Evidence of meeting #15 for Public Safety and National Security in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was section.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Excuse me, Ms. Kwan, but we have a point of order.
Mrs. DeBellefeuille, you have the floor.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, QC
The interpretation is not working.
Liberal
Bloc
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Thank you, Mrs. DeBellefeuille.
I'm sorry, Ms. Kwan. You may resume.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Hopefully, interpretation is working. I have the same system on.
To carry on, many of the non-profits who work with the newcomer community, such as the Canadian Bar Association, have noted that this language is vague. A clear definition of public interest is needed. Stakeholders have noted that as this power defines procedural fairness, it increases the precarity of already vulnerable classes of newcomers and would open the door to discrimination for all future governments, especially as it introduces the ability to target restrictions of applications to certain foreign nationals.
My amendment limits the scope of the proposed new powers to cancel, suspend or change a whole range of immigration documents if deemed in the public interest, if it addresses a serious threat to health or any other matter referred to in section 34 of IRPA, which is concerned with security-related reasons for inadmissibility.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
Is NDP‑10 okay with the committee?
(Amendment negatived)
Liberal
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Chair.
We're getting there, colleagues.
I move that Bill C-12, in clause 72, be amended by adding after line 9 on page 30 the following:
(1.1) For greater certainty, the authority to vary under subsection (1) does not include the authority to grant permanent resident status.
To be clear, colleagues, what we approved as an amendment before was that we prohibited individual officers from using these powers as laid out in the amendment individually. Now we are prohibiting on the same principle for en masse decisions. It is even more important that we pass this. If the officials truly are not going to use this to grant permanent resident status, then we should support this amendment.
It just duplicates the principle we had in the earlier amendment to this particular clause. I hope colleagues will support it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.
Shall CPC‑26.2 carry?
(Amendment agreed to)
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
We'll now go to NDP‑11.
Ms. Kwan, you have the floor.
I'm sorry, Madam Kwan. First, I want to hear what Ms. Rempel Garner or MP Redekopp would like to say.
Go ahead.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
We provided notice of this to the clerk. The reference number is 13764269. I believe we're at the part of the bill where this would be moved. It's for clause 72, after line 3 on page 31. We're getting to that point of this bill where it's like amendment bingo. I call out—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
I'll pause for a second to make sure I understand.
There was a notice of motion, and the reference number was 13764269. I hope everyone has a copy of that.
Ms. Rempel Garner.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Bingo. We found it.
Chair, I move that Bill C-12, in clause 72, be amended by adding after line 3 on page 31 the following:
87.3031(1) If an order is made under subsection 87.301(1), 87.302(1) or 87.303(1) or (2), the Minister must cause to be tabled in each House of Parliament, within the next seven sitting days of the House after the day on which the order is made, a report setting out
(a) the reasons that the order was made;
(b) the number of applications or documents affected; and
(c) a description of the persons or groups affected by the order.
(2) The report stands referred to the committee of the Senate, of the House of Commons or of both Houses of Parliament that may be designated or established for the purpose of reviewing the report.
(3) At the request of the committee, the Minister must appear before it to explain the reasons for making the order and plans to prevent—
Actually, Chair, I'm just going to make it read as follows, “At the request of the committee, the Minister must appear before it.”
Colleagues, here's my rationale. In part 7 of the bill, the government is asking us to devolve powers from Parliament to the government wherein, through the cabinet, the department can do a lot of things with regard to documents and applications.
We did hear from a lot of witnesses that there was concern about using these powers. We heard from different legal groups and different stakeholder groups. We also heard from officials that they wanted a more efficient way to use some of these powers going forward than having to go through legislation.
I was trying to find a way to square the circle of all of these concerns. What this amendment does is pretty simple. It just says that if the government is going to use these powers, it needs to report to Parliament that it's done it and give us some pretty high-level details on what's happened. That allows Parliament to scrutinize these decisions.
What we're saying is that Parliament wants to know. If there's a situation where the government used it and a system needs to be corrected, or if it's impacted a certain group of people, Parliament should know.
Some of us might agree with that decision and others might not, but I think that information is what is important. This is an attempt to square the circle. It's basically to give a more clear and more robust reporting requirement than simply putting it into the Gazette with not a lot of detail.
I hope this actually makes everybody happy, including my colleagues from the NDP and the Green Party, and maybe even the department officials, who might hate me less after this.
We're saying that there are going to be circumstances where the department needs to use these powers quickly, but we want to know about them. That seems pretty smart to me.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.
Shall CPC‑26.3 carry?
Does anyone wish to request a recorded vote?
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London Centre, ON
[Technical difficulty—Editor] recorded vote or abstention be on the record?
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Does anyone want to request a recorded vote? No? Okay.
(Amendment agreed to on division)
Liberal
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I move that Bill C-12, in clause 72, be amended by adding after line 11 on page 31 the following:
87.306 An order made under subsection 87.301(1), 87.302(1) or 87.303(1) or (2) is effective on the date on which it is made, but a motion for confirmation of the order must be made in each House of Parliament and be considered in accordance with section 87.307.
87.307 (1) Subject to subsection (3), a motion for confirmation of an order made under subsection 87.301(1), 87.302(1) or 87.303(1) or (2), signed by a minister of the Crown, together with an explanation of the reasons for issuing the order, must be made in each House of Parliament within 30 sitting days after the order is made.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
Excuse me, Ms. Kwan, but Mrs. DeBellefeuille has a point of order.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, QC
Mr. Chair, I wonder if this amendment is in order, given what we just adopted.
November 25th, 2025 / 11:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
That's a good question.
I will suspend the meeting briefly to confer with the clerks.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos
I call the meeting back to order.
According to the legislative clerks, these amendments are compatible. The one we're dealing with now is on ratification, and the other one is on reports.
Ms. Kwan, you have the floor to continue to present your amendment.