Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 3rd, 2026

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today.

I can appreciate some of your story, Mr. Miranda, because when I was a university student a long time ago, I ended up having a challenging time finding a job. That was over 20 years ago, so I appreciate your story and testimony today.

Our study, though, is about refugees, the system and how we can make it better. It is about jobs, the future and building our country, but it's focused on that in particular.

Mr. Casasola, I want to ask about the program that you were speaking about—the EMPP. You spoke about its success in helping refugees land in Canada. Are there any other best practices that you've seen in other countries that can help us improve the existing program, which you testified is very good already?

[Michael Casasola]

I'll invite Sandra to respond.

[Sandra Elgersma]

Thank you.

As has been mentioned, one thing we hear about from employers and hiring partners is predictability and speed. This is the same for hiring a refugee to fill your gap as it would be for another type of economic immigrant. That is an important feature that we also see in other countries.

In the early days, Canada was a pioneer, and there were only so many refugees being matched with jobs. However, once the U.K., Australia and others came along, you would have a refugee with a job offer at more than one place, and the quicker country often won the candidate, as it were. It's an important consideration.

As to other great practices, Steve was talking about being rooted in community. We've seen small communities where you have young people leaving and where there's ongoing trouble finding workers. That's where the EMPP has been very successful.

Those are some of the key things I'd highlight.

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

Through the EMPP and refugee system in general, we welcome people who are deeply vulnerable and who have a potential threat to their life or safety. This is part of our international obligations in respect of the refugee convention of 1951, which Canada has incorporated into the IRPA. The Supreme Court has said that this fulfills our responsibilities towards that particular international covenant. We're talking about this today to situate the conversation again.

You testified earlier that to have a more rapid speed, having people pass through in six months would be ideal. You noted that this would help those who are deeply vulnerable to be well-employed, land here and be integrated.

I open this up to you too, Mr. Mason. When these qualified people cannot avail themselves of this program, what happens to them? What differentiates them from those who do use the EMPP?

[Michael Casasola]

Please go ahead, Steve, if you have something to add.

To be clear, as you noted, Canada plays an important role in terms of having an asylum system that protects people who seek its protection, as per the convention. Also, it's a leading resettlement country for refugees who are among the most vulnerable and who have the greatest, most acute protection problems. This is a way to access the economic immigration program for other refugees who have the skills that Canada is looking for. This is additional. It's been a really important thing, but it's not for all refugees, of course.

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

Certainly, and nor should it be for all refugees, because as you pointed out, we fulfill the obligations independent of the economic landing of these people, who are deeply vulnerable.

I'd like to open up the last 20 seconds to get any further comments from one person.

[Steve Mason]

I'll just say quickly, as I said earlier, that the EMPP is a really important program. We would love to unlock the potential of the rest of the immigration system so that it's more open and accessible to refugees, because there are significant barriers. We're working through programs like the provincial nominee program to see how that may be possible so we can take more advantage of the refugee talent that is going to waste because, in their current context, they usually have no ability to access jobs or work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Mason.

Thank you, Mr. Zuberi.

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

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Overall, I'd like to keep going a bit on the issue of application processing times. In our constituency offices, we have a lot of problems. The processing times for asylum claims are several years.

Are you having those challenges as well?

We talked about a six-month processing time. That would be fantastic, but is it possible to get there?

[Michael Casasola]

When we're referring to the asylum process, it's quite different from when we're talking about the selection of persons overseas.

I need to distinguish the people going before the Immigration and Refugee Board who make an initial claim and are waiting for a hearing but are able to work once they receive their work permit. What we're concerned about is when an employer in Canada wants to offer the possibility for a refugee to enter through an economic immigration program. When that wait is longer than six months, sometimes the employer is not interested anymore, and we lose that potential solution. That's our underlying concern.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

In terms of processing times for work permit renewal applications, there are all kinds of really absurd cases. Workers have been recruited by a company, and they're waiting for their work permit to be renewed. Almost every time, there are delays and problems.

Have you also seen this situation?

[Michael Casasola]

Unfortunately, I can't offer any comment on that because we don't work in that space.

[Steve Mason]

To add a point of clarification, we're really talking about people coming in and getting permanent residency status. The work permit is not one of the tools they're using to access these jobs. We don't work in that space of work permits or renewing work permits, because the pathway is a pathway to permanent residency.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Earlier, you talked about a pilot project in which you put businesses in contact with refugees who could meet their needs.

Can you tell us a bit more about that?

[Steve Mason]

We have a few examples. Just to reiterate it, the pharmacy pilot is the most promising example we have right now. The situation in Nova Scotia is such that there's a gap of around 250 pharmacy jobs. They've tried various strategies to fill them domestically, including through significant signing bonuses, but they can't find talent locally. The pathway to identify refugees who have the skill set that Nova Scotia needs and bring them over has been an immediate solution to the gaps, and it is now allowing pharmacies in rural communities to operate where before they could not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Mason.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Since we have only about five minutes left, I'm going to give two and a half minutes to Mr. Davies and two and a half minutes to Ms. Lapointe.

Mr. Davies, you have two and a half minutes.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm going to be really quick.

Mr. Mason, I'm really interested in how you have done the due diligence up front. The people coming into Canada are already on a pathway to permanent residency. We have a shortage of doctors in Canada—a serious shortage of doctors. Are you competing with other countries to find them? Have you had any people in the medical field who could have been brought here? Is there a competitiveness with other countries in the ecosystem?

[Steve Mason]

I think there is an increasing competitiveness as more countries get into this game. For example, the German government has been very aggressive on some aspects of labour mobility. They don't offer permanent residency, so Canada has a value-add that the German government doesn't have.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

Have you come across many medical doctors?

[Steve Mason]

There certainly is a cohort of trained medical doctors in the refugee community who could be targets. One of the things we're looking at right now is working at the provincial level to identify where the needs are and where they can't be filled domestically and figuring that out.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

Thank you.

I'll turn it over to my colleague.

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

Thank you.

We have the United Nations at this committee today. We have federally funded and taxpayer-funded organizations at this committee that are advocating to bring more refugees into Canada. Their testimony advocates for reducing backlogs and reducing the processing of high-skilled refugee applications from two years to two months.

Ethan, you're a 24-year-old computer science graduate from a reputable university. You've been looking for a job in your field for two years. Do you think the government's focus should instead be on reducing the time for you to get a job from two years to two months?

[Ethan Miranda]

Certainly, the government should be focusing on making sure that young Canadians can get entry-level positions where they can improve their skills.

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

Absolutely.

Months ago, the Liberal Prime Minister spoke to a room full of Canadian university students, and he told them to make more “sacrifices”. All the while, the Liberals, in their last budget, announced billions of dollars to attract foreign talent to Canada with absolutely nothing to address the youth unemployment crisis.

Do you think that you, your classmates and your friends have sacrificed enough?

[Ethan Miranda]

I don't really want to comment too much on how much I've sacrificed or how much other people have sacrificed, but I would definitely say that it's hard to be a recent graduate right now.