AFGH#5: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

David Theodore Lavery, As an Individual
I'll comment on the very beginning.
Back in July, we reached out to all the key people in the Canadian embassy, the security department and their program managers. We tried reaching out to the chargé d'affaires—the deputy. We sent a message off to them and the ambassador. The common response, especially when we were in the early stages, was that they were too busy, that they didn't really have time for us and that type of thing.
We kept on coming back at them. We utilized our team in Canada to try to get influence and to try to get the spark going. It just seemed like...maybe they were overwhelmed or maybe they were preoccupied with other issues, but the desire and the will to try to engage at that stage.... They pushed us aside.
That was, I guess, one of the pivotal points for us. It was the Canadian embassy's lack of engagement at that point in time, not only with me on the ground, but with our senior personnel back with the team in Canada.
That's all I would pass on at this stage.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
The reference to Ukraine was raised. The call for visa-free is going to be essential for Ukraine, and the government hasn't acted on that yet. I guess, similarly in this instance, dealing with the biometrics issue and waiving those documentations is key so that people can get out.
In terms of this, is your number one call for the government to waive the biometrics or engage with NGOs on the ground to get this work done to get people to safety? Maybe we'll go to Mr. Lavery and then Ms. Long.

David Theodore Lavery, As an Individual
Yes, very quickly, you'd want to do both: engage with the talent on the ground and also have a waiver in place, but make sure you have the capability through that reliable partner on the ground.
Maybe I can turn it over to Eleanor or Wendy.

Eleanor Taylor, Deputy Executive Director, Aman Lara
Our number one priority at Aman Lara is most certainly a way to confirm identity in Afghanistan. We understand that the Government of Canada has a responsibility to confirm identity. I want to make it clear that there sometimes is a perception that Canada requires a passport. Canada does not require a passport. The Afghan passport is required for Afghans who are leaving Afghanistan to cross the Pakistani border. That's not a requirement of the Government of Canada. Yes, we think we can deliver that requirement of the Government of Afghanistan, either directly or indirectly, to support them in that confirmation of identity piece.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

Afghanistan Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022
Evidence of meeting #5 for Afghanistan in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session

7:25 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

Now we will go to our last member of Parliament on this round.

Madam Kwan, you have six minutes, please. Go ahead.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for your service and for your continuous efforts.

I'd like to ask all the panellists this question. You all raised the point that there are things you can do and you have talked to officials about that. My question is, when did you talk to these officials? Who are they and what was their response?

Maybe I can start with Ms. Long and go in the direction in which each presenter appeared.

Wendy Long
Director, Afghan-Canadian Interpreters

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Originally, you start with your MP. My MP was very aware that I had been advocating for first one Afghan interpreter and then others.

In January of 2019, I compiled a letter and an appeal from various veterans and current military for him to present to Minister Hussen, who was minister at the time, appealing for a meeting with them, with him or with a point person. Nothing came out of it. I followed up on it for the next month, and there was just no response from the minister or anyone from that department.

With IRCC, it had to be the point person. There was no actual policy in place to bring these people over, and it had to be a public policy decision. Given the immigration measures that were in effect at that time, there had to be a new public policy or an implementation of a previous one. IRCC had to be the entity to have that discussion with.

Mr. Powlowski had been trying for years as well, as had other veterans who had raised it back in 2006 and 2007 in the Thunder Bay area.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Mr. Macdonald, go ahead, please.

Brian Macdonald
Executive Director, Aman Lara

Thanks very much.

We consider ourselves partners with the Government of Canada. We have regular meetings with officials from IRCC and Global Affairs Canada. We meet with them almost weekly. As well, we have weekly meetings with ministerial staff. I must say that I am impressed with the attention they give us. They certainly give us time. They listen to our requests. We have a good flow of information.

We have made these points to you tonight and we've made them to them. I understand that these situations are challenging. None of these requests are easy. We are continuing to work with them. As my colleague, Ms. Taylor, said tonight, we are optimistic when we see the measures that have been applied to the Ukraine. In these dialogues with officials and ministerial staff, we're going to push them in that direction. We need them to bring these measures to Afghanistan so we have a pathway for the humanitarian cases in particular, and for people who are undocumented.

We have good access. We have good dialogue on a regular basis with staff. As I said right from the beginning, I am optimistic that we will come to them with a solution to do identification verification in Afghanistan. Hopefully we can get them across the finish line and get that option implemented.

I want to stress to Wendy, who's on the call tonight—

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you.

I'm going to move on to Mr. Lavery because I need to hear from all the witnesses, please.

