Debates of June 9th, 2025

Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates (A), 2025-26

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

Mr. Chair, how many of the 500,000 people who are not supposed to be in Canada have been removed? I would like just the number.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, again, people whose visa expires, or people who should not be here, need to leave. If they do not, that is a CBSA—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

The hon. member has the floor.

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

Mr. Chair, here is the thing: The minister cannot set levels if she does not know how many people have left, so it is her job. I need to know how many people of that 500,000 have left. How about this: Does the minister even know? Does she have any clue?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, again, my role here tonight is not to talk about people leaving and the people who are here with an expired visa and so on, in terms of how many have left. That is completely a CBSA function, and public safety takes care—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

The hon. member has the floor.

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

Mr. Chair, Canadians literally pay the minister's $100,000 top-up and give her a car to know the numbers. How many of the 500,000 people who were supposed to leave in December actually left? This is pretty simple: How many is it? Does she know?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, I have answered that question a number of times. I will try one more time. People leaving because of an expired visa or deportation, or anything of that matter, is the purview of the Canada Border Services Agency, which is not—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

The hon. member has the floor.

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

Mr. Chair, however, the minister's purview is to set the levels plan. If she is setting levels with hundreds of thousands of foreign students and low-skilled labourers but does not know how many low-skilled labourers and foreign students who are not supposed to be in the country have left, how can she set levels if she does not know that number?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, that question gives me the opportunity to talk about our immigration levels plan, which does set permanent resident numbers. For the first time, this past year, temporary numbers have been set. I am proud of the work that was done prior to my becoming a minister. It is working.

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

Mr. Chair, if the government does not remove people from Canada, why do we have an immigration minister to begin with?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, I need to thank the Prime Minister for having faith in me and selecting me to be the minister. I would say the answer is known as to why we would need somebody at that helm, because we—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

The hon. member.

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

Mr. Chair, does the minister at least agree that the 500,000 people who are here but should not be here, as of December, should leave immediately? Can she say, yes, she agrees?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, my message to the member and to those listening is that people who have expired visas and are not to be in Canada should leave. If they—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

The hon. member.

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

Mr. Chair, what is the minister's plan to get those people to leave?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, we work with the CBSA, or the CBSA is there to take control of those circumstances.

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

Mr. Chair, how many more people is the minister going to let into the country while those people stay here?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, again, we have set the targets for permanent residents. We have set the target for temporary residents, which would include the international students—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

The hon. member.

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

Mr. Chair, tonight we have heard the minister not know how many people have left the country. She has claimed that the processing time for asylum claims, while people with potentially fraudulent asylum claims claim social benefits, is 18 months. Her department said it was 44 months in committee just a few short months ago. She will not answer basic questions about the file. She does not take responsibility for these jobs.

After being an immigration minister in a different jurisdiction for over a decade, the minister knows the job. She is just not doing it. When the minister does not know how many people have left and whether there should be an immigration minister or not because people are not removed, that devalues Canadian citizenship. It makes a mockery of the process.

There are so many immigrants in Canada. The minister is right: Immigrants have built this country, and it is not the fault of people wanting to come to Canada in terms of who started this mess. What she has done here is admitted that this system is out of control. The Liberal government has completely debased our immigration system and the value of following the rules to come to this country, as so many other immigrants have done before. That is unacceptable. There are so many people who want to come to Canada. People who have come here through legal pathways want to bring their families and cannot because of backdoor loopholes that have abused the asylum claim system, #WelcomeToCanada.

I just want to close with this: Given all of these failures and given the minister's failure tonight in question period, in debate this week and her failures in Nova Scotia, does she think she is going to make it past December? Most of her predecessors have averaged a tenure that is less than the asylum claim processing time.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, I will tell you one thing that I agree with the member on: Immigrants did build this country. I congratulate her for getting that one right.

Our temporary targets were developed to achieve the objective of reducing the proportion of non-permanent residents to 5% of the total population by the end of 2026.

Supporting the Canadian economy continues to be our priority. We will work on bringing the talent that we need here, including those who are doctors and construction workers to build homes. Canada welcomed over 483,000 new permanent residents in 2024, and over 58% of those were from economic programs. That is something we are very proud of. More than 30,500, about 7.2%, were French-speaking immigrants. I know they do not care about the answers, but—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!