Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 20th, 2024

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I just want to follow up on the notion that other countries have not been able to get people out, when in fact it is absolutely incorrect. Family members here have lists upon lists of individuals who have actually gotten out.

In fact, one family member said that her friend was able to get her extended family members out across the Rafah border to then board a plane. In fact, they are about to board a plane to go to Australia. Therefore, this is absolutely untrue.

It is so disturbing to know that IRCC officials have no idea that this is happening or what other jurisdictions are doing to facilitate this process. I would absolutely ask the officials to go back, do their homework and then report back to our committee about what the other jurisdictions are doing and how it is that Canada is not achieving the same kind of result.

I just heard the officials confirm that people who cannot get through the official special immigration program to get their TRVs and get to safety are now being asked to use unofficial channels and make a separate application outside of this program.

How is it even possible that this is taking place? Is the government effectively saying that its program is ineffective and people should use whatever channel they can access to try to get to safety?

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

Mr. Chair, just for the record, I did not say that they should use any other channel.

What I am actually mentioning is that anyone who is able to get out still needs to put in an application for a temporary resident visa. If they are not covered in public policy and they have been able to come to Rafah, in order to come Canada they will have to apply for a temporary resident visa.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I understand that, but we just heard from a member of Parliament who was told by the IRCC that people who went through unofficial channels should be making a TRV to IRCC and that they should mark it to say that it should be expedited in the processing. That is trying to bypass the existing program. Effectively, that advice is saying that this existing program is ineffective.

The chaos that's going on there is shocking. I just talked to a family member....

I will just finish with this, Mr. Chair.

They applied at the opening and they got five codes for the same family members who already got codes. Other family members got codes for other family units that aren't related to them. This is the level of chaos that's going on, by the way, with IRCC and with this program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

Madam Kwan, your time is up.

Deputy minister, I'll give you the time, if you want to respond. Otherwise, you don't need to because the time is up right now.

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

Mr. Chair, we will take that back and look at whether there are any concerns with the codes. We will look into that in our operational model.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Is there anything else, officials, that you want to say?

Otherwise, I want to thank you on behalf of the committee and the chair. Thank you for appearing and being with us.

With that, it's 7:30—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Before you adjourn, Mr. Chair, I would like to move a motion, please.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Sure. Go ahead.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I move:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, to return to the committee for two hours to discuss the temporary immigration measures initiated in response to the ongoing conflicts in Sudan and Gaza, that this ministerial appearance be prioritized above all other appearances, and further, that officials be invited to return to this committee for one hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Witnesses, you can go.

The motion is on the floor and it is 7:30. I said we would be adjourning the meeting at 7:30.

Is it the will of the committee to go ahead or to adjourn?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I want to vote on her motion.

[An hon. member]

No, we can adjourn.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Do you want to bring a motion to adjourn?

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Don't you need permission to go beyond 7:30?

Do we have the resources to continue?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

We do have unlimited resources tonight.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

It is the practice of this committee that when our work gets interrupted, we do get extended time. Are you telling us that we don't have that extended time to debate this motion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I'm telling you that I will continue unless there is a motion on the floor to adjourn the meeting.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

There is no motion.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

There is no such motion, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

If there is no such motion we will continue, okay?

Mr. Kmiec.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Chair, I would be fine voting to return the minister because we did lose quite a bit of time today. But the motion says “above all other appearances”. I believe that we have also called the minister for the supplementary estimates (C), and there's our Hong Kong pensions issue that is urgent. We also have him for immigration levels, and Parliament has passed a motion asking the minister to redo his work and will very likely be past the deadline set by the House for redoing the immigration levels targets plan. We've also called him to reappear on the Auditor General's report, and we've also passed another motion for the minister to return specifically because of testimony that was contradicted by media news articles, testimony given before the committee on the organized crime issue facing Mexican nationals.

I'm good with voting for the motion if we could just remove the portion that says "above all other appearances", and then we'll vote for it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam Kwan, do we have your consent to do that?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

No.

You can put that to a vote if the member is moving that as an amendment.

I will tell you this, though, in speaking to the issue, Mr. Chair. The reality is that people are dying as we speak. I just spoke to a constituent of mine who lost three members of his family, one of whom was a child. I cannot underscore the urgency of this situation. I get it that there are a whole bunch of other things that we need the minister to come before the committee to discuss with us. I want that too on the Hong Kong motion and on all of those other things, absolutely. But none is as urgent as this current situation where every single second of the day matters. We just heard from officials and the minister that not one person has been brought to safety through this program. How is that even possible when other jurisdictions are doing it?

We just heard from officials who say that they have no knowledge of how other jurisdictions have done this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

No, I'm not finished, Mr. Chair.