Public Safety Committee on March 10th, 2021

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Okay.

Ms. Michaud, you have the floor for four minutes.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to ask some questions about travel exemptions.

Some things have been reported to us by our fellow citizens. One of them is that foreigners, permanent residents and Canadian citizens who are abroad and want to come to Canada to take care of a sick person or to attend a funeral can fill out the exemption form and be exempted from the mandatory hotel quarantine. Conversely, Canadians who are in Canada and who have to go abroad to take care of someone are not exempt from mandatory hotel quarantine when they come back. That seems rather illogical to me.

I would like to know what the rationale is behind this.

[Brigitte Diogo]

I can answer this question.

It is indeed something that has been brought to our attention and that we are looking into.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

So you are looking at the possibility of extending the list of exemptions? It must be said that the government only made the list public on 24 February. Our citizens were asking a lot of questions and wanted to know if they could be exempted from the mandatory quarantine. We didn't necessarily have an answer for them. We were given an email address to submit individual cases. It was on a case-by-case basis and it took a long time to get answers.

Will you publish a list of these exemptions in the near future so that our citizens have the right information?

People in family reunification situations would like to be exempted from the mandatory quarantine. I'm talking about extreme situations, of course. It is only right that hotel quarantine should be mandatory for as many people as possible.

Will those who really have valid reasons to travel be entitled to certain accommodations?

[Brigitte Diogo]

Every time we publish a new version of the order in council, we receive a lot of comments. As in the previous case, the issue you raise has been brought to our attention, and this is one of the issues we are looking at. I cannot tell you what the decision will be, but we are aware of the situation.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

So, if we have any concerns, perhaps we should submit them to you so that they can be part of the reflection.

[Brigitte Diogo]

Yes, indeed.

You mentioned the email box where we receive questions. We consult it as and when requests come in. This allows us to make a decision and to give a regulatory or non-regulatory answer.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you. It is appreciated.

I would like to come back to the situation that occurred in Oakville.

What guidelines are given to screening officers, quarantine officers or police officers with regard to people who refuse to comply with instructions?

I guess verbal, physical or sexual abuse is not an option and that it was not covered in the training these officers received, but could you tell us a bit more about the nature of that training?

How should officers deal with people who refuse to abide by the rules?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Very briefly, please.

[Brigitte Diogo]

Yes.

These are agents who have to go through a series of training sessions, and they have to take an exam after each one. Our agency has a very clear script and very strict rules about the way people must present themselves. For example, a screening officer cannot enter someone's home.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Unfortunately, we're going to have to leave the answer there.

[Brigitte Diogo]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Mr. Harris.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Christiansen, you said earlier, and I think it was the clearest indication that there was very little discretion on the part of the CBSA officers on admissions, that you actually have training materials that you developed from the order in council with the descriptions as to how they ought to be applied.

Could you undertake to make available those training materials to the committee, please? That would give us an explanation as to how that interpretation is being laid out for the border officers. I think that would be most helpful to members of Parliament, for sure, and certainly members of this committee when offering advice to people, because we're asked for it all the time, in regard to whether or not they may or may not be in compliance with the essential worker exception.

[Calvin Christiansen]

Absolutely.

Mr. Chair, this is very similar to the request for information that was made before, and what we do is we send out field guidance in a format that depends on which OIC we're dealing with. It could be 10 pages long, it could be 14 pages long, and that's the guidance that we have.

We will definitely make that available, in both official languages.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

That would be wonderful. Thank you very much.

I have a question for PHAC about another aspect of people having difficulty getting entry into Canada for compassionate reasons. We know that there's a compassionate exemption for people attending funerals, and also for people trying to see a loved one who may be in palliative care or close to death, although sometimes the approvals haven't come early enough.

Dr. Kochhar, can you confirm that?

Also, is there a possibility of having a compassionate exemption for international adoptions? We've had requests in our office, and I know others have as well, where there's a situation of bringing a child into the country from a traumatic situation and not being able to actually quarantine at home with the child being brought into the country. Is this something that PHAC is prepared to consider as well?

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

I'll turn to Brigitte on the current thinking but certainly we continue to look at opportunities to assist in any way.

Brigitte, do you have any specifics on that adoption piece?

[Brigitte Diogo]

Yes. As I was saying, we are aware of this question as well. A number of questions have been raised that we are continuing to examine, including the one you just raised.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Then that's under consideration right now?

[Brigitte Diogo]

Yes, and a long list of other issues.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Can you describe some of the other possibilities for compassionate grounds? A lot of people think that the non-essential travellers are people who are off vacationing, like some of the politicians we've heard about, or other people vacationing and coming back. We do have circumstances where people who have been away from the country for a year or two and it's their time to come back after finishing studies or whatever. This additional expense is a terrible burden to many of these people. Are there any exemptions for this? They're not workers returning. These are Canadians coming home.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Be very brief, please.

[Brigitte Diogo]

Yes, as I mentioned, when these OIC situations come to light that we must examine, we are doing that. I will finish by saying that we are concerned about the variants. The international movement is of concern, so we will examine how the risks can continue to be mitigated.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you.

On behalf of the committee, I wish to thank the witnesses and the staff for their patience and their service to our country in this very difficult time. We are all struggling together.

This completes our time.

The meeting is adjourned.