Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 9th, 2026

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Can you elaborate a bit on the process? You touched upon this already.

The question is also for Mr. Bush.

What is the process before a file gets to the IRB? You mentioned the security screening aspects. Do you want to elaborate further on those?

[Brett Bush]

Thank you.

As I mentioned, this starts at intake with the application and the information we collect in trying to identify admissibility concerns beyond the person not being compliant with having a visa to immigrate.

We then move into security processes involving both CBSA and CSIS to identify whether the person is a security risk. That is using all the assets we have available to us to collect; I'm not going to discuss them in detail in a public hearing. Then, for the people—which happen to be less than 1%—for whom we find security and admissibility security concerns.... I say that very specifically, because there are two pieces of legislation in play. There's the CSIS legislation, which deals with threat, and then there's the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which deals with admissibility.

Then we get into the processes around the interventions and being able to intervene at the IRB with representatives from CBSA to articulate why the person should not get protection, because one of the foundations of the UN convention is that people involved in.... I don't have the convention in front of me, so I'm not going to quote it correctly, but I think it's crimes against good order in the world or—

[Manon Brassard]

It's war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[Brett Bush]

Yes. It's war crimes, crimes against humanity and terrorism. This is how Canada defines it for the purposes of—going back to one of the earlier questions around ineligibility—keeping them from having a claim assessed at the board and using the exclusionary criteria. We argue this before the board, and the board makes a decision.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Picking up on this issue of screening before getting to a certain point, in previous meetings there was a conversation around one-touch.

Could you speak a bit about the process that happens before one-touch is actually happening?

We have about a minute and 45 seconds.

[Brett Bush]

I tried to explain it earlier.

People get interested in one-touch because they feel—

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

It's catchy.

[Brett Bush]

It's a catchy title, but essentially it was created by our officers in Lacolle to help them deal with the situation there.

They are having the person fill out a form to capture all the questions around all the various inadmissibilities that would have an impact on their access to the board. Then we have an interview with them to question them. This has now been nationalized, so we end up in a space in which we're trying to determine if they can go down the one-touch path.

In terms of process, about 70% of all the applicants are processed using one-touch. About 15% are found ineligible, so we complete the full process on those people—

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Just before the one-touch, what's happening?

[Brett Bush]

The title of the process, I think, creates the illusion that there's something different going on. The only real difference is that instead of having an officer—who is being paid a significant amount of money—sitting down and collecting all the details of their entire refugee claim, we are staying focused on the national security and admissibility issues at the port of entry.

Then, when it moves over, they'll fill out their application. It will go into the portal that IRCC administers. All the security screening and reviews I described previously will take place before the board has it, and we will decide whether we wish to intervene.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Bush.

Thank you, Mr. Zuberi.

Mr. Deschênes, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Right now, Ms. Brassard, what percentage of all asylum claims made in Canada come from Quebec?

[Manon Brassard]

It's 37%.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

When was that number determined?

[Manon Brassard]

On December 31.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

Ms. Brassard, you gave me a lot of statistics today, and I thank you for them, but I would ask you for a response in writing, to make sure I have correctly taken note of them.

First of all, I'd ask you to please send the number of asylum claims accepted without a hearing since 2019.

[Manon Brassard]

In Quebec or across the country?

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

I'd like to have the number for all of Canada first, and then the breakdown by province.

Next, I'd like to know the processing times for refugee claims, for each province, from 2015 to date.

Lastly, I'd ask you to please send us the percentage of asylum claims that came from Quebec, from 2015 to 2025.

[Manon Brassard]

As regards applications from the Quebec region, it is important to understand that this is based on the address provided to us. This does not mean that the applicants are still there.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

Yes, that’s subject to all reservations. I understand that they can submit their application and then change their address. I understand that there are limits to what a number can tell us, but it’s better than nothing.

[Manon Brassard]

Yes.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

My next question will be for Mr. Hollmann.

Why is there no distribution of asylum seekers across the provinces? For example, why does Quebec receive 37% of asylum seekers, when it accounts for only 21% or 22% of the Canadian population?

[Jason Hollmann]

Asylum seekers have the right to live wherever they wish. That is a right guaranteed by the charter.

There have been discussions to see if asylum seekers could be distributed a little more evenly. I believe these discussions have taken place between the minister and the deputy ministers in recent years.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

They haven’t yielded any results.

[Jason Hollmann]

So far, this has resulted in agreements with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; they have each accepted a few hundred asylum seekers.