Debates of May 24th, 2018

Department of Citizenship and Immigration—Main Estimates, 2018-19

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would assume that as the immigration critic, the hon. member would know that refugee claimants are processed by the Immigration and Refugee Board, which is an entirely separate stream as compared to all the other immigration streams that are processed through our Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department. Those two streams are separate and one does not affect the other. I would expect the hon. member to be aware of those two separate streams not affecting each other.

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

Mr. Chair, about 35,000 people have had instant access to the country and hundreds of thousands of people are waiting for many years to come into the country. Therefore, we effectively now have a two-tiered access into Canada's immigration system because the minister is refusing to close the loophole in the safe third country agreement.

Given his insistence on this, will the minister take responsibility for the protests that are occurring at the U.S.–Canada border?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I am proud of the fact that our government is the government that addressed the long wait times and the backlogs that we inherited from the previous government. We have made the necessary investments to ensure that processing times come down in the spousal program, in the live-in caregiver program, and in the privately sponsored refugee program. We are proud of that fact. We are continuing that work. It has not been affected by our response to irregular migration.

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

Mr. Chair, the Liberal government has created a backlog of 108,000 for parents and grandparents. It increased wait times for parents and grandparents to 64 months, created a total immigration backlog of 830,000, and imposed a right-of-landing fee of $975 for new immigrants.

However, the immigration minister's legacy is to accelerate, or fast-track, one group of people into the country, which is the illegal border crossers. Will the minister take responsibility for the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, he will personally spend to track and remove illegal border crossers who have their asylum claims rejected over the next 10 years?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I am proud of the fact that we are the party that has reduced processing times for immigrants in all areas of immigration processing. In fact, the numbers prove the case.

Refugee claimants are processed separately from all other immigration streams. We are proud of that. We are proud of the record in which we have fulfilled our campaign commitment to double the number of spots for parents and grandparents. We are working very hard to reduce processing times in the parent and grandparent stream, as well as eliminate the backlog in the parent and grandparent stream.

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

Mr. Chair, it was actually under the previous Conservative government that we saw many more parents and grandparents welcomed as permanent residents to Canada. From 2006 to 2014, 171,276 parents and grandparents were admitted versus a significantly lower under the Liberal government. However, again, people waiting in the queue to be admitted as parents and grandparents will now have to wait, given that the minister has personally redirected over 80 staff to process illegal border crossers.

Given that the minister will not close the loophole in the safe third country agreement and will need to continue to redirect citizenship and immigration officials to processing illegal border crossers, and that demand will increase, will the minister take responsibility for having to load illegal border crossers onto buses or other forms of transport to take them from Quebec and Toronto to parts unknown to fill his promises to the leaders of those places?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, we doubled the admissions cap for parents and grandparents from 5,000 to 10,000. In addition to that, we replaced the former unfair application intake process under the previous government, with a much fairer process of random selection. This year, our government aims to admit 20,000 parents and grandparents, with increases in 2019 and 2020. We are proud of that record. We are reuniting more families than ever.

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

Mr. Chair, there is certainly one category of immigration that the minister has blown out of the water under his tenure, given that he will not close the loophole in the safe third country agreement, and that is illegal border crossers. We are on track for approximately 75,000 this year, which means his immigration plan will be blown out of the water.

Therefore, I am wondering, since the minister has introduced the concept of pride into his remarks, if he is proud that he has tabled one of the most inaccurate, ill-advised immigration levels plan ever seen in Canadian history.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, we are proud of our immigration levels plan. It will meet Canada's labour market and skills shortages, reunite more families than ever before, and ensure that the benefits of immigration are felt throughout the country, with the provincial nominee program increase of 33%. We will see more numbers coming in through the federal skilled worker program. This is a program that allows the best and the brightest in the world to be attracted to Canada. We have seen a doubling of the number of francophone applicants, under the express entry system, who have been invited to come to Canada through permanent residency. We are proud of that record.

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

Mr. Chair, that sounds really good, except for the fact that those people cannot be processed because he is reallocating staff from the streams that would process those applications to illegal border crossers.

I am wondering, given that the minister will not take responsibility and close the loophole in the safe third country agreement, if he will take responsibility for using people at the heart of the global migrant crisis for props, photo ops, and propaganda for UN speeches, as opposed to treating them like human beings.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, the fact is that we are the party and the government that has invested in more border security operations and faster processing of asylum claims. We have ensured that we have an aggressive outreach campaign, which we have sustained over the last number of months, to ensure people are not misinformed about Canada's immigration and asylum processes.

