Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 8th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Good morning. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 37 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Today's meeting is taking place in hybrid format, but our first panel for the first hour is in person.

I'd like to make a few comments for the benefit of our witnesses and our members. These are just reminders, but I think it's always helpful.

Kindly wait to be recognized before speaking. I would also like to remind the witnesses and the committee members that you can ask questions in either French or English. If you need interpretation, please take a moment now to prepare your earpiece and select the listening channel you need in advance, in order to take full advantage of the time allotted for questions and answers.

I would remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.

Members, please raise your hand if you wish to speak. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can.

I will also remind everyone to please not speak over each other. It's hard for our interpreters to interpret, and it makes their jobs difficult.

I will let you know when you only have one minute left.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on May 6, 2026, the committee is continuing its study on attracting and empowering global talent to strengthen Canada's economy.

I would now like to warmly welcome the witnesses for today's meeting. From the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, we have with us Alexis Graham, acting assistant deputy minister, economic programs; and Carol McQueen, director general, settlement and integration policy.

Thank you both for being here today, and thank you very much for your service to our country.

You will have five minutes for your opening remarks, after which we'll proceed with rounds of questions.

I'll now invite Ms. Graham to make an opening statement of up to five minutes.

Please, go ahead. Your five minutes starts now.

[Alexis Graham, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Programs, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the invitation to appear.

Canada's ability to attract and retain global talent is an important part of building a strong economy, as outlined by the motion, but our approach needs to be targeted and thoughtful. It must support sustainable immigration levels, respond to labour market needs and complement the skills and potential of people who are already here in the country. That balance is especially important today.

We're seeing youth and newcomers face higher unemployment rates, while employers in key sectors report ongoing difficulty finding workers with the right skills and experience. Economic immigration is not a substitute for developing our domestic workforce, but rather it's another tool to advance priorities that directly benefit Canadians, including in the areas of housing, health care, infrastructure, defence and broader economic security.

All over the world, changing trade patterns and socio-economic conditions are creating both uncertainty and opportunities. It is vital that we position Canada so that it can be competitive when it comes to attracting highly skilled talent.

That is why budget 2025 launched the international talent attraction strategy. This strategy recognizes that people with high-demand skills are mobile. They are looking not only for opportunities for career advancement and competitive compensation, but also for places where they can put their skills to good use and build a good life.

In this context, immigration pathways are an enabler and an important one. Where processes are slow or overly complex, they can create friction. IRCC's role is to try to make the system as straightforward and responsive as possible. We want talented people to choose Canada with confidence.

Our permanent economic pathways have a fairly strong track record. From 2023 to 2025, express entry brought in more than 20,000 health care professionals and 48,000 skilled tradespeople. From 2024 to 2025, approximately 26,000 admissions were in digital technology and artificial intelligence-related occupations. We also introduced new express-entry categories in 2026 to bring in physicians, senior managers and researchers with Canadian work experience. These are intended to complement existing category-based selection in STEM fields, skilled trades, education, transportation, health care and social services.

We issued 391 invitations to apply to this physician category in the first draw. In addition, provinces and territories can use up to 5,000 federal admissions spaces to meet their need for more physicians.

Temporary pathways are also designed to facilitate the arrival of skilled workers in Canada. For example, in 2025, under the international mobility program, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or the IRCC, issued over 5,000 work permits for AI-related occupations.

We're continuing to refine our approaches. We're assessing lessons learned from complementary pathways, such as the economic mobility for skilled refugees. We're also exploring updates to express entry.

Canada is already a destination for highly skilled talent, and we believe these steps will help further strengthen our position in an increasingly competitive landscape. I would like to close by acknowledging that this work is a shared effort and that we are constantly trying to improve these approaches based on evidence, feedback and the lived experiences of newcomers, employers and communities.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you very much for your remarks, Ms. Graham.

We will now begin the first round of questions and answers, which will be six minutes.

First up is Ms. Rempel Garner, please.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Graham, in the last year, per the lobbying registry, Universities Canada, the U15 and multiple other universities repeatedly met with your former boss, who is now the associate deputy minister of economic programs. After this lobbying, in this year's immigration levels plan, there's now no limit on how many graduate students universities can bring into Canada. There's also no longer a requirement for an attestation letter from the provinces, and even though the Auditor General recently found rampant gaps in your screening, your department has reduced processing times for some of these permits down to 14 days. All of this happened in the middle of a massive youth unemployment crisis.

