Joe Volpe

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, the member will know that much of the responsibility for communicating need rests with the employers themselves. They engage Human Resources and Skills Development which has the opportunity, on the basis of the engagement of these employers, to do the market analysis and assessment for those employers in parts of Canada where there appear to be resident potential employees.

In fact, Human Resources and Skills Development has programs where it also participates in developing the skills of some of the talent, and where that fails we are asked at CIC to bring in temporary foreign workers.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, the member has underscored what I said earlier in another response, which is that we have a shortage of semi-skilled, skilled and even unskilled workers. However HRSD, Human Resources and Skills Development, and CIC, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Alberta just signed an agreement that will allow CIC to bring in workers on a temporary basis and then obviously HRSD will validate positions that cannot be filled by Canadians.

A series of programs are already in place that aim to bring as many Canadians internally into the market that is hot for whatever reason. It includes, in particular, special programs to engage more and more of the aboriginal communities in our economy.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, regardless, we comply with Canadian law, which has a certain definition of couples and the family. I would repeat, Canadian law includes a definition the Immigration Act must honour.

However, there are other families and groups. This department continues to try to be sensitive to these groups, which are much more extensive than the example cited in Canadian legislation. Canadian legislation takes precedence with respect to families that have shown their good faith.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, I have to recognize my weakness in French. I will therefore answer the question in English, if I may.

When an application for sponsorship is presented, the sponsor assumes a 10 year responsibility to provide for the health, accommodation and livelihood costs of the people sponsored. Those who come here on the multiple entry visa that we use are subject to recommendations of the task force. We said that we would give them a multiple entry visa but that for the period of that multiple entry visa they would need to provide health insurance for the duration of the period. That is an additional cost that sponsors would assume.

Some of the members thought, in utilizing their expertise in the insurance business, that perhaps we could encourage a private sector insurer to come forward with a package specifically for those people to reduce their costs and allow greater numbers to avail themselves of that possibility. We are still working on that.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, my short answer is yes. We are doing this. We are following the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and of the caucus the member chaired.

As was already noted, because of this committee's recommendations, I have taken steps to bring over parents and grandparents who had already been sponsored by their children and grandchildren. Why? Because our mission is family reunification. As I said already, we were able to do this thanks to two measures: we increased the number of people we land in Canada and the number of multiple entry visas.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, I do not know where the member opposite gets his numbers. In a previous response, I mentioned that the federal government pays the Government of Quebec $181.6 million for integration and everything else related to immigration. It is not $20 million, but $181.6 million. That is almost more than all the other funds we inject throughout Canada. Quebec welcomes 25% of all immigrants arriving in Canada. That is why we pay Quebec $181.6 million.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, we transfer money to Quebec, the province responsible for integrating those wishing to settle in Quebec to start their new life as Canadians. That is that. It is quite simple. We always respect the agreements.

New arrivals need to be integrated into their Canadian surroundings. If these surroundings happen to be within Quebec's borders, we respect this agreement and provide the provincial authorities with all the money they need to carry out the program.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, I have two answers for the member.

First of all, we implement visa restrictions on some countries where we see an excessive number of applicants for refugee determination. We do that after consulting with all of the departments that might have an impact on it, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canada Border Services Agency.

With reference to the question the member asked about some of the consequences of the implementation of the safe third country agreement, it has only been in place for four months, since December 29. We only have about three months of digestible data. In the first month we had about a 50% drop. That dropped about 20% over the previous year and 50% again in April. We have had a reduction on inland claims at airports and other--

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, as I indicated earlier, I had already committed to the standing committee that we would be looking at a system that would include the member's concerns. I also said that I would look at alternatives to the RAD, i.e., another appeal process, or I would commit to doing something that we had already put in place.

I want to again repeat that an appeal can be made to the Federal Court. There is an appeal that can be classified as one to the pre-removal risk assessment. An appeal can always be made on humanitarian or compassionate grounds. All of these really speak to the issue that someone does not want to accept the fact that there was a negative decision. The problem is not associated with those who receive a positive decision, and we do have many positive decisions.

The member outlined the numbers. Over the course of the last 10 years some 250,000 refugees have landed in Canada. That is about 25,000 per year, which is not an insignificant number. He indicated that represents about 10% of all those who have landed in this country. The Parliament of Canada accepted that range as an appropriate number to fit in our immigration plan, an immigration plan which the House of Commons approves every November.

[Supply, May 18th, 2005]

Mr. Chair, first let me compliment the member on being able to reflect his constituency in the effective way that he has indicated. As he said, with 75% of that population falling into the category of immigrant community, just think for a moment about what it means. It means that we have a wonderful democratic institution where constituents can go to their member and express to him or her not only the issues of a larger Canadian environment or vision but those that relate to them most directly with their families and loved ones.

He also raised the issue of the refugee determination system. We have already said that we are looking at the process, looking at access and looking at consequences. We want to see that those who have a right to claim asylum get access to the system as quickly as possible.

We have taken other measures, as I indicated earlier. We have looked at a safe third country agreement. We look at other measures that deal with visas so that we prevent those who are not genuine asylum seekers at the front end, but we deal with those who are genuine in a process time that is efficient and effective.

We have made investments in the IRB. The chief commissioner of the IRB has put forward an action plan that we are accepting and implementing. Already we have seen an elimination of a backlog. It went from 52,000 to about 25,000 in this last year. What do we do about consequences? We are working on a situation that would see greater finality and immediacy to a decision so that those who are genuine can get on with their lives and those who are deemed to be something else are removed so that they can get on with their lives elsewhere.