Citizenship and Immigration committee  When it comes to automatic citizenship, those are not considerations because the law confers citizenship automatically. Those kinds of considerations of criminality or security concerns are looked at when individuals apply for a grant of citizenship, because they are part of the requirements.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are avenues in the act at this time, but those avenues generally relate to individuals who have applied for their citizenship through a grant, for instance, if they have misrepresented in obtaining their grant. Perhaps they may not have met the requirements, or somehow, despite rigorous checks being done, they may have managed to conceal that they had criminality, which may have made them ineligible for citizenship.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I see. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the section 8 provision, we don't think that the numbers would be all that significant. For the other provision of the bill that's moving the first-generation limit from 2009 to 2015, those persons would be getting citizenship automatically. Again, it depends on how many people decide to come forward to seek documentation from the department.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As outlined in the regulatory impact analysis statement that's publicly available, the primary rationale is to increase the flexible authorities for the way in which the oath can be administered and to provide an electronic option that people can self-select in the future if they wish to do so.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. Those affected by section 8 are a limited cohort. We've shared a bit of a backgrounder with the members of the committee to the effect that, in recent years, we've seen, perhaps, 25 or 30 such persons come forward seeking a grant under subsection 5(4).

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wouldn't say it will be complicated. A lot of work was done to modernize programs during the COVID‑19 pandemic, and processing times are improving. We definitely still have work to do, but we still welcomed a record number of new citizens in 2022, which was 374,000. To reiterate some clarifications, I want to say that, when Bill S‑245 comes into force, people who have regained their citizenship who are covered by former section 8 of the Citizenship Act would automatically be granted Canadian citizenship.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. The member is correct in the sense that the risk of unintended consequences, then or now, will continue to be there. For the consideration of the committee, one thing we've become more aware of—certainly I've become more aware of—since 2009, in working on lost citizen issues, is that it is right for there to be a remedy.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Some people have experienced the impact of former section 8 of the Citizenship Act, which automatically caused them to lose their Canadian citizenship. They were actually living in Canada and did not know that this provision applied to them. They may have found out when they renewed a passport or something like that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There is no provision in the Citizenship Act to that effect.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't have those numbers. However, I can say that we are talking about a discrete cohort, people who turned 28 before 2009. That provision is no longer in effect. Those people lost their citizenship just prior to the 2009 amendments to the act.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One of the concerns with the bill as drafted is that there is no provision for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to make the necessary preparations to facilitate the implementation of this aspect of the act. Normally, the necessary preparations would take a year, as regulations must be created and system changes made in order to process applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I say this simply to fully answer your question, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The only group that would benefit would be those who never applied for whatever reason. The group that the bill doesn't include are those who applied and, for whatever reason, were not successful.