David Theodore Lavery
As an Individual

I'll comment on the very beginning.

Back in July, we reached out to all the key people in the Canadian embassy, the security department and their program managers. We tried reaching out to the chargé d'affaires—the deputy. We sent a message off to them and the ambassador. The common response, especially when we were in the early stages, was that they were too busy, that they didn't really have time for us and that type of thing.

We kept on coming back at them. We utilized our team in Canada to try to get influence and to try to get the spark going. It just seemed like...maybe they were overwhelmed or maybe they were preoccupied with other issues, but the desire and the will to try to engage at that stage.... They pushed us aside.

That was, I guess, one of the pivotal points for us. It was the Canadian embassy's lack of engagement at that point in time, not only with me on the ground, but with our senior personnel back with the team in Canada.

That's all I would pass on at this stage.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you.

The reference to Ukraine was raised. The call for visa-free is going to be essential for Ukraine, and the government hasn't acted on that yet. I guess, similarly in this instance, dealing with the biometrics issue and waiving those documentations is key so that people can get out.

In terms of this, is your number one call for the government to waive the biometrics or engage with NGOs on the ground to get this work done to get people to safety?

Maybe we'll go to Mr. Lavery and then Ms. Long.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you.

You have 30 seconds. Please go ahead.

David Theodore Lavery
As an Individual

Yes, very quickly, you'd want to do both: engage with the talent on the ground and also have a waiver in place, but make sure you have the capability through that reliable partner on the ground.

Maybe I can turn it over to Eleanor or Wendy.

Eleanor Taylor
Deputy Executive Director, Aman Lara

Our number one priority at Aman Lara is most certainly a way to confirm identity in Afghanistan. We understand that the Government of Canada has a responsibility to confirm identity. I want to make it clear that there sometimes is a perception that Canada requires a passport. Canada does not require a passport. The Afghan passport is required for Afghans who are leaving Afghanistan to cross the Pakistani border. That's not a requirement of the Government of Canada. Yes, we think we can deliver that requirement of the Government of Afghanistan, either directly or indirectly, to support them in that confirmation of identity piece.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much. That was seven minutes. The time is up.

On behalf of the members of Parliament and of this committee, I want to thank you, Ms. Long, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Lavery, for the pertinent information and knowledge you brought to this committee. All the best to all of you. You can now log off.

We'll suspend while we wait for the next panel's members to get on board.

8:10 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Now we will go to Ms. Kwan for six minutes.

Please go ahead.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for your service and for your presentations today. Your presentations were particularly important in helping us to find out what happened and what went wrong, and of course in helping government to learn from those errors.

Going forward, one critical issue is still getting people out. From our last panel, we heard that 52% of the people who sent an email—the government had asked them to send an email—have not even had a response. I have sent numerous spreadsheets to the government about individuals in urgent situations, and I rarely get a response.

From that perspective, what is your recommendation to the government for addressing this critical crisis for the people who have been left behind, so they can know that help can and should be on its way? What should the government do to materialize that?

I'll start with Mr. Peddle and then I'll go to Mr. Shelson.

Stephen Peddle
As an Individual

If this is potentially a manpower issue, then this is a great opportunity for the Government of Canada to create more jobs for Canadians and put them to work on these phones or processing this paperwork. Potentially some of these new Canadians who have come over from Afghanistan, who speak English because they were interpreters and who also speak flawless Dari or Pashto, could be gainfully employed in helping their brothers and sisters in Afghanistan come to Canada.

I see this as a great opportunity to employ more Canadians in a meaningful capacity that will get these Afghans out. Going forward in the future with Ukraine, it could be the same thing.

Corey Shelson
As an Individual

One of the biggest issues here has nothing to do with manpower. I believe it has to do with the outdated IT system that the Government of Canada operates upon.

During my time working on this, I learned a ton about how these applications actually got processed inside the IRCC. Every Canadian and every Afghan should know that the portal you fill out online actually just generates an automated email that some human has to answer. That portal only actually started working close to Christmastime.

There are two different databases that these applicants' data was going into. The people answering the phones and emails don't even have access to one of them. I personally sent 15 different applications from 15 unique email addresses. Somebody within the IRCC, who was quite supportive, then looked up every single one of my emails. Guess how many they could find? One.

Where did all my emails go? Why can't our government workers access this information? There needs to be an investigation into the databases that are being used by the Canadian government. Where's all of this information? Where's all the data? Why are none of the emails being actually opened and answered?

Also, several of my emails were in spam. You're using Outlook and emails are going into spam. Could you imagine being stranded in Afghanistan and the email you sent in goes to spam? How is that possible?

