Public Accounts Committee on April 22nd, 2026

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 33 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the Standing Orders, although I believe all members and witnesses are in the room today.

Thank you very much for that.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(g), the committee commenced consideration of the report on international student program reforms, of the 2026 spring reports of the Auditor General of Canada. The report was referred to the committee on Monday, March 23, 2026.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask for clarification.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Deltell, you have the floor.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

As you know, we recently reported on the scandal involving the City of Laval having to pay one million dollars to the Canada Revenue Agency. We would like the Minister of Finance and National Revenue to testify here before the committee. We made a formal request to that effect nearly three weeks ago. I would like to know if Minister Champagne has responded and when he will be joining us.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

At this time, we still don’t have a date for the Minister of Finance’s appearance. It would be a good question to ask him during question period. We will continue to ask him when, before the summer, he can come here.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to welcome our witnesses so that we can get going.

From the Office of the Auditor General, we have Karen Hogan, who is the auditor Auditor General of Canada, as well as Gabriel Lombardi and Erin Jellinek. From the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, we have Ted Gallivan, deputy minister; Alexis Graham, acting assistant deputy minister of economic programs; and Tara Lang, director general of admissibility. From the Canada Border Services Agency, we have Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement.

It's nice to see you all. I believe there are two opening statements.

Ms. Hogan, you can kick us off, please, for about five minutes.

[Karen Hogan, Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today to discuss our report on reforms to the international student program, which was tabled in March of this year.

I would like to begin by recognizing that we are on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

In this audit, we looked at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s implementation of reforms to the international student program. These reforms were intended to manage growth and strengthen integrity controls.

Overall, we concluded that while the department reduced the number of new study permits issued, it fell short in other key areas. In 2024, the department issued just under 150,000 new study permits. This was well below the forecast of almost 350,000.

Some provinces, particularly those with smaller populations, were disproportionately affected. For example, Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan were both expected to see a 10% increase in approved new study permits compared to the previous year. Instead, both experienced a decrease of at least 59%.

The audit found critical weaknesses in the program's integrity controls. Although the department introduced a new tool to verify acceptance letters and had processes to identify potential fraud and student non-compliance, it did not effectively investigate or follow up when risks were flagged. For example, in 2023 and 2024, designated learning institutions identified over 153,000 potential cases of non-compliance with study permits, but the department investigated only about 4,000 of them. Most cases could not be closed because students did not respond to the department's requests for more information.

Further, the department's fraud detection activities identified 800 cases of fraud after permits were approved. No follow-up occurred on these cases. In most instances, individuals went on to apply for other immigration permits while in Canada. More than half of those applications have since been approved.

Our audit also identified an opportunity for better collaboration with the Canada Border Services Agency. We found that the immigration department did not collaborate with the agency to identify whether students with expired permits had left Canada. Using the immigration department's available data, we worked with the Canada Border Services Agency and found that only about 40% of the 39,500 students who were required to leave in 2024 had, in fact, left the country.

Ultimately, the department needs to act on the information it already has to address integrity concerns in the program, including collaborating with the Canada Border Services Agency. This is equally important once students are in Canada and applying for additional permits.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

Next is Mr. Gallivan, who will make an opening statement of about five minutes.

Thank you.

[Ted Gallivan, Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I won't read the text in order to allow more time for questions and answers.

I just want to insist on the fact that the reviews of and the changes to the international student program were implemented by the government in 2023. It's a proactive initiative to incorporate more checks and balances in the program.

Second, the OAG found a number of areas of improvement, including the decrease in the number of students, which was the strategic objective, the implementation of a letter of verification process with educational institutions and, finally, the cancellation of the student direct stream. That program no longer exists.

I would say that we have an action plan. In my opinion, it is important that all action plans be completed by 2026 and that we take action at the appropriate time.

Second, we have committed to following up on all cases where there is a possibility of fraud. Then, when there is indeed a discrepancy or a violation of regulations, we take full responsibility for these cases.

