Public Safety Committee on Dec. 9th, 2025

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

Thank you.

Is there any further discussion?

Madam Kirkland, please go ahead.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

My only comment would be that I agree with both of you in some ways. The truth is that it is a matter of trust, as Madame DeBellefeuille has said. I don't see any reason we can't move on with C-8 and continue it. I stand with my thought that it boxes us in when we have that there. We don't know what may arise. Hopefully there's nothing. That would be my wish as well, but why box us in if we don't have to, if this is a matter of trust.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

Thank you.

Ms. Acan.

[Sima Acan, Liberal, Oakville West, ON]

Mr. Chair, can we suspend for a short period please?

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Sure. We will suspend for a couple of minutes. Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

We are ready to go. I saw a lot of talking, which is good. I hope the discussions were fruitful. Did we come to any consensus?

Go ahead, Madam Kirkland.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Yes, so the consensus would be that I would withdraw my amendment—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

You need unanimous consent for that.

(Amendment withdrawn)

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I move a new amendment, which would leave everything here as is, but add the words “unless otherwise decided by the committee”.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

Okay.

Is there discussion on that amendment?

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Parkland, AB]

I love it.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

Could we just get a moment here to make sure that our clerk is ready?

My sense is that we have consensus on this.

(Amendment agreed to)

Now we move to discussion on the main motion.

There's no discussion. I think we can probably move...with a show of hands, given the discussions.

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

I think that's what we had scheduled for committee business.

Is there any other committee business to be discussed?

Okay, with that, we will suspend until noon. Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

I call the meeting back to order.

Thank you to our witness, Mr. Sauvé, for coming early and for agreeing to begin early. Welcome back.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on September 18, the committee is resuming its study of Canada's ability to remove foreign nationals with a criminal record.

I'd like to welcome our sole witness for this afternoon. From the National Police Federation, we have Mr. Brian Sauvé.

You have up to five minutes for your opening statement.

[Brian Sauvé, President, National Police Federation]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

Good afternoon. My name is Brian Sauvé. I'm the president of the National Police Federation, which represents about 20,000 members of the RCMP across Canada and internationally.

While responsibility for removing foreign nationals rests with the CBSA under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the RCMP play an essential supporting role.

RCMP involvement occurs in three main areas. The first is identifying bad actors during arrests, traffic stops, criminal investigations and intelligence work. The second is border interceptions, particularly between ports of entry, including those with criminal histories or ongoing investigations. The third is supporting high-risk removals by locating, arresting and securing individuals who pose a threat to public safety.

In RCMP-contract provinces, these responsibilities often fall directly to our frontline police officers. This can add significant workload to detachments that are already facing high call volumes and other policing challenges. It also increases officer safety risks. Individuals avoiding deportation may flee, resist arrest or reoffend. This underscores that immigration enforcement must remain a federal responsibility, supported by dedicated RCMP federal policing resources rather than downloaded onto community police officers.

Today, I'd like to focus on three areas in which federal action could strengthen Canada's ability to remove foreign nationals involved in criminal activity or with criminal records.

The first is dedicated resources and fenced federal funding. The operational reality is that absconder investigations divert frontline police officers from core duties, reducing response capacity and adding workload pressures. Budget 2025's commitment to hiring 1,000 new RCMP personnel is welcome, but to be effective, federal policing must receive fenced, dedicated funding for immigration-related enforcement and intelligence to support the CBSA.

Dedicated federal policing capacity means earlier identification of high-risk individuals, stronger intelligence development, and better coordination with the CBSA, the IRCC, CSIS and all other police services.

The second is strengthening information sharing and updating privacy legislation. Effective removals rely on timely and accurate information. Today, information sharing among CBSA, IRCC, CSIS and the police is inconsistent. RCMP members often receive partial, outdated or incomplete information about a person's immigration status, risk level, removal order or failure to appear. In some cases, disclosure is restricted due to legislative or interpretive privacy barriers—not because sharing is unsafe or inappropriate, but because the rules are simply unclear.

Canada needs real-time, automated data sharing between the CBSA and police systems, including immigration status flags and failure to appear alerts in the Canadian Police Information Centre, as well as clarity in privacy legislation to ensure it supports rather than restricts the timely release of information necessary for public safety.

Bill C-2's lawful access provisions were an important step. Individuals evading deportation routinely change devices, use unregistered phones or hide behind encrypted platforms. This is one tool. Lawful access improvements must be paired with stronger immigration-related information sharing. Without both of these, critical gaps in deportation enforcement will remain.

The third area would be expanding joint task forces and enforcement units. Effective removals of high-risk foreign nationals require coordinated, multi-agency work. No single agency can manage them alone.

Joint task forces allow intelligence to be shared quickly, reduce duplication and ensure that all partners are working from the same intelligence picture. Recent examples, such as the RCMP's extortion task force, show the value of integrated operations. Its work helped CBSA open investigations into 96 potentially inadmissible individuals and directly supported several removals.

The members of the RCMP are proud to serve Canadians. To continue keeping communities safe, we need dedicated federal policing resources, modernized information sharing and stronger inter-agency co-operation.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Frank Caputo]

Thank you, Mr. Sauvé.

We'll begin our first round with Ms. Kirkland for six minutes, please.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Sauvé. I appreciate you for being here again with us today.

From your five-minute testimony, it sounds like we have hundreds and thousands, we're finding out, of foreign nationals with criminal convictions missing in Canada.

It sounds as though you don't believe the current removal system is working and that we need an overhaul of that system, or at least more support.

Can you elaborate briefly on that?

[Brian Sauvé]

I think every system needs modernization and continuous improvement. I wouldn't say it is not working. I would say it is working, but it's working to its own capacity at the moment. That is obviously not meeting the needs of Canadians.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Do you think there's enough collaboration between RCMP and CBSA and that it's capable right now, or is there a way to make that better?

[Brian Sauvé]

There's always a way to make it better.

I won't speak for our CBSA colleagues, but I would suspect that they would echo our concerns as well, that more ability and boots on the ground to be able to enact inland enforcement and support all of those agencies would be much appreciated.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Okay, thank you.

How often do RCMP officers, would you say, in general encounter foreign nationals with criminal records on a regular basis?

[Brian Sauvé]

In my policing experience as a frontline police officer in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, I encountered two during routine traffic stops. However, when I speak to my colleagues who are working border enforcement or border security, they encounter them on a more regular basis, because that's where you're dealing with illegal migrants who are crossing into the country, or dealing with human traffickers who are trying to profit from those who are trying to come into the country.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

What happens next, once they're encountered? Are they taken into custody? Are they released? What's the next step in the process?

[Brian Sauvé]

From our side of the house, they're taken into custody with us and transferred to CBSA for processing.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Are you aware of what happens to them after that point, or is that something I need to ask CBSA?