We will ensure that immigration continues to be a great tool for economic growth for Canada. We will work hard on these processing times and eliminate the backlogs that have kept families apart for years. We have a record that is second to none in the world.

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

Mr. Chair, we are certainly allowing record numbers of illegal border crossers into the country this year. I am glad the minister is proud of that fact, as opposed to managing a plan for an orderly migration system.

The minister talked about facts. The fact is that people who are illegally entering the country from the United States this year will not have their asylum claims heard for many years. They will have priority access for job permits and health care. We will continue to see the social programs increase. I am sure we will have many other municipalities ask for billions and billions of dollars.

I am wondering if the minister will take responsibility for one thing, since he talked about information. Will he take responsibility for the pamphlets that are being distributed in New York state, telling migrants to exploit the loophole that he personally refuses to close?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I am proud of the fact that because of the budget 2018 investments in further border security operations, as well as in the Immigration and Refugee Board, more claims will be be heard faster and in a fairer and final manner so that those who are deserving of Canada's protection get to stay, and those who are not will know that their cases are final and will be asked to leave Canada and will be removed.

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

Mr. Chair, those people will not have their claim heard for many years and it will be a long time before they are removed, costing us hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.

The minister talked about investments at the border. We know that the minister has spent Canadian tax dollars on a tent refugee camp at the U.S.-Canada border. Is he going to take responsibility for not closing the loophole in the safe third country agreement and the fact that there is now a refugee camp at the U.S.-Canada border?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, our government is committed to a robust, fair, and efficient asylum system. Adding more decision-makers and making the necessary efficiencies has resulted in a 40% increase in claim finalization and productivity last year by the IRB. In addition to that, the $74 million investment we will make in the IRB as a result of budget 2018 will result in faster processing of asylum claims by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

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

Mr. Chair, 40% of one per cent of 50,000 cases because the minister has refused to close the loophole in the safe third country agreement is not good enough. In fact, that is a perversion of Canada's asylum claim system. The loophole in the safe third country agreement needs to be closed.

Will the minister take responsibility for the erosion of social licence for immigration in this country because of his inability to maintain a planned, orderly migration system?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, we are making sure that all Canadian laws are respected and that we are meeting our international obligations with respect to providing safe haven for legitimate refugees.

The fact of the matter is that once someone claims asylum in Canada, we have to accord them due process and a fair hearing at the Immigration and Refugee Board. Those who are determined to need Canada's protection get to stay, and those who do not will be removed by Canadian authorities.

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

Mr. Chair, somebody who has reached the United States of American is no longer fleeing persecution and the minister's refusal to close the loophole in the safe third country agreement completely ignores that fact.

Will the minister take responsibility for allowing tens of thousands of people who could be prioritized for access to Canada but are languishing in UNHCR camps because staff have been redirected to process illegal border crossers? Will he take responsibility for that?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, the fact of the matter is that the hon. member knows that under her government and her party, refugees languished for years in refugee camps. We are the party that addressed this issue. We have brought down processing times for privately sponsored refugees by 25 months. We have made the necessary investments to almost quadruple the number of privately sponsored refugees. We have doubled the number of resettled refugees. We are making the necessary investments to increase the money available for resettlement and integration programs. That is a record the Conservatives simply cannot match.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We are now going to resume debate with the hon. Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. I will point out, though, that in this one and only speaking slot that we have this evening, the minister has 15 minutes, but can only speak for 10 minutes and then would normally have to pose questions. However, he cannot pose questions to himself, so we will invite other members of his party to pose questions in that remaining five minutes.

As I said, this will be the only variation this evening. On other occasions when it is a government member speaking, at the end of their speaking time they will pose questions to the minister or his parliamentary secretary.

Resuming debate, the hon. Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is an honour to be here with my colleagues and to address the committee of the whole with respect to the votes under Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in the main estimates. I am pleased that my department was chosen to participate in this year's meeting of the committee of the whole, giving me the opportunity to highlight all that we have accomplished, to outline our current and future priorities, and to address some of the important questions raised by my colleagues.

