Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are working closely with our embassy in Moscow and other international partners such that, if urgent protection cases come to our attention, we would be able to respond appropriately, given the individual case. We do not have any cases identified to us at this time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we have not had contact with any individuals at this time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't have a program related to gay men from Chechnya. We are working with civil organizations in Russia to ensure that, if individuals come to our attention, we'll be able to assist as best we can in individual cases. It's very preliminary days.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think I can answer that question in a simple way. I don't have a yes or no answer to that. A decision to begin to track refugees by reasons for persecution raises a very large number of complex operational and privacy issues.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. We wouldn't have awareness programs perhaps in the sense you are suggesting, Madam. We have been very proactive for many years in Geneva and globally with UNHCR in saying that if there are individuals whose vulnerability is linked to their sexual orientation or gender identity, Canada is ready and willing to accept those individuals in our government-assisted programs.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This program is a funding program to a service-providing organization. We have no permanent funding arrangements under our grants and contributions programming. We have calls for proposals at regular intervals, to which we make Canadian funding available to those who are interested in providing the particular types of services that we have.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do not track LGBTQ refugees numerically.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I do not believe we have that statistic from the department, but I would have to verify that. In our systems, we do not track refugees by sexual orientation or a number of other factors.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Since the beginning of the agreement, 69 cases have been identified for sponsorship. Of those, 57 persons have been resettled, 18 persons have not landed yet, and there were four persons whose cases were withdrawn. There were not formal established quotas, or numerical objectives to my knowledge.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, most of the 69 cases identified for sponsorship have landed—57 persons. There are 18 persons in process, and they're at various stages of processing. I don't have the individual case-by-case details, but they would be expected to arrive in Canada in the coming weeks and months.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think that I am best placed to speak to the awareness of the program in the community. In fact, it is in creating agreements with organizations like this that we want to raise that awareness. We know that the organization has been working closely with a number of sponsorship agreement holders who have a history of welcoming members of the LGBTQ community.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As mentioned, my name is David Manicom, associate assistant deputy minister of strategic and program policy at the department. I am here today with Donald Cochrane and Jean-Marc Gionet, as already introduced. I was here last July with some colleagues to speak to you about the programs and practices of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, that pertain to protecting vulnerable populations.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The dedicated service channels right now apply to initial entry. My colleague Mr. Orr and his team work to ensure that we do the work permit extensions quickly, not through what we would call bureaucratic red tape but to make sure our rules are followed and that those who genuinely have an extension to their contract can stay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure. We're working closely with the new “invest in Canada” office that's planned at Global Affairs, with provinces and territories, and with sector councils such as Communitech and others, to develop a dedicated cadre of staff whose job it will be to work with companies that are planning to invest in Canada or to upscale their operations in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't yet have a specific channel based on those who are currently in the United States. However, certainly the global situation, whether it's the current context in the United States, Brexit discussions in Europe, or a broad desire of professionals in countries around the world to look for a good place for them and their families to live, our focus is on rapid and predictable processing, a dedicated office to help companies navigate our processes, and a package of work permit exemptions for those who are coming for very short periods of time, which are often the crucial seed visits that will drive investment.