Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 29th, 2026

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's all right. As you know, I just got here and I'm new to the committee, so I'm not going to stand up on the table. It's not a big deal that you forgot me.

This is for Ms. Mayrand, because she talked about immigration and co-operation between Quebec and the federal government.

We all know that Ottawa shares a number of immigration responsibilities with Quebec. How would better coordination between Quebec and Ottawa reduce processing times and improve our ability to attract the talent we're looking for?

[Hélène Mayrand]

Better coordination would certainly improve the situation and wait times. It's like taxation. In Quebec, we have the privilege of having dual filing. The same is true of immigration. In Quebec, we have the privilege of having a dual system, with acceptance certificates and then federally issued permits. That can cause additional delays in the process, so some people are choosing to settle outside Quebec because of the delays happening in Quebec.

That said, I think we need better co-operation. There's a more political dimension at play here, so it's important to look at how the two governments can work together better. Quebec is very cautious when it comes to its jurisdiction over immigration, which it wants to hold on to. Better co-operation is needed in order to reduce the delays. I completely agree with your observation.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

How do we improve it, Ms. Mayrand?

[Hélène Mayrand]

It requires program coordination. Quebec creates its own programs with its own criteria. The issues Mr. Chevarie talked about also stem from issues that aren't of the federal government's making, so there are challenges currently outside the committee's scope.

How do we do things better? Perhaps by having the federal government and province talk more. Again, they have separate responsibilities. There is a political dimension, as I said. It would also be very ill-advised for the federal government to interfere in provincial jurisdiction and impose some sort of….

It's a complicated issue, but—

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Sorry to cut you off, but that's why I asked about opportunities for co-operation in the context of Ottawa and Quebec's shared immigration responsibilities.

I'm going to turn to Patrick Chevarie now.

Good evening, sir.

It's clear from listening to you how essential it is for foreign workers to continue working on your beautiful islands.

[Patrick Chevarie]

Yes, that's exactly right. It's crucial to understand that the situation on an island or in a remote area isn't the same as it is on the mainland. Things are different in major areas or big cities. It's another world.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

All right.

I have another question for you, Mr. Chevarie.

In some areas, the declining population is making the situation worse when it comes to the availability of workers.

How could immigration support economic growth and the ongoing delivery of local services?

[Patrick Chevarie]

The government has to be able to say that regions need different legislation.

I was expecting the government to put forward a grandfather provision.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

There's a minute left.

[Patrick Chevarie]

We've been able to use immigration successfully. We are putting people to work, we are opening businesses. A grandfather provision would allow us to keep doing what we are doing. The system isn't being abused in remote areas, like it is in cities and elsewhere, as was discussed.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I'm going to take this opportunity to make a quick comment and tell the Îles de la Madeleine people that I too am from an island, Tortuga Island. It's a beautiful island in northeastern Haiti. We don't have the same levels of employment on Tortuga Island.

I'd also like to congratulate Alexis Deschênes for being lucky enough to represent your beautiful island.

Thank you, Mr. Chevarie.

[Patrick Chevarie]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thanks to both of you.

Because we have only two minutes left, we have one minute for Mr. Ho and one minute for Ms. Sodhi.

Mr. Ho.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Professor Grubel, Canada's productivity has been weakening over the lost Liberal decade. Investment is fleeing the country like we've never seen before. This is taken out of the Liberal costly credit card budget from 2025.

My question is, can radically increasing immigration levels, at the rates the Liberals have done in the past few years, compensate for poor productivity, weak business investment and low capital formation?

[Herbert Grubel]

To the contrary, it reduces per capita income, unless they increase productivity. We don't have the productivity.

When California reduced the inflow of Mexican agricultural workers in the valley, everybody said it would kill California. Well, it didn't. Instead of tomatoes being picked by hand, they developed machines to pick the tomatoes. The tomatoes didn't taste as good as the ones they had before. What did they do? They genetically modified the tomatoes so they could stand being picked, and they tasted as good as the ones we had before.

That is—

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Grubel. I'm sorry that we had so little time.

Thank you, Mr. Ho.

Now we have one minute for Ms. Sodhi.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Chevarie, I would like to give you 45 to 50 seconds to give the committee any recommendations you might have.

[Patrick Chevarie]

The recommendation I have is this: When you do your laws and recommendations, the fact is that you have to take care of the rural places. You have to take care of what's not in central Canada, where there's a lot of population, with immigration coming in. We don't have the luxury of having all those people to choose from for all of our local businesses, as workers. That's on the island, yes, but it's everywhere in rural communities. We don't have that luxury, so the government has to look at the fact that we are far away and not the same as cities and highly populated areas. It's a totally different kind of world.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Chevarie.

Thank you, Ms. Sodhi.

That concludes our second panel for today's study and meeting. I want to thank all the witnesses for their time and testimonies.

Colleagues, I want to let you know that on Monday, May 4, we will have Minister Diab and officials here for one hour to discuss the Auditor General's report and to complete our study of Canada's immigration system. For the second hour, we will have time in camera to give drafting instructions to the analysts and begin our discussions for our calendar until the end of June.

Do you have a quick question, Mr. Redekopp?

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I'm just wondering why she is only here for one hour on Monday. Wouldn't it normally be for one hour, and then officials for the other hour?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

We had the officials for an hour with the Auditor General. I think we had a full two hours. That's why. We still have an hour with the officials and Minister Diab.

Thank you so much.

This meeting is adjourned.