Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 21st, 2025

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

Have there been any applicants to Canada from the IDF in the last two years, who have been refused because of potential war crimes or crimes against humanity they've been involved in?

[Aaron McCrorie]

I don't have that level of detail. I'm not aware of it.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you so much, Mr. Zuberi.

Thank you, Mr. McCrorie.

We have six minutes from Monsieur Brunelle-Duceppe.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for coming here today.

I will put the same question to representatives of all the organizations, and I hope the answers will be straightforward, such as “Yes” or “No.” I will also take an “I don’t know” answer. There is no wrong answer or mistake. I will start with the Canada Border Services Agency.

Mr. McCrorie, can you tell me whether the federal government terminated the contract awarded to Mr. Pierre Guay to lease his land when Roxham Road was closed in 2023?

[Aaron McCrorie]

I can provide a detailed answer, if you will indulge me.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Try and hurry up because I only have six minutes.

[Aaron McCrorie]

Yes, fine.

In the context of what we've seen over the last probably 12 months at Lacolle.... Unlike at other land border crossings, we actually have seen increasing numbers of individuals coming to make asylum claims at Lacolle. Based on a precautionary principle, kind of like when Roxham Road was open, we've started to augment our capacity at Lacolle to handle any significant influx of individuals.

After we went through a very rigorous procurement process, strongly governed within the agency but also working with Public Services and Procurement Canada, an RFP, or request for proposals, was put out. My understanding is that Industry Guay Limited was the winner of that process. This is not my area of expertise, but my understanding is that a contract has been signed and it did go through a rigorous contractual procurement process.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I want to make sure I got that right. The call for tenders was issued when Roxham Road was open. You needed land somewhere for your activities due to the growing influx of migrants. So you issued the request for proposals before Roxham Road was closed.

To my knowledge, the safe third party country agreement between Canada and the United States was renewed when Mr. Biden visited Canada, and then Roxham Road was closed because irregular entries would no longer be allowed. Are we still together?

You have told me that payment to lease this land continued even though Roxham Road was now closed. So according to your logic, a call for tenders was issued because Roxham Road was open and the lease for this land continued after Roxham Road was closed, because you did not know if you would use the land at some point in future.

[Aaron McCrorie]

I apologize, but I'm only familiar with this most recent contractual arrangement, which, as I say, was a product of the precautionary work we're doing through this winter into the spring from a contingency planning point of view in case we saw a significant increase in numbers at Lacolle.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I find that fascinating.

So the land has not been utilized since Roxham Road was closed in 2023 until quite recently.

[Aaron McCrorie]

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar enough with what you're referring to in terms of the land. Again, in anticipation of the significant number of individuals making asylum claims that would overwhelm our existing capacity, I can tell you that we put out an RFP for additional support. My understanding is that this is the organization that got the contract. It's hard for me to talk about what happened prior to that.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

What is the term of these contracts?

[Aaron McCrorie]

I am sorry, but I don’t know.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. McGuire, can you answer that question? Do you know whether these contracts have a specific term?

[Mike McGuire]

This contract is not managed by the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, so I don’t know.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I suppose I’ll get the same answer from you, Mr. Baylin.

[Richard Baylin]

I do not have an answer to that question.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

That’s great.

That is staggering. Today we have received an official response from the Government of Canada. This is hot off the press, so you may not have had enough time to go through it. The fact is that the government knew, and that the Department of Public Safety and agencies have activities on the land leased through a contract awarded to Pierre Guay. Today, we have been told that these contracts have not been terminated and they will be in force until 2027.

The whole thing seems surreal to me. The federal government appears to have an abysmal communication problem between its various departments and agencies. I am not pointing fingers at anyone when I say that. My main concern here is directed at the federal government.

Today, we are finding out that, by the way, the leases that were signed through contracts awarded to Pierre Guay, a major Liberal Party donor, are still in force, even though Roxham Road was closed. We have also learned that activity on the land resumed recently, but no one can tell me how long these contracts continued to be in force while the land was vacant.

The whole thing just blows my mind. Once again, I am not blaming anyone.

Mr. McGuire, could you tell me whether the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness continues to have activities related to the contracts awarded to Mr. Pierre Guay?

[Mike McGuire]

Again, this contract is not under the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

So you don’t have any activities connected to this land. Thank you.

Mr. Baylin, does the RCMP have any activities on Mr. Guay’s land at the moment?

[Richard Baylin]

Not that I'm aware of, no.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

So we are paying for vacant land.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

Now we move to our second round, which begins with five-minute rounds.

We will begin with Ms. Rempel Garner for five minutes.

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

I'm splitting my time with Mr. Davies.