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

One of the issues that the previous panels raised is the fact that biometrics are required. It is impossible for people to get it right now.

Boots on the ground with the NGOs on the ground, people who would be able to do that work, and for the government to waive the biometrics from that perspective....

I'd like to get your view on the proposal to waive the biometrics and get NGOs and people on the ground, possibly former military personnel and others, to help with this work.

Go ahead, Mr. Peddle.

Stephen Peddle
As an Individual

Having been an intelligence officer previously, I've worked extensively with biometrics and the policies surrounding them. In this particular case, we're talking today—when we're not in Afghanistan—about potentially moving them outside of the country to do biometrics. If things don't screen positively, we can always potentially send them back. That could be one option if the Taliban are allowing people to leave the country, which they say is the case. I'm sure there are a lot of complications with doing so.

Other than that, maybe, like you said, we could temporarily waive biometrics. There's a time and a place to do it elsewhere, before we integrate them into Canadian society.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

A retired military panel has also suggested that, perhaps, for people to come to Canada, we could waive all of those requirements for them to come to Canada and then go through the process once they're here. If it doesn't pass muster, then you have a resolution to deal with that to return the individual.

Is that an option?

Stephen Peddle
As an Individual

I believe it is. This isn't the first time we've done it. The Kosovo refugees....

We bring them to Canada and put them in a secure place where they're under watch until they're properly vetted. Once they're vetted, we integrate them into the rest of society. If they don't check out, we have other mechanisms in place to send them back.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Ms. Kwan. That's right on the dot of six minutes.

[Technical difficulty—Editor] the second round, Mr. Ruff. You have four minutes.

8:25 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Madam Kwan, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Mr. Shelson, I didn't get a chance to ask you or get your response on the question around biometrics. Do you mind answering that question now, please?

Corey Shelson
As an Individual

Do it in a third party country. It's already happening. Have a plan if those folks don't pass, because you're going to have a really hard time dropping them back off in Afghanistan.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

How do people get to a third country? That's the other problem.

Corey Shelson
As an Individual

We're doing chartered air flights right out of the Kabul airport.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Should the Canadian government engage NGOs on the ground there to help with that work?

Corey Shelson
As an Individual

Absolutely.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

I think there are severe limitations with respect to that at this moment as well.

You raised many concerns in terms of what's happened, and some of them you've cited at this committee. We don't have time to get all the examples of where things went wrong. Would you be able to submit to this committee the documentation outlining that?

I think part of the issue here is this: In order to move forward we also have to know what happened in the past. That's how we learn from mistakes. That's what I've been taught, anyway. Is that something you'd be able to do for our committee?

Corey Shelson
As an Individual

I will consider it, yes.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you.

My last question, then, is for Mr. Peddle. I think I'm going to run out of time very quickly. In terms of government actions with respect to the backlog, one issue we've learned is that with the Ukraine crisis right now the government's not putting additional resources into addressing that issue. That means IRCC's using the same resources it currently has. Do you think that's going to be a problem?

Stephen Peddle
As an Individual

Yes. Just like in warfare, we can surge; we can reallocate resources to get a robust response in a limited amount of time, even if we're not capable of sustaining that over the long term. I don't understand why we can't do that in other government departments as well.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much.

I want to thank both witnesses, Mr. Peddle and Mr. Shelson, on behalf of the committee members, for being here today and for the information that's very pertinent for our committee report and study. All the best.

I am suspending the meeting for a few minutes before we get to the next panel.

9:15 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Are the other members okay with this written submission?

Madam Kwan.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

For clarification, is it the intention of the committee to invite Ms. Rezayee back at another time? I understood that was what we were going to do.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

We can try, Madam Kwan, but if it's acceptable, we can ask for a written submission to the question. If you're okay with that, I think that would be perfect for now. If we find a spot, we can bring her in, but otherwise we're fully loaded.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Are you saying that if she sends written submissions, she would not be invited back?

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

No. If we have a chance, we will, but if we can't find a chance, we won't, if that's okay with you.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Actually, it's not. I would like to have her back, because she's a witness I would really like to hear from.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Madam Kwan, thank you.

9:25 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe. We appreciate that.

Without further ado, we're going to go to Madam Kwan for five minutes.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for your presentations. I would like to turn first to Ms. Hansen.

One of the issues we're faced with right now, of course, is that the Canadian government's refugee program for Afghans requires someone to be in a third country. However, many people are stuck in Afghanistan and are not able to get to a third country. From that perspective, what suggestions do you have so that we can help some of the people in Afghanistan to get to safety and be able to come to Canada?

