Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 8th, 2026

[Carol McQueen]

For asylum seekers who are here, the IRCC worked for a time, in 2024 and 2025, with a few major employers across Canada, including Tim Hortons, to try to place people.

However, these days, we generally leave that work up to other organizations.

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

Who is responsible for doing that work now?

[Carol McQueen]

We are continuing to work with our partners, such as Employment and Social Development Canada, or ESDC, and others, but it is mainly up to the provinces to do that work. Since asylum seekers are mainly taken care of by the provinces, this falls primarily under their purview.

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

Are you checking to see whether the provinces are actually funding services to help asylum seekers find employment?

[Carol McQueen]

We have a general idea because we work with the provinces. We have an idea of the types of services that they offer. However, we issue work permits to asylum seekers, so that they can get a job in Canada.

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

What is happening with the services offered by the provinces?

[Carol McQueen]

I can't comment on that because the situation varies from province to province. However, we know that some provinces provide emergency housing for asylum seekers, as well as language training and other services.

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

As far as you know, are the provinces providing funding for employment integration services?

[Carol McQueen]

I can't answer that question because it deals with provincial services.

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

When I do the rounds of my riding and talk to groups that work with immigrants of all kinds, they tell me that the funding is aimed more at helping people get permanent residency. I am told that it is more difficult for asylum seekers to get help.

[Carol McQueen]

It is also important to note that, when asylum seekers receive a decision from the board and become protected persons in Canada, they then have access to federal settlement services. At that point, we can provide them with some support in preparing to work in Canada and so on.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Ms. McQueen and Mr. Deschênes.

That completes our first round.

We will now move on to our second round of five minutes for questions and answers. We will begin with Mr. Redekopp.

Mr. Redekopp, you have five minutes.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you.

Thanks to the witnesses.

Ms. Graham, you talked about an advertising program for international students coming to Canada. How much is being spent on that advertising?

[Alexis Graham]

The advertising campaign that I referred to is actually a broader campaign than for just students. It's for talent attraction more universally.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Do you have the numbers? Do you have the cost of that?

[Alexis Graham]

I—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

If you don't have it, you can table it with us later.

[Alexis Graham]

Let me not mislead you. I don't have that number in front of me.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Perhaps you can table it with us.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you.

I want to come back to the grad students being exempt from the caps issue. Stats Canada shows that international bachelor's and master's graduates have significantly lower rates of jobs matching their education level compared with equivalent Canadian grads.

Why exempt grad streams from caps when your own labour market data suggests that many will compete with unemployed young Canadians rather than fill unique shortages?

[Alexis Graham]

I'm happy to table it, yes.

[Alexis Graham]

The logic behind this is that people who have master's-level and Ph.D.-level experience typically do well in the labour market and have skills that can contribute to Canada over the long term. I'm just going—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Stats Canada says there are 431,000 unemployed youth in Canada right now, and there are 660,000 open study permits in Canada at the same time. What do you tell an unemployed young person when they see that you're aggressively looking to bring in people to compete with them for jobs?

[Alexis Graham]

I do very much understand. I don't want to downplay the challenges around youth unemployment. This is a very pressing issue and something that a lot of people are concerned about—