I am pleased with the changes made by the government to ensure that our immigration system is functioning well and in the interest of Canada. To that end, we have made considerable progress in improving our economic immigration programs, which attract talented newcomers, people who will boost our economy, stimulate innovation, increase market opportunities, and create jobs for Canada's middle class.

At the same time, we have made the immigration system more compassionate and client centric. We are reuniting families more quickly, offering protection to the world's most vulnerable people, and reducing application backlogs and processing times across the board.

Allow me to spend a few moments addressing the subject of this evening's debate, my department's main estimates. In recognition of the important role that immigration plays in shaping our economy and contributing to our country's prosperity, a total of $236.6 million will go to support the immigration levels plan. This multi-year plan will gradually increase our immigration levels, beginning this year, with admissions of 310,000 permanent residents, moving to 330,000 permanent resident admissions in 2019, and 340,000 permanent admissions in 2020.

As numerous economists have pointed out, increased immigration will allow us to expand our workforce, address our skills shortages, grow our economy, support our health care and pension programs, and allow other social programs to thrive in the decades to come.

Another significant part of our estimates is a $89.8 million increase in funding for incremental costs to the interim federal health program. I am very proud that our government fulfilled our commitment to Canadians to fully restore this program, as it provides essential services to the most vulnerable people in our society. For example, the program is being used to support newly arrived Yazidi and other survivors of Daesh atrocities. These women and girls, as well as their families, have lived through unimaginable trauma and horrific conditions. It is our responsibility not only to provide them with a new home but also to make sure they have the necessary wraparound supports and are supported every step of the way toward rebuilding their lives in Canada.

While we continue to pursue our objectives of growing Canada's economy through immigration, reuniting families, and fulfilling our humanitarian obligations, we must also respond quickly and efficiently to emerging issues. Irregular migration is increasing globally, and Canada is not immune to this. In my international travel and meetings with counterparts from around the world, it has been clear that many countries, including Canada, are experiencing significant challenges associated with the fact of irregular migration, the result of 62 million persons currently displaced by wars, persecution, and natural disasters.

Having said that, our government takes this issue extremely seriously, and our primary responsibility has always been and remains the safety and security of Canadians.

Anyone who crosses the border between official ports of entry is arrested and detained until security agencies can verify their identity and conduct a thorough background check.

Make no mistake, law enforcement officers do not release anyone into our community unless they have cleared background checks, and if someone is found to pose a risk, they remain in detention and are deported without being able to make a refugee claim.

In order to ensure the safety and security of Canadians, it is imperative that we make the necessary investments in our front-line agencies. That is why budget 2018 invests $173.2 million to support security operations at the Canada-U.S. border, including $74 million for the Immigration and Refugee Board to process asylum claimants faster.

Entering into Canada irregularly is not a free ticket, and it does not give anyone an advantage. To ensure that potential migrants are aware of Canada's laws and are not driven by misinformation, we have implemented an extensive and aggressive outreach strategy targeting key communities in the U.S. and beyond, as well as in Canada. In fact, over the last few months, we have engaged almost 600 community leaders, diplomatic representatives, non-profit organizations, and government officials in the U.S. and beyond.

I know there have been questions about the safe third country agreement under which Canada and the United States co-operate in the orderly handling of asylum claims across our joint border. We have raised the subject of modernizing the agreement with the United States, and they are aware of our concerns. This has not matured into formal negotiations, but we continue to engage with the U.S. closely.

We are also working with the United States to prevent the abuse of U.S. visas, and these efforts have already shown results. Canadian officials, for example, have been stationed on the ground in Nigeria. Just last week I travelled to Nigeria to meet with senior government representatives, community leaders, and civil society to enlist their co-operation on this issue.

At the same time, we will continue to respect Canada's international obligations to provide safety and security and sanctuary to those who are legitimately fleeing persecution, and who also have a right to claim asylum.

To support this, we are making the necessary investments and adding staff to ensure that asylum claims are decided in a timely manner, and that unsuccessful claimants are promptly removed from Canada. We are working closely and collaboratively with provincial partners, particularly Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba, to resolve emerging pressure points and to address issues such as housing and contingency planning.

While we continue to address the issue of irregular migration, we have not slowed our progress in advancing all of our other priorities. We have made changes, for example, to the express entry system to award extra points to applicants who demonstrate strong French language skills, as well as those who have family in Canada. These changes are proving successful and are having the desired effects. More French-speaking immigrants are going to francophone minority communities.

