are coming together to sponsor. We're making sure that we're conscious of vulnerabilities with respect to people coming, so that PSR groups, groups who want to sponsor, have the capacity to live through that one-year commitment.

That's a long answer to your question. Yes.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

We can talk about the capacity once people arrive and so forth afterwards, but I want to really focus on the backlog.

What measures are you putting in place to try to reduce that three-year timeline? Do you have a target for what you think is an acceptable amount of time for a private sponsor to wait?

[Catrina Tapley]

Part of this is using some of those monies from the 2021 government budget. They are now starting to make their way through the estimates process to be able to hire additional people to process this.

Last year we overachieved on some of our PSR targets, in finalizing the decisions that were there. However, we have had a number of obstacles over the last year and a half in getting people here. It's not just the ability to come into the country; it's the capacity of other countries to issue exit permits and it's getting into camps to be able to do the interviews that are necessary. The system has not been our friend in the last year and a half, so being able to now pick up, to come back and look at this, and to get our standards down is really important.

The other thing to remember is that when we have urgent protection cases, we have a system that can move through them a little more quickly. To answer your question on what's ideal in terms of private sponsorship, it would be great if that came down to about a year. That's my opinion.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Yes. I appreciate the aspiration there. From my perspective, we need to do so much better in this area.

We have situations where you have community groups and church groups that are funding the survival of people in other countries while they wait for years to have their application processed. It's such a delay for them and it's so much more expensive for the folks here in Canada who are trying to help them, when these people are in potentially dangerous situations. They are being sponsored and they are waiting in a queue. It costs everybody more, so it's critically important that we address this.

Let me move to another issue. The minister spoke about housing for unvaccinated asylum seekers. Can you share a bit more about how that works?

Are those asylum seekers expected to pay some proportion of the cost? What are the individual and public commitments? How does that process work to provide housing to people in that situation?

[Catrina Tapley]

For asylum seekers who enter Canada and are claiming asylum—maybe we will look at the situation around Roxham Road on this—for those who have a clear plan.... First of all, those who are vaccinated or who have a clear plan for quarantine are processed and are on their way.

For those who are not vaccinated and do not have a quarantine plan, we have rooms in hotels, where we place them until their quarantine period is complete and they are able to move into other social housing systems.

No, we don't charge people for the time in the hotel.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

To clarify, because I'm also out of time, the Government of Canada is paying for hotel rooms for pending asylum claimants who are unvaccinated.

[Catrina Tapley]

You are correct.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you. Your time is up, Mr. Genuis.

We will now proceed to Ms. Kayabaga. You have six minutes. Please proceed.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today.

I want to start my questions around the racialized newcomer women pilot. My first question is around the $4.2 million allocated to support these women in addressing the barriers they may face.

Can the department officials share some of the understanding they have around the barriers that these women face? How much of that money is specifically allocated to francophone racialized women coming to Canada?

[Catrina Tapley]

On the percentage that's allocated to francophone service provider organizations that deliver these programs, I think we're going to have to get back to you, unless one of my colleagues wants to chime in on that one, broken down by linguistic barriers.

In terms of the type of programming that's offered, I'm going to ask Ms. Campbell Jarvis if she would like to add to that.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Though the program provides a range of different services and supports, including women-only employment, language support and child care, what is particularly important is the women-targeted mentoring and the social connections. They really create that sense of community and enable women to gain exposure and sponsorship in finding employment and other social connections. There is also a dimension that provides some gender-based violence support for families, which is really important for traumatized women.

It's quite an all-encompassing program that we're really quite proud of.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you. It's really good to hear that there is some gender-based violence support for women. Especially if they're asylum seekers and they're coming from war-torn countries, there's probably that need.

I do, however, want to push a little more on that question. I didn't really fully understand what portion of it is allocated for francophone women who are in this program. Maybe I will restructure my question and ask how many of these women, in this pilot project, are francophone women?

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, we're going to have to get back on that. I don't have those numbers at my fingertips, which of our francophone service provider organizations are participating in the pilot and then what percentage of clients would be francophone under that. We'll have to get back to the committee on that.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I'm not looking to get an idea of which francophone organizations are involved. I want to get a general idea of how many women who are involved in this program are of francophone background.

[Catrina Tapley]

I wish I had the number at my fingertips, Madam Chair. We will have to get back to the committee on the number of francophone women.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

You are at three minutes, 19 seconds.