Public Safety Committee on Nov. 25th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you for your intervention on this amendment, Ms. Rempel Garner.

Mr. Lawton, you have the floor.

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank my colleague Ms. Rempel Garner for introducing this amendment.

This requires some transparency from the Minister of Immigration over whether the government is upholding a core obligation for national security, and for the integrity of the immigration and refugee system, and that is removing people who have no legal right to be in Canada.

Ms. Rempel Garner mentioned a story that came out a couple of months ago in which there were, I believe, “600 foreign nationals with criminal convictions” whom the federal government was failing to remove from this country because it didn't know where they were.

I remember the Auditor General also, about five years ago, revealed that the CBSA had lost track of 34,000 foreign nationals who were slated for removal—people who had no legal right to be in Canada. This itself makes a mockery of our immigration system and of our sovereignty as a nation.

We absolutely need transparency so that we are able to fix these issues. We've seen that, over the last several years, we can't actually deal with these problems because we don't get the data we need to make these decisions.

I will be very much supporting this motion, and I hope the government does as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you, Mr. Lawton.

Mr. Ramsay, you have the floor.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

I would just like the witnesses to clarify one thing for me: Isn't that information already available?

[Brett Bush]

Yes, we publish removals information on the CBSA website. Not all of the information that is suggested in the amendment is covered. Of course, we provide the reasons for the removals, the number of removals and those stats. Regarding the underlying criminal backgrounds of individual clients, we do not provide that online.

Yes, largely, that's available.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

Do you see a benefit to adding that information, as provided for in this amendment?

[Brett Bush]

From a CBSA perspective, the shorter the period of time for the reporting, the less fidelity you'll have in the information. Having it on an annual basis, you'll have a much better picture of what's going on, because on a monthly basis.... It takes time to enter the removal numbers after the person's been removed. The people removed later in the month might not be captured in that information.

When the sample size is smaller, you'll run into privacy issues where we might have to exempt information. The smaller the numbers get, the more we run the risk of identifying the individual.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

You're saying it would be a lot of work for you to do that on a monthly basis. Would it be better if it were quarterly?

[Brett Bush]

Quarterly or annually would be better, yes.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

I therefore propose a subamendment to amend the text of amendment CPC‑7 such that the report would be tabled four times a year.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

We'll suspend the meeting for a few moments to make sure we understand the nature of this subamendment.

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

On a point of order, what is he amending? I don't understand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

That's what we're going to figure out. We'll suspend for a minute or two, and then we'll have a clearer picture of what is being subamended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

I call the meeting back to order.

The information was sent to your email addresses. Mr. Ramsay will give us a verbal summary of how the subamendment would change the amendment.

Mr. Ramsay, the floor is yours.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

Should I read the subamendment?

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Yes, you can read the subamendment. I will then summarize what it does.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

I propose the following changes.

Instead of “prepare a report in respect of each month of the year”, it would be, “prepare a report quarterly that sets out the number of removal orders that were enforced in that period”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

I'll summarize very quickly.

We're replacing monthly with quarterly. That's what the subamendment would do to the amendment.

Ms. Rempel Garner, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, I would just say that the rationale given by our colleague for this amendment was the question he asked officials: Is it good for you?

Well, what is good for us as parliamentarians? Again, I think this is a fairly bipartisan amendment as originally laid out. This helps us all do our jobs better.

I don't support the subamendment, but I thank my colleague for trying.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.

Is there any further discussion?

Is the committee in agreement with the subamendment?

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

I'd like a recorded division.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Okay, we'll have a recorded vote.

(Subamendment negatived: nays 5; yeas 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Let's move back to the amendment.

(Amendment agreed to)

(Clause 39 as amended agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Before we go to clause 40, we have CPC‑8, which would add new clause 39.1 to the bill.

Do you want to move that amendment, Madam Rempel?

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

Yes.

I move that Bill C-12 be amended by adding after line 23 on page 18 the following new clause:

39.1 Subsection 55(1) of the Act is replaced by the following:

55 (1) An officer must issue a warrant for the arrest and detention of a permanent resident or a foreign national who the officer has reasonable grounds to believe is inadmissible and is a danger to the public or is unlikely to appear for examination, for an admissibility hearing, for removal from Canada or at a proceeding that could lead to the making of a removal order by the Minister under subsection 44(2).

Colleagues, we all agree, I would hope, that when a legally executed warrant is issued, it is for the safety and well-being of Canadians. When our law enforcement determines that someone poses a risk to public safety and the threshold is met for a warrant, then a warrant must be issued. Currently, the text of Bill C-12 says that an officer “may” issue the warrant when they believe an arrest is needed. Canadians deserve the peace of mind of knowing that those who are subject to warrants have warrants issued in their names and keep our streets safe.