Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 27th, 2026

[Lisa Kaida]

My research never looked at asylum seekers specifically. I focused on resettled refugees, including government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees. Therefore, based on my research, I cannot directly answer your question on what makes Canada's asylum seeker policy successful.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London Centre, ON]

Your area of focus is migration. What would be your point of view? You have put it on record now in your testimony, but can you share with us what you think are some of the key points?

For example, Ms. Kobussen touched on this in her testimony, and we heard this earlier today: ensuring that communities have resources. If we're going to have individuals resettled in communities, they should go to communities with adequate resources—housing, legal services, settlement services, medical services—that are of a type that would be more than adequate to ensure successful integration. Is this your view as well?

[Lisa Kaida]

Yes.

Based on my research on resettled refugees' economic integration, government-assisted refugees are assigned to a select number of cities—not only Toronto and Montreal but also mid-sized cities like Hamilton, St. John's, Moncton and so forth. For up to 12 months, they receive financial support, employment support, language support, and very institutionalized social and cultural support.

If we shift our eyes to privately sponsored refugees, we see that such support is given by local groups of individuals as well as co-national communities or cultural and religious communities.

Whether it's government support or more individual support, those resettled refugees do receive systematic support.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

I'll turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Deschênes, now.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Michelle Rempel]

I'm just going to pause the clock here at two minutes and 30 seconds.

What I'll do, Mr. Deschênes, is just let you run into your next round. With the will of the room, that will be eight and a half minutes.

Is that good? Okay.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank my colleague for the time he has given me.

Ms. Kobussen, is there currently a labour shortage in Saskatchewan and Saskatoon?

[Karen Kobussen]

We have a low unemployment rate in our province, yes.

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

The members of your Chamber of Commerce have job postings, positions to fill. Is that correct?

[Karen Kobussen]

Yes. I think there are job openings, and many of them would be under skilled labour. I know we heard earlier that some of the asylum claimants would be under skilled labour. Some of them would be under entry level service jobs and things like that.

Specific to the market, I couldn't tell you what sector, but yes, we have a low unemployment rate. There are more jobs than people.

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

So, there are job opportunities in Saskatchewan. You represent companies that are looking for employees. So I was surprised to hear what you said.

Wouldn't you and your members see the arrival of asylum seekers as an opportunity to identify potential workers—people who could help businesses in Saskatchewan?

[Karen Kobussen]

I represent a number of immigrant-owned businesses. As I mentioned earlier, our area of Saskatoon is a different socio-economic demographic in that it is very immigrant-heavy. Culturally, lots of those businesses bring their own people in.

I'll give you an example. Through the SINP program, the immigrant nominee program, they will bring in members of their own communities. When we look to asylum seekers who might be coming from persecuted regions or other places in the world, I don't know. What I'm saying is that we need to do an overlay of what services we need for whom, and what supports. I don't know that those cultures would necessarily be supported in Saskatoon, because I don't know where they come from.

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

If I understand you correctly, your members need employees. There is a labour shortage, and the unemployment rate is low. However, your members want to hire people from a specific country, and not from other countries. Ultimately, they want to choose the ethnic origin of their workers. Is that correct?

[Karen Kobussen]

No, I'm not saying that. I know what the unemployment rate is, but I don't know what the labour market ask is. We have skilled labour positions that would be available in our resource sector—I do know that. I don't know about service. Most of the people who are in our organization are in service businesses like restaurants and things like that.

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

That doesn't quite answer my question. I'll give you my example.

In Gaspésie, in eastern Quebec, there is an area with several thriving factories. It is becoming increasingly difficult to access temporary foreign workers. So I recommended that business owners in that region—the Matane region—reach out to asylum seekers who have open work permits and offer them jobs.

We have worked on this type of partnership and have therefore had opportunities to attract workers to the region. As we have heard, asylum seekers include all kinds of people, people who fear persecution. However, you in Saskatoon do not see employment opportunities among asylum seekers.

[Karen Kobussen]

Definitely. I think that asylum seekers, given due process and given their right to work and be mobile, would absolutely be welcome.

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

Wouldn't it be a great opportunity, if there were more asylum seekers, to fill labour needs in Saskatoon?

[Karen Kobussen]

I personally wouldn't limit it so narrowly to that. Again, we're going to overlay all of the services—legal, technical, language barriers, skill sets, etc. If that works, all the stars align and everything triangulates, then absolutely asylum seekers would be welcome to come to Saskatoon to have work, support, legal assistance and everything.

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

Right.

If we were to distribute asylum seekers equitably, that would mean there would be more asylum seekers who could work in Saskatchewan. I understand that, from your perspective, there is some openness to this.

[Karen Kobussen]

As of April 1, 2026, my understanding is that we currently have 1,113 asylum seekers in Saskatchewan. I hope I'm right on that. That information was given to me. Of those, I don't know how many are working. I don't know how many are there because they were relocated. I don't know how many will stay afterwards, once their cases are heard, etc. I think we need more information. It's not just about getting a job. It's finding a place to live. It's enrolling their children in school, if they have them. Do you know what I mean?

I truly believe that we need to make sure we have all of the information available before we can offer that type of support.

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

Thank you, Ms. Kobussen.

Ms. Kaida, I understand that you have studied the issue of refugee integration, not asylum seekers. You mentioned in your opening remarks that you observed that, in small communities, they were able to attract and retain refugees.

Can you elaborate on the exact figures, and how can this phenomenon be explained?

[Lisa Kaida]

There are government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees. Just to focus on government-assisted refugees, once they arrive in Canada, they are assigned to a select number of destinations, including places outside of Quebec or Ontario, where the resettlement agencies have been contracted by the federal government to provide employment support, language training and cultural training. That's for the government-assisted refugees.

To shift our eyes to privately sponsored refugees, that kind of support has been provided by groups—five ordinary Canadians, religious communities, religious associations or cultural and ethnic associations—that may be spread all over Canada, not just in Quebec and Montreal. Some of them might be in very rural areas, including northern Ontario towns or northern Quebec towns. There, those sponsors are required to provide financial support, accommodation and social and cultural support to privately sponsored refugees for up to 12 months.

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

What is the observed success rate?

[Lisa Kaida]

As a measurement of success, I use employment rates and earnings. That's other research that I didn't mention in my opening statement. Compared with government-assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees have higher success in finding employment and have higher earnings.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Michelle Rempel]

Thank you.

We'll now move to our second round of questions, for five minutes each.

We'll go to Mr. Ho.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Dr. Kaida, your research has studied the short-term and long-term economic integration of refugees in Canada. Your work has compared privately sponsored refugees with government-assisted refugees. Is that correct? Okay.

Can you tell me a bit more about how the privately sponsored refugee program works?