Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 20th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. Morrice, you have only 20 seconds of his time. Go ahead, please.

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Minister, I'm glad you got to hear directly from Palestinian Canadians whose families are in Gaza. Their frustration reflects that of folks in my community, including Hazim, who, as I mentioned, we spoke about over a month ago and whose brothers, sister and mother remain in Gaza—some have access codes, some don't—as well as Maha and Saja, whose mom Rada has a TRV. She is still not on an evacuation list; she's still not out.

We have reports of other countries that have been successful—Australia, Italy, Spain—at getting family members out. If they have been able to, why hasn't Canada?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you. Your time is up.

Minister, if you can, answer briefly.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

There are no other countries that have a similar program of this scope. Australia did, in fact, issue a number of visas. I don't know if they would be saying that it has been successful. Other countries are talking to us. There are at least six or seven that want to reproduce this model; they don't want to reproduce one that will not be successful, but I think we all owe it to ourselves to try. As you know, we have been able to extract folks on an ad hoc basis, but obviously not with the scope and ambition that we have wanted, and for that I don't think we can call this a success.

International support and co-operation is key to this, and, again, I can't reiterate enough that there are elements that are not within our control and are immensely frustrating. It doesn't mean that we should stop trying. I knew when I put this measure in place that it may not be successful—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Minister.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

—but I thought I was a good measure because of the people behind us and the people expecting us to have a humanitarian response to a catastrophe.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

I will go to Madam Kwan.

You have six minutes. Please go ahead.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

How many people crossed the Rafah border as a result of the government program? Can you give just a straight-up number?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

You'd have to clarify the question. Do you mean as a result of the codes, visas or applications that they have received, or because they thought they could get to Egypt and then have the benefit of the program?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

No.

How many people managed to cross the border as a result of the government's special immigration measure?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Other than the ad hoc numbers that we have been able to get out individually, the number is 14.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Is the ad hoc number because of the government's program or because they cross on their own?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

There are some people who were able to cross on their own by paying intermediaries. There are some who we have advocated for directly because of their medical conditions that were directly the result of the intervention of the Government of Canada at the highest levels.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

How many people did Canada bring across the border as a result of the Canadian government's actions?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I assume by that you don't mean the—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I don't mean the people who did it on their own. I mean the people who actually had the government's assistance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam Kwan, can you let the minister speak?

Honourable Minister.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I know you're trying to complete my sentence, but that isn't where I was going. There were, obviously, 839 Canadians and permanent residents who we were able to extract, but as a result of the special program that we put in place, there were none through these lists that we have submitted to COGAT and the Egyptian authorities who were able to be extracted according to that program.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Minister.

So, it's none. None have actually come across.

The people who have come across so far have done it on their own.

The minister says it's only 14. It turns out, actually, through my work from my office, that we have 84 people on the list who've crossed on their own, not because of the government's assistance. The media got a number of 110, but the minister only has 14. You have to wonder what is going on with the government when it can't even get that number right.

Now, I want to ask the minister this question: Of the people who have gotten on this list, 986 of them, how many of them were actually issued a TRV by the government?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Because of our inability to do biometrics and issue visas inside Gaza, they would have had to proceed to Cairo—which they've not—to get the biometrics and then get the corresponding TRV.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

So, it's none. Nobody has a TRV.

Then what about the people who managed to get across the border on their own, without the government's help, as part of this application process? Why haven't they gotten the TRV?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

ADM MacIntyre can answer that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam MacIntyre, go ahead, please.

[Jennifer MacIntyre, Assistant Deputy Minister, International Affairs and Crisis Response, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

The number 14 is the number of TRVs that have been issued to individuals who've crossed the border and who have applications under the public policy. It is true that other individuals are crossing, and when they come to Cairo and make contact with our embassy, we are processing their applications.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

So, 14 people got a TRV because they crossed on their own, but not one person through the government's program has been able to get a TRV. Okay, we have that straight.

The minister said that he submitted 300 names to COGAT. Why only 300? There are 986 codes that have been issued. What happened to the rest of them?