Why did you create a full exemption for public university graduate students from the study permit cap rather than simply slot them into overall allocations, which still include diploma mills that are rife with abuse?

[Alexis Graham]

In terms of the exemptions, what I can say is that the goal here is to really focus on those high-quality, highly skilled students who have potential to contribute to Canada over the long term through permanent residence programs.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

You talk about high-quality, highly skilled students. I think there are a lot of high-quality, highly skilled Canadian students who would love to have those graduate student spots and that funding. Are you saying that those highly skilled Canadian spots should just automatically go into a no-cap permit program for foreign students? That's what it seems like with this change.

[Alexis Graham]

The purpose of providing that exemption is to ensure that we're not missing talent or leaving talent on the table, and not able to capitalize on the benefits of those international students at the highly skilled—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

There are a lot of Canadian students who don't see it that way. I see it like a bit of a shell game where Canadian youth are the losers. Provinces cap tuition. The universities come to your department and lobby you really hard. They ask for more international students to juice their revenue, and then you remove the cap on graduate students.

With AI technological disruption, why wouldn't you just push to train or re-skill more Canadian kids instead of lift the cap on graduate students?

[Alexis Graham]

Maybe I'll just note that right now, as already studied by the committee, only 44% of the cap is actually being met. There are many allocations that are not being taken advantage of by universities. Those student numbers are quite low compared to several years ago.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Don't you think that universities and their lobbyists, which are very powerful, would have more impetus to lobby for a better upskill training program if you didn't just lift the cap in the middle of a youth jobs crisis?

[Alexis Graham]

There is certainly space for domestic workforce strategies and a focus on younger people. This is more the role of ESDC rather than an IRCC question.

In terms of the techniques and the approaches to that, there may be other people who could better answer that question.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

In 2025—about a year ago—you personally met with Restaurants Canada. They lobbied you on temporary foreign worker programs.

How many labour unions have you or your former boss personally met with to counterbalance the universities' influence on your public policy, as well as groups like Restaurants Canada?

[Alexis Graham]

I wouldn't have that right off the top of my mind, but I'd certainly be happy to go back into—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Do you remember any trade unions? How about individual kids?

[Alexis Graham]

We've met with the construction sector, with Restaurants Canada.... We've met with tourism as well.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Did you meet with anybody who said, “Hey, you're bringing in too many people and a bunch of our workers can't find jobs now,” or was it just people who were advocating for more foreign labour to depress wages?

[Alexis Graham]

The majority of the conversations are around what the gaps are within these particular industries and focused more on what type of talent they are struggling with obtaining.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

The conversations are bringing in more foreign labour, as opposed to upskilling for Canadians. Is that correct?

[Alexis Graham]

The conversations can be a mix of things. Sometimes it is, of course, focused on how to tap into international markets—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You've been in your role for a while now. Have you personally met with any out-of-work Canadian graduate students? We had one at our committee last.... Have you proactively reached out to union leaders and said, “Hey, we might not have a balance in terms of lobbying,” or are you just taking the universities' shell game lobbying into your no-cap policies?

[Alexis Graham]

I think that's an excellent suggestion and I appreciate it. I have been in this role for about three months now, so I have been trying to figure out what the right engagement is. I do take your point and appreciate that.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You didn't consult with any trades unions. You guys have mostly met with universities. Do you think there should be a set amount or a set requirement...?

I'll put it this way. Would you recommend to the federal government that instead of lifting the cap on graduate students, we abolish the diploma mill spots for foreign student visas, which are still rife with abuse?

[Alexis Graham]

Maybe I'll start with the meetings we have. We do meet with a variety of different industry stakeholders and labour unions. Again, I can go through our schedules of people we've met with and see if there needs to be greater diversity. I think that's a valid point to raise.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Ms. Graham.

Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.

We will next go for six minutes to Ms. Sodhi.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our officials for appearing before the committee today.

My first question is for Ms. Graham.

Ms. McQueen, if you would like to add in, you're more than welcome to.

Canada is facing increasing competition from other countries for highly skilled workers, researchers and innovators. At the same time, global uncertainty has created new opportunities for countries that can offer stability, opportunity and an overall welcoming immigration system like ours. How is the government's new talent attraction strategy positioning Canada to compete for the world's best and brightest?