Moreover, the global skills strategy is bringing more talented people to Canada to create jobs in Canada. We have made the start-up visa program permanent. We have created the Atlantic immigration pilot program, the first-ever employer-led program, to attract more skilled immigrants and grow the Atlantic region's economy.

Over the past year, we have made the spousal sponsorship process faster and easier. We have doubled the number of parent and grandparent applications. We have reduced the backlog in the live-in caregiver program. We have removed unnecessary barriers to citizenship for newcomers. We have eliminated the conditional permanent residents measure that put vulnerable women at risk. We have raised the age limit for dependent children to keep more families together. We are re-establishing Canada as a global leader on immigration.

People who come to Canada are much more than newcomers to this country. They are nation-builders. That fundamental belief informs all of our actions.

I am proud of what we have accomplished so far. The government will continue to work very hard for Canadians.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Chair, I thank the minister for that excellent speech, for providing clarification on a number of issues, and for mentioning the department's and our government's accomplishments on the immigration front. The minister left out one accomplishment, however. I would like to highlight his much-improved French. I am very proud of him for that. I have practised with him on numerous occasions, and I congratulate him on working so hard to learn French.

In his speech, the minister spoke of the challenges we have had to address since last summer. Of course, I am referring to the asylum seekers, the irregular migrants who show up at our border, especially in Quebec. As the minister also noted, the trend is growing. There have always been irregular border crossings, but more and more people are now opting for that approach. This situation is new, and we are managing it as diligently as possible. Last summer, many Haitians crossed the border. This year, we are seeing more members of the Nigerian community crossing the border.

There is a lot of misinformation out there. We have a duty to ensure that people coming to Canada, from the United States or elsewhere, are familiar with our laws and know that they do not have a free ticket to Canada.

Could the minister give us a little more information on what the government, the department, and our partners are doing to ensure that the people who irregularly cross the border get the correct information and know our laws before coming to Canada, and that they know that there is no free ticket to Canada?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for his really important question.

We have been very aggressive in terms of outreach and engaging with the diaspora communities as well as with service-provider organizations in the United States and beyond. This is important, because, as we discovered last year, there is a lot of misinformation being given to diaspora communities in terms of the scope and nature of Canada's immigration system, and more specifically, its asylum system.

We made sure, through town halls, engagement with community media, and engagement with service-provider organizations, as well as government officials, that people were aware. We were able to dispute misinformation at its source through the use of social media, strategically placed advertisements, our 12 consulates, and our embassy in Washington. We have been very successful in reaching those communities and answering questions.

This is the right thing to do, not only as a deterrent message but also as a humanitarian message, because we do not want people to uproot themselves and their families based on misinformation. We want people to know exactly what they are embarking on when they try to make their journey to Canada.

If people want to come and study or work in Canada, there are regular immigration streams to enable them to do so. The asylum system we have is only meant to be accessed by those who have legitimate grounds for refugee protection. That is why the outreach program is extremely important to us.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, I thank the minister for his clarifications.

In his speech, the minister said several times that family reunification was very important and that it was a big immigration priority for our government. This seems logical to me, since the families that come to Canada are key to growing our economy and filling our country's labour needs.

It is not necessarily easy to move to Canada, and it is important to reunite families. When someone wants to bring their family to Canada, it is very important. I think we have taken concrete measures in this direction. Canadians who have a spouse or partner abroad should not have to wait many years before reuniting with their families. This uncertainty creates a great deal of anguish. In his speech, the minister mentioned a number of solutions and methods that we have used over the past two years, since we came to power.

Could the minister tell me what the government is doing to support families and what we will be doing in the future, in light of the new plans to reunite as many families as possible, as quickly as possible?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for that really important question. Reuniting families has always been a priority in our immigration system, and one of the first things we tackled was to reduce the processing time for spousal sponsorship applications and to eliminate the backlog in that immigration stream.

When we took office, spousal sponsorships took 26 months or more. Sometimes it would take many years, depending on the country the spouse and the children were being sponsored from. We made it a point to dedicate resources and created a tiger team to attack that backlog and make it a priority to reduce that processing time. I am proud of the fact that we have eliminated the backlog in the spousal sponsorship program and have brought down the processing time from 26 months to 12 months for the vast majority of cases.