Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 21st, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number eight of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

We have two panels with officials today, and I have no doubt that we will have many questions for them.

Before I introduce our witnesses for today, I'd like to give a few reminders.

First, always kindly wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. I will also remind everyone to please not speak over each other, as it will be very hard for our translators to translate, and it makes their job very difficult.

Because I know we have tons of questions but never enough time, I have two cards that I will pull out before the first questioner. A yellow card means that there is one minute left. A red card means that your time is up and your microphone goes off.

Of course, please ensure that all of your comments are 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. Thank you in advance to all of you for your co-operation.

I have two quick reminders that I want to mention to our committee members. One is that, at a future meeting, we probably should discuss a deadline to submit briefs for Canada's immigration system. It's prudent for us to target some sort of a date, so I want to put everybody on notice that it's something we should discuss.

Second, we do have to set aside time, whether it's 10 or 15 minutes, to give drafting instructions to the analysts regarding the study of the international student program and study permits. I wanted to give advance notice, as there are just a couple of items for us to set aside a little bit of time for in the near future.

With that, let's start our study.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on September 16, the committee is commencing its study of Canada's immigration system. I would now like to welcome our witnesses for today's meeting.

From the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, we have Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, deputy minister; Louise Baird, senior assistant deputy minister, strategic policy; Pemi Gill, assistant deputy minister, service delivery; and Jean-Marc Gionet, acting assistant deputy minister, protection and family programs sector.

Welcome to you all.

From the Immigration and Refugee Board, we have Manon Brassard, chairperson; Roula Eatrides, deputy chairperson, refugee protection division; and Roger Ermuth, executive director.

Up to five minutes will be given for opening remarks to IRCC and to the Immigration and Refugee Board, after which we will proceed with a round of questions.

Welcome, Dr. Harpreet Kochhar. I now invite you to make the opening statement of up to five minutes. Thank you.

[Harpreet S. Kochhar, Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to acknowledge that we're meeting on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

Thank you for undertaking this study on Canada’s immigration system. My colleagues and I truly welcome this conversation.

We share the same goal, a system that Canadians can trust, that newcomers can navigate with clarity and that continues to strengthen our country.

Over the last decade, the department has undergone a major transformation. We have modernized our systems and processes to make them more efficient, transparent and client-focused. As a result, straightforward applications move faster, errors are reduced and officers can dedicate more time to complex cases. Applicants also get clearer information on where their case stands online.

While we are proud of these programs, we know the system remains under pressure.

We saw significant increases in asylum claims and rapid growth in the number of international students and temporary workers.

That has placed additional demands on housing, health care and social services and challenged public sentiment on immigration. To restore the balance and trust, we are adjusting our programs and policies.

We did set caps for temporary residents and are strengthening eligibility and integrity measures so that this population's share returns to sustainable levels.

Changes made to our work permit and international student programs have already resulted in fewer new arrivals, over 235,000 fewer between January and July compared to the same period last year.

We’re also striking a balance on protecting vulnerable people while ensuring our asylum system is strong and fair.

In 2023, the safe third country agreement was expanded to cover our entire shared land border, resulting in a significant drop in irregular crossings.

Asylum claims are down by more than 30% year-to-date, with notable decreases at airports and inland.

We’re working on additional ways to strengthen the asylum system.

New rules in Bill C-12 would make a claim ineligible to be referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board if it is filed more than a year after a person first arrives in Canada or if they cross between the ports of entry and file after the two-week period covered by the safe third country agreement. These reforms would discourage misuse of the system and protect it from potential surges.

More broadly, IRCC places the highest priority on safety and integrity across all programs. Everyone applying to come to Canada is carefully screened. We work with CBSA, CSIS and the RCMP to manage immigration screening, security and enforcement.

We continue to update risk indicators, expand information sharing with allies and improve tools to make our officers’ decisions robust.

The government will soon table its annual report on immigration. It will outline our immigration levels targets for 2026 and projections for 2027 and 2028, for both temporary and permanent residents. Our department's focus remains on keeping the number of newcomers sustainable.

Finally, I will touch on francophone immigration.

We have a variety of strategies to grow the number of French-speaking newcomers across Canada. This is crucial to maintain linguistic duality and support vibrant communities from Moncton to Whitehorse.

