Ahmed Hussen

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, that is still 4,500 more than the Harper Conservatives had in their allocation. We are committed to ensuring we increase the levels of allocations for parent and grandparent sponsorships in 2019, increasing them further in 2020 as part of our immigration levels plan. We are doing the responsible thing, which is doubling the number, improving the system, introducing a fairer system, but also attacking the backlog that was left to us in the parent and grandparent program by the Harper Conservatives.

We understand that immigration decisions and processing have a huge impact on families and on individuals. That is why we put in resources and prioritized these cases, to ensure families can be reunited.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, the member opposite knows that under the previous system if one person was willing to spend a lot of money compared to the next person, he or she had a better chance of getting selected. If one person lived closer to the processing centre than the next person, he or she had a better chance of getting selected. That was not a fair system.

We introduced a system that treats everyone equally, which is in line with what Canadians expect of us. We also doubled the number of parents and grandparents. Applications received in 2015 and 2016 are in process. We will ensure we eliminate those folks from the backlog, and parents and grandparents levels will actually increase in 2019 and 2020.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, we inherited a system that only had 5,000 spots in the parent and grandparent program. We promised Canadians we would double that number. We have kept that promise. We also promised Canadians that we would introduce a much fairer system of random selection, which we have. So far, we have received 8,600 complete applications, and it is not even June of this year. By the end of the year, I am confident we will receive 10,000 complete applications.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, we are in the month of May 2018, and so far, 8,600 complete applications have been received. That is a very good track record so far, and I am very confident that with the work that we are proceeding with in respect to parent and grandparent applications, we will receive 10,000 complete applications way before the end of 2018.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, as the member opposite knows, we receive interest-to-sponsor submissions. We then eliminate any duplicates. We then make sure that we have selected potential sponsors and out of that we will have 10,000 complete applications.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, in response to the launch of the 2018 program, after the removal of duplicates, the department has received approximately 93,836 interest-to-sponsor submissions. Out of these, 10,000 complete applications will be selected.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, under the parent and grandparent program, we inherited a system that had only 5,000 applications. We promised Canadians that we would double that number once we formed government, and we kept that promise, going from 5,000 to 10,000 applicants.

We also inherited a system that was very unfair and not based on a random selection process that treated everyone equally. We have introduced a random selection process that now treats everyone equally. We kept our promise to double the numbers and the system is ongoing. Selected potential sponsors have until May 25, 2018 to submit their complete applications to sponsor their parents and grandparents.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, we are very proud of our record with respect to caregivers. We inherited a system in which caregivers were waiting five to seven years to reunite with their family members. We engaged with the community. We promised them that we would work on this issue. We put resources and a tighter team in place to ensure that we reduced processing times from between five and seven years to 12 months. We reduced the backlog in the live-in caregiver program by 63%.

For the remaining cases in the live-in caregiver program, we have committed to the community that we will eliminate the remainder of the cases in that program by the end of 2018. In addition to that, I have committed publicly in the media, as well as to the caregiver community, that as a government we will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers in Canada.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, the member opposite is absolutely right. We value the invaluable services that caregivers provide to Canadian families. We care about the plight of caregivers. For us, caregivers are important to our Canadian economy and provide invaluable services to Canadian families. That is why we have prioritized the work that needed to be done and the extra resources that needed to be put in place to reduce the backlog in live-in caregiver programs and family reunification.

We have also reduced the processing time for live-in caregiver programs and family reunification from five to seven years under the previous Harper Conservatives to 12 months. I have made a commitment to the caregiver community that we will eliminate the remaining cases in the backlog by the end of 2018. Caregivers are an important segment of our population. They provide an invaluable service and we want to reunite them with their family members.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Madam Chair, I would encourage the hon. member to follow up with my colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, who is responsible for security screening. Having said that, officials from my department, as well as Public Safety officials, have met with the Iranian Canadian Congress to address this issue.