Evidence of meeting #90 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 mexico.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much.
I don't think requiring a visa or not requiring one facilitates human trafficking or organized crime. This is what I'm hearing from you.
On the issue of investigations, how many active cases are being jointly investigated by, for example, the United States and Canada?
C/Supt Richard Burchill
Unfortunately, I'm not able to give you the number of investigations that are jointly investigated, but I can say that a large number of our human smuggling investigations that have to do with border security are jointly investigated.
We have integrated teams with the Americans on the intelligence side, as well as the operational side, at marine and land...and airports.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In order to help you better do your work to address this situation, what sort of action do you need the government to take? I'd like to hear both the CBSA's and the RCMP's perspectives.
Director General, Intelligence and Investigations, Canada Border Services Agency
I'm not qualified, necessarily, to speak about what the next iteration of investments might be.
Again, we can describe the policies and the programs that we implement. I can, in certain circumstances internally, recommend different types of advancements, but I'm certainly not qualified or prepared to recommend what some of the future government investments might be.
C/Supt Richard Burchill
I would say that the RCMP is always going to be accepting of any resources, financial or human, that come our way to better attack this particular problem in all the integrated ways that we're doing that with partners.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Can I just say quickly...? It doesn't have to be in resources. It could even be any policy change or any enhancement that will better enable you to do your work more effectively. At the end of the day, what we want to do is tackle human trafficking and smuggling. What do we need to do as parliamentarians to say that this should be something that the government should look at?
I'm not trying to get you into trouble. I'm just trying to figure out what it is that we can do to help you do your jobs more effectively.
Could you table that information for the committee, please?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
The time is up.
Just give a quick answer, please, if you'd like. Otherwise, I'll move to Mr. Redekopp.
Mr. Burchill.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'm sorry. I just asked them to table the information for the committee.
C/Supt Richard Burchill
I'll be quick, in the interest of time.
As I said to the other member who asked a question, we work within the legislative framework that we have, so it's not that we've turned our minds to what needs to be done differently necessarily. However, I can certainly take the question back and do some analysis at the RCMP to see if there's a different response.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you. We're over time.
Mr. Redekopp, we'll go to you for two minutes, and then we'll go to Mr. Ali to finish off.
Mr. Redekopp, go ahead, please.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Thank you.
Let's go back to this letter from 2016. You answered the question about meetings with Mexico, but you didn't really answer the question about the way to prevent the increase in asylum claims—what procedures, processes, strategies, documents, etc.
If I understand what you said to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, you said that there was nothing there. Is it a fair assessment that there were no concrete plans to maintain asylum claims at that level back in 2016?
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I think the question from Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe was around whether we had specific briefing notes about the cartel and its role in terms of.... That is a very different question from the question of whether we are doing anything or what the measures in place are to begin to address some of these issues—just to be clear.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
This is for the CBSA.
When you detain violent criminals, the provincial jails generally aren't allowing you to put them in there anymore. You have your own jails for human traffickers, violent offenders, etc. Essentially though, if there's no room for them—if there's nowhere for them to go—they are released into the Canadian population. Is that a fair statement?
Do you believe that releasing these criminals into Canadian society is a good thing?
Director General, Intelligence and Investigations, Canada Border Services Agency
Unfortunately, that's not the area within which I work. I do understand that it's an area that is also in transition, but unfortunately, I'm not able to accurately answer the question. We can certainly commit to a response as required, but unfortunately, I'm not prepared to answer that one.
Conservative
Director General, Intelligence and Investigations, Canada Border Services Agency
I can certainly endeavour to do my best, for sure. I'll take that question back.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
The Auditor General confirmed that the CBSA had almost 35,000 people listed as wanted—people whom you wanted to remove but could not find. Of those, 2,800 were wanted criminals. That's the information that I have. As of today, how many people who have received removal notices have you lost track of?
Director General, Intelligence and Investigations, Canada Border Services Agency
Again, unfortunately, that's not the area within which I currently work. It's something that I can certainly take back as a question to the CBSA, but unfortunately, I don't have those figures with me today.
Liberal
Liberal
Shafqat Ali Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Through you, Chair, I would like to first of all thank IRCC for dealing with the heavy load, and CBSA and RCMP for keeping our borders safe and Canadians safe. Thank you so much for your hard work.
My question is for IRCC.
There are ways that we can improve our immigration system. We should look to other countries for positive policies and measures that we can implement here in Canada.
Has IRCC studied the measures put in place in other countries with regard to undocumented individuals? Can you compare our system to those of other countries?
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thank you very much.
I may turn to my colleague who is responsible for many of these areas.
We generally say that we learn from all countries. The minister has already indicated his commitment to bringing something to cabinet later this year in the undocumented space. That would take into account those experiences.
I don't know if you have anything to add.