Finally, we have taken responsibility for better managing the expiration of visas. When a visa expires, we take responsibility for following up.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I, along with my team members, welcome questions from members.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

We will begin our first round, which consists of three members with six minutes each.

Mr. Redekopp, welcome. You will kick us off, for six minutes, please.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

Auditor, thank you for that report. It was a great report. In it, you mentioned 51 cases of letters of acceptance fraud that you looked into and had been flagged, but the officers didn't follow procedures in 14 of those cases.

Is it fair to say that IRCC systems can detect fraud but then do not follow through and still let it pass?

[Karen Hogan]

We found many instances where the immigration department had information in its possession that it was not acting on. Its systems identified fraud or even flagged potential non-compliance with study permits, but it was that follow-through that is lacking in many of the cases we looked at.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

In 12 of these flagged cases, officers refused the applications for other reasons but didn't actually resolve the fraud question. That's what you pointed out in the report.

Mr. Gallivan, does that mean your department failed to make a finding of misrepresentation, failed to trigger a five-year ban and failed to alert the next officer who might review that specific file in another application scenario?

[Ted Gallivan]

The potential certainly exists. Without knowing the facts of the case, you can't say for sure, but I think the concern the OAG flagged is that without doing the homework and without documenting the file, it could have been the case.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Ms. Hogan, it would be an unacceptable situation if that wasn't flagged, and that's what you pointed out in the report. Is that correct?

[Karen Hogan]

Absolutely, because those steps are meant to ensure that something is done if the person is found to have not followed the rules. It's putting up a flag so that you consider it during the next immigration status...or placing a ban. There are lots of tools in the tool kit at the immigration department, but if you don't take it to the end of the investigation, you can't use one of those tools.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

The study permit is one stream where there were problems with fraud. Did you have a chance to look at other streams to check for fraud as well?

[Karen Hogan]

No. This audit was focused solely on the international student program. We looked at the student direct stream, which had some concerns because certain countries that were in that stream were flagged as high risk for potentially using fraudulent documentation, yet they were in the student direct stream, which, by its nature, was meant to fast-track and be a bit of a light touch.

It would all have been linked to international students, whether it be in one instance or another, but it was on the international student program.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

You also investigated 800 cases where fraud was suspected and IRCC chose not to investigate any of them. You mentioned that.

As an auditor, would you be concerned that this pattern of not investigating fraud is present in other immigration streams as well?

[Karen Hogan]

That's really hard to say. It would depend on whether the individuals who are carrying out the procedures here are the same individuals, what the policies and procedures are and what kind of oversight was exercised. I think it would be wrong for me to extrapolate that, because in the international student program we saw the fact that there was information not being acted on, that would be extrapolatable to the rest of the department.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

The Globe and Mail had a story recently that showed that IRCC instructed its frontline officers to allow asylum claimants into the country, even if they suspected that the client was not being truthful. This was a story a couple of weeks ago.

Does this type of behaviour concern you, given what you found in the student program?

[Karen Hogan]

I don't know the article you're referring to. This is where I would expect that rigour be applied where rigour is meant to be applied. We saw that the immigration department has risk units that do a really good job of analyzing risk by country and region. However, we saw inconsistencies with those risk assessments or the follow-through on information.

The department should care about the rigour of the immigration process, not just at the intake of an application but while individuals are in Canada, and when they should comply with the permits and leave. We found that the department really needs to do a better job at managing those risks throughout the rest of the process, not just in the application stream.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thanks.

Mr. Gallivan, your department's response to this particular issue said that you would add alerts to the files where fraud had been discovered. Will these capture concerns raised at the very front end, like the example I just mentioned that was found in the article?

If an agent doubts an original story, will that be noted in the file?

[Ted Gallivan]

The short answer is yes. The indicator is there for a reason. The IRCC will—through specialized compliance units, enhanced training and more clear direction—ensure those are populated. To the OAG's point, more importantly, we will ensure there's follow-up action on those indicators.