Madam Chair and members, our department continues to adapt and modernize to meet Canada's needs, while keeping fairness and public confidence at the heart of everything we do.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you. That was record time, thank you so much.

We have Ms. Brassard from the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Please go ahead. You have five minutes.

[Manon Brassard, Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board]

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for inviting us to speak about the Immigration and Refugee Board today.

The IRB is a tribunal. It was established by Parliament in 1989. Its mandate is to resolve immigration and refugee matters efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.

The decisions which we render must conform not only with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the jurisprudence established by the Federal Courts and the Supreme Court of Canada, but also with international conventions to which Canada is a signatory.

The IRB issued 102,000 decisions last year, which is a historic level. Of those, over 78,000 were decisions from the refugee protection division. This is worth mentioning, considering that the IRB was set to issue 60,000 files last year. The 78,000 represents a 42% productivity increase from the year before, which was the result of hard work, a focus on simplifying our processes, process automation where possible, and rigorous case management.

Today, we're scheduling close to 310 refugee hearings a day. We aim to achieve up to 85,000 finalizations this year. To do so, we need to continue our transformation, allowing us to manage our caseloads as one national inventory and to maximize the efficiencies offered by becoming more and more a digital tribunal.

These results are somehow overshadowed by the fact that 176,000 claims were referred to the IRB last year and a further 155,000 the year before. For comparison, we received 79,000 in 2022–23 and 32,500 the year before. These high levels are therefore fairly new. We expect to receive around 100,000 by the end of this fiscal year. That leaves us, as of September 30, with a caseload of 296,000 claims, of which 103,000 are not ready to be heard because they are incomplete.

A case decided today would have taken on average 22 months. In other words, a claimant would have waited 22 months here for a decision rendered today; 16 months are attributed to IRB’s wait time, while the remaining six are attributed to partners due to incomplete files.

We have made and continue to make progress in increasing the number of cases finalized and maintaining the quality of our decisions so as to meet the tests of the Federal Court.

We have made a lot of progress to achieve our target, which is to render as many decisions as referred claims in one year, but we are not there yet.

I started my comments outlining the nature of the rights at stake and the corresponding obligations to hear and decide these cases. I'll end by saying that I am, and so is every board member of the IRB, very aware of the task at hand—to make transparent, justified and clear decisions quickly, fairly and effectively in accordance with the law.

Madam Chair, I will stop here and welcome questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Wonderful. Thank you. We're going to need the extra minute for those answers and questions.

To begin, we start with Ms. Rempel Garner for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

To the deputy minister, on what date will the immigration levels plan be tabled?

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

That precise date hasn't been decided, but it is generally before November 1 of every year.

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

Do you anticipate it before the end of October?

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

I wouldn't say I have an exact date, but that normally happens before November 1.

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

Thank you.

What was the 2025 target in last year's levels plan for temporary residents, in total?

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

For the temporary residents' total, the overall target was 673,650.

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

How many permits have been issued as of the end of August of this year?

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

I can actually get you the information very quickly here.

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

I have 773,000. Is that right?

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

I'm looking at the total number of work permits issued, if that is the question.

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

On the 673,000 you had, what is the congruent number that has been issued to date? I have 773,000. It was data you posted about 48 hours ago or so.

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

I don't have that number, Madam.

Madam Chair, I do have a split of that, which is a little different from what Madam Rempel Garner said.

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

What I have from your website on data that you just posted is 773,000 temporary permits. We're over halfway through the year and you have already exceeded the levels plan temporary permits issued by 100,000. Is that correct?

[Harpreet S. Kochhar]

May I ask Pemi to answer?

[Pemi Gill, Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

I'd like to provide a clarification. The levels plan for temporary residents for 2025, the 673,000 number, is for admissions. That is persons who've arrived physically in Canada, whereas the number of permits issued represents people we've given a permit to.

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

I have 773,000. Look, what I'm trying to say here is—

[Pemi Gill]

I apologize for the interruption, but their arrival spans multiple years.

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

Okay.

Have you advised the government that they have already exceeded the levels for this year?

[Pemi Gill]

We haven't yet exceeded the levels for this year, as the target within the levels plan for temporary residents is for arrivals within Canada. It's new arrivals versus approving somebody and then they have a period of time to arrive.

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

I know unemployment in Ontario is at about 700,000. The data we have is quite high. Where are these people going to work?