Brandi Hansen
Director of Operations, Vector Global Solutions

My response would be that we have a handful of intermediary countries, the third countries.... An operation like that would look like landing in Kabul.

The only thing I believe that's really holding us back from bringing people directly from Afghanistan to Canada is biometrics. However, if we're only dealing specifically with intermediary countries, we have Pakistan at the moment. We also have the UAE, and they have the humanitarian city there. The UAE has agreed to take individuals from Afghanistan if they have a flight from Afghanistan to the UAE, to their humanitarian city. They're willing to do that if the Canadian government is willing to start assisting with some of the backlog within the humanitarian city. At the moment, there are several individuals in Afghanistan who have onward travel to Canada. They've accepted travel. They have a clear path of travel, and all that's standing in the way is a flight to pick them up and transport them to the UAE. The biometrics are done there. There is a consulate there, a high commission, and then they go onward to Canada.

I believe the only thing standing in the way really is the flight and just for Canada to maybe say that we'll help with the backlog. You had all these groups that jumped in. You had these non-profit groups that jumped in, the evacuation groups. They pick people up, they drop them off in the UAE and say, “Bye.” This is why we have a backlog there now.

We can use the humanitarian city. I have confirmation that we can use it. It's just a matter of maybe the IRCC saying, “Okay, we want categories. We'll take 100 orphans, 100 unaccompanied minors, 100 doctors,” or whoever they want. As long as they see somebody helping them with the backlog at the humanitarian city in the UAE, we are able and allowed to use the UAE as an intermediary country.

How they would get there is through a non-profit organization such as ours, or perhaps another credible one in Canada, such as Aman Lara, or whoever has flights. If the government is paying for the flights, funding the flights, because the cost to run a flight is something.... It's very difficult to raise those kinds of funds.

My answer is that it's a matter of having the funding, picking them up in Afghanistan and transporting them to the UAE.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you.

You said that you have confirmation documentation. Would you be able to share that with the committee?

I have confirmation through an organization in the UAE that runs the humanitarian city, and they control 95% to 98% of the flights that go into the UAE. I can certainly get you confirmation that the UAE is willing to take individuals to stay there as long as we are helping alleviate some of the capacity they have in the humanitarian city. I will get that for you.

Thank you.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much.

In terms of a third country, Pakistan is obviously a neighbouring country.

Mr. Spencer-Churchill, you indicated that it is an option as an alternative for the Canadian government to go to by way of helping Afghan [Technical difficulty—Editor]

In terms of the on-the-ground piece, Ms. Hansen, how do people, especially women who do not have a male accompanying them, get to that third country?

The way they get through that is through organizations that have funding from the government or donations, who can afford to go there. They pick them up on the flight, and then they transport them to the intermediary country. A lot of these individuals are signed up with non-profit resettlement organizations or humanitarian organizations, and this is how they are located and manifested for flights. I'm happy to provide more information to you on that as well.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much.

Madam Kwan, thank you.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank all of the witnesses, Mr. Spencer-Churchill, Ms. Hansen and Ms. Rezayee, for being here today.

I would also like to thank the interpreter for dealing with the situation that we had today.

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, directly or indirectly, I didn't mean to blame the technicians. All I said is that we'll take assistance from them. On our behalf, I would to thank the technicians as well for dealing with this. I know it's a stressful situation.

Please accept our big thank you, interpreters, technicians, technical team, Madam Clerk, and of course the witnesses who were here today as our guests.

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Bloc

Mr. Chair, I never thought that for a second. Don't worry.

9:30 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much.

Okay, all the best.

The meeting is now adjourned.

https://openparliament.ca/committees/afghanistan-s/44-1/5/jenny-kwan-1/

Latest posts

CIMM#115: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

James McNamee, Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I would say that's generally the case. If the work permit they obtained was originally connected to the public policy, that's correct. I don't know if that's the situation in all cases. In some cases, applicants may have had an LMIA-based work permit to begin with.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
That's right. However, under the special immigration measure, the LMIA is not required. I have a list of applicants in those circumstances. Their work permit renewal application was rejected. They were asked to submit an LMIA, which makes no sense. I want to flag that as a deep concern now emerging for people whose open work permits are being rejected as they wait for their permanent resident status. At this rate, given the immigration levels plan numbers and the processing delays happening, and with the number of applicants in place, you can imagine that it's going to take something like eight years to get through the backlog of people getting their PR status. This means that if they are trying to get their pension, they will not be able to do so for eight years, because they are required to provide proof of permanent residence.
I want to flag this as a major concern. I hope the department will take action to fix the error being applied to applicants whose open work permits are being rejected under this stream. Can I get a confirmation from officials that this will be undertaken?

