Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 9th, 2026

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

You are independent. You do not answer to the minister.

[Manon Brassard]

We answer to Parliament through the minister.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

You were pretty clear on that.

I have one question for the CBSA—for Mr. Bush.

In a different round, we were talking about the war in Iran that's happening right now. You talked about mechanisms that are in place.

Have new mechanisms been put in place since the war started?

[Brett Bush]

I don't know if I would say they're mechanisms. We have the designated regime, which we've talked about at some length. We have the designation in the Criminal Code on that.

To support Global Affairs Canada and the movement of Canadian citizens out of the region, we've also—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Just to be more clear, in terms of security reviews and how you look at files, have any new mechanisms or has anything new been put in place since the war began?

[Brett Bush]

All I can say is that I'm not aware of anything, but I can take it back to check.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Okay.

Is that...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

That is it. That's perfect timing.

Next we have Mr. Fragiskatos for five minutes.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Bush, you were already asked about one-touch, but I want to go down this path again. We heard about it at length at this committee, but we didn't really have an opportunity for the CBSA to put its view on the record.

I'll be very straightforward about it and use simple language. With the way that it was presented, one was almost left with the very strong feeling that one-touch was basically a “get into Canada free” kind of thing. However, based on what you shared with Mr. Zuberi, that's not the case. Based on what the CBSA has put forward in other forums, that's certainly not the case.

Can you share for us at the committee what one-touch is, how it works and whether it's based on sound security principles to ensure the public safety of Canadians?

[Brett Bush]

I'm going to quickly take you through a bit of the evolution of the last 10 years of refugee claims.

If we were to rewind to late 2016, early 2017, we would see that most of the increase in refugee claims was coming from the United States. It was mostly impacting a place that everybody is very familiar with: Roxham Road. The processes mostly impacted our CBSA and RCMP colleagues at Lacolle. Generally, the processes to do a full refugee intake take roughly six to eight hours, depending on what the person presents in terms of issues.

Then we moved into the pandemic. Of course, with border restrictions, the numbers of claims dropped right down because there were nowhere near as many people crossing the border. Postpandemic, the number of claimants seeking protection in Canada at the land border, at airport ports of entry and inland all started going back up. You're all very familiar with those numbers.

For our colleagues in the Quebec region, we first took an approach of deferring the examination of folks. It's a provision in the act that allows our officers to essentially reschedule the hearing. It was largely driven by the fact that when the border restrictions in place were lifted, this did not align with the provincial restrictions' being lifted, so we still were only able to have so many people in a space at any given time. For the officers' health and safety, we had to take certain steps. This led to its own problems, which we quickly had to address with IRCC. Then we moved into one-touch.

With one-touch, as I have tried to describe, we are assessing admissibility right at the port of entry. Based on all the information available to us at the port of entry, we then make a determination. These include systems like CPIC, the global case management system at IRCC and the biometric checks we do with the RCMP, as well as with our international partners, to validate identity and to validate whether there is any known information on these folks.

Please keep in mind that this is the same information we would have had available to us in the previous process. The only change is that we are not spending the time with the client to collect their claim, fill out all the paperwork and start enrolling their basis of claim. We are checking the identity based on the documents they have and based on their biometrics. We are validating the identity. This triggers the application process in the system and then the security screening and all the processes I've already explained.

Is there a comfort level amongst everybody? Colleagues from the Customs and Immigration Union have expressed concerns about this, but I think we need to be 100% clear: This was created by our officers and was brought forward as a recommendation from our officers as a way not only to manage the volumes but also to deal with our agency's primary responsibility for the safety and security of people at the port of entry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

You have 30 seconds.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London Centre, ON]

In the remaining time, I'm just going to pick up on the point you made.

If I understood you, this is not a management decision coming from up high. This is a recommendation that officers gave.

[Brett Bush]

The officers developed this at Lacolle. They put it forward. The decision to implement it nationally came from discussion with all the regions across the country.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Bush, and thank you, Mr. Fragiskatos.

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.

I would like to continue the discussion with Mr. Hollmann.

I would ask you, Mr. Hollmann, to provide us with the reports and discussion papers on the possibility of a better distribution of asylum seekers across the various provinces, in written form. If you wish to respond orally straight away, I would accept that too.

[Jason Hollmann]

All I can say to back up the comments I have already made is that I know there have been high-level discussions to try to interest various provinces in accepting additional asylum seekers and in building a system. I know that the result—

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

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have signed agreements. That’s good. Thank you, Mr. Hollmann. If you have any written documents, I’d be interested in seeing them.

Mr. Bush, how has the outbreak of war in Iran affected the services of the Canada Border Services Agency so far?

[Brett Bush]

I will tell you what I know, and I will tell you what I do not know.

Would you like me to explain it in French?

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

Yes, I’d prefer that. Thank you.

[Brett Bush]

Okay.

At the start of this conflict, our organization decided to reassign its staff working outside Canada—for example, on overseas missions or in embassies—so that they could assist the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development in relocating Canadians who needed to leave the Middle East region. That is all I know at the moment.

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

Are there many refugee applications coming in?

[Brett Bush]

I don’t yet know. As for the number of refugees, I have no idea. We can obtain this information to determine whether, since last week, there has been an increase in the number of asylum seekers coming from Iran.

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

Very well, thank you. I’d like to know.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Deschênes.

Thank you, Mr. Bush.

We have six minutes remaining. I'm going to give two and a half minutes each to the Conservatives and the Liberals.

We'll start off with Mr. Davies.