James McNamee, Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, that issue has been raised with the department already, and we're looking into it to see what exactly happened in those situations.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
Okay. Officials are aware of it, and yet it's still happening. I have cases coming to me that are happening. I'm about to prepare a giant pile of this stuff for the minister, so I hope the officials will fix that. The other thing related to the pension, of course, is lengthy delays for people to get their permanent status. Based on the immigration levels plan and the number of applicants in place, is it the officials' anticipation that it will take about eight years to get those applications processed?

James McNamee, Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We have looked at that possibility. Certainly, it will take longer than we had previously indicated to the committee. I would note that the first year of the levels plan is the fixed year. The years that follow, in this case, 2026 and 2027, are flexible. There are opportunities to adjust those numbers in the future, and that could affect that timeline. It's hard to say whether eight years will be the timeline, but it will be longer than had been originally predicted because the numbers have gone down.

CIMM#114: Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
Aside from looking at patterns of potential violators—the groups and organizations taking advantage of students with these fraudulent letters of acceptance—will you be including in the analysis what types of institutions are being utilized for these fraudulent letters? In other words, is it private institutions versus public institutions, colleges versus universities and so on? Will that be part of the analysis?

Bronwyn May, Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It's not always the case that a letter originates from an institution. We would need to look at various possible sources.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
Maybe I can reframe that.
Obviously, as these are fraudulent letters of acceptance, they wouldn't be issued by the institutions. However, regarding the list of institutions being used for the purpose of these fraudulent letters, I would be interested in obtaining information to determine what percentage are private institutions and public institutions, how many of them are colleges, how many of them are universities and so on. That will tell us very specific information that I think is important when trying to tackle fraudulent activities.

Bronwyn May, Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I completely agree. That's a very important line of analysis.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
I will make the further request to make sure you share this information with the committee. I'll argue that this information should not be kept secret. It should be public and transparent—shared with all Canadians—so that we're aware of what the landscape is and of how international students are being taken advantage of. With respect to that analysis, will there be information and data on what countries are being targeted?

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

CIMM#113: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
All right. Thank you.
Hence, we have this problem. You have the Canadian government, which created this lifeboat scheme for Hong Kongers who are fleeing persecution in Hong Kong as a result of the national security law. The government, in its wisdom or lack thereof, created this lifeboat scheme that only provides for temporary residence by way of a work permit or a study permit. Then these people have to go to the queue to make an application for permanent residence, and we know that there is a huge backlog and delay in processing.
In the beginning, there was swift action, but as time has passed, it's been lengthened by way of the delay, to the point where the former minister even made an announcement to further extend people's work permits and study permits for another three years. That is to say, a person could be here for six years—as long as six years—under this current scheme without getting permanent residence. This is because the minister anticipated that people would not be able to swiftly get their permanent resident status. That is the reality.
As a result of that, people are not able to provide proof of permanent residence, because the application is in process. To make it even worse, the government—the minister—just made an announcement about the levels plan, cutting levels to the tune of 105,000 permanent resident status applications.
You can imagine how long the wait-list is for Hong Kongers as they continue to wait. Now, these Hong Kongers have zero intention of returning to Hong Kong, because they know that they would be persecuted if they did. People know that. I think the Canadian government knows that.
This is my question, then, to you as the manager of their pension, which, because of this rule, they're unable to access: Would your organization be willing to write to the regulator to ask for consideration for these applicants who are in a prolonged period of waiting for permanent resident status, to ask that their declaration indicating that they do not intend to return to Hong Kong be accepted as proof that they intend to leave Hong Kong permanently so that they can access their pensions? Is that something that your organization would consider doing?

Maryscott Greenwood, Global Head, Government Relations, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company
I think I understand the question.
The basic premise of your question has to do with the period of time it takes for the Government of Canada to determine and provide permanent residency or citizenship. It seems to me that this is a function of the Government of Canada, as opposed to a regulated entity. That's how I would answer that.

Laura Hewitt, Senior Vice-President and Head, Global Government Affairs and Public Policy, Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc.
Yes. I would say that it's not within our authority to change the criteria.
However, our numbers show that once that permanent residency does come through, we're able to process the applications and approve Canadian permanent residents.

AFGH#5: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

https://openparliament.ca/committees/afghanistan-s/44-1/5/jenny-kwan-1/

Latest posts

CIMM#115: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

CIMM#114: Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

CIMM#113: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers

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