AFGN#10: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
Thank you to the minister for coming to our committee. I want to follow up on the former interpreters issue. With respect to the additional documents that are being required of them, many of them would not be able to produce them because they have actually had to burn them. The family members had to burn them. What they are asking the government, in those instances, generally speaking, is to waive the onerous documentation requirements and to provide them with a single travel journey document, so that they can exit Afghanistan to a third country. Will the minister do that, similarly to what is being done for Ukrainians?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS, Liberal
Just to clarify, that is a bit different from what is being done for Ukrainians. We can issue single journey travel documents for people who are seeking to come to Canada from Afghanistan or a third country, but they get the travel document after they have completed the process. The challenge I see with what you propose, which is issuing a single journey travel document that would allow them to exit Afghanistan, is that it doesn't actually solve the safe passage issue. I'm sorry. It looks like you want to jump back in.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
I do want to jump back in. First, for them to actually get out of Afghanistan, they need to have that as a travel document. Then we can talk about exiting the third country, but without that first document, they can't go anywhere and they are stuck in Afghanistan. Will the minister issue single journey travel documents for these Afghans?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS, Liberal
A Canadian single journey travel document doesn't guarantee you entry into a country, from Afghanistan into Pakistan or Tajikistan, for example. The requirements to enter into those countries will be set by those countries. Having a travel document to come to Canada doesn't satisfy that requirement.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
According to the Afghan witnesses, or the witnesses who presented to committee, many of them have actually said that if you present them with a single journey travel document, they will find a way to get to a third country. There seems to be some discrepancy. The minister is saying that even if they got one, they can't get into a third country. They're saying that they could. Even so, the minister is not issuing those documents to them and is requiring them to provide all kinds of documentation, which some of them will not have because they have had to burn them.
That is the reality. I ask that the minister please understand that. If the idea is that the single journey travel document is not a thing that will work, then find a mechanism that will work. Right now, none of it is working and people cannot get to safety.
I want to raise another issue as well regarding the people who have actually made it to Pakistan. I have been advised that there are about 700 Afghans who have actually made it to Pakistan, but Canada has not done the final step to bring them here to Canada. Will the minister organize evacuation flights for those individuals?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS, Liberal
Evacuation flights from Pakistan.... There are people who are in Pakistan who are able to leave now. An evacuation flight wouldn't necessarily.... It's a solution to a problem that we're not having right now. The issues facing people who have made it into Pakistan depend greatly on the individual case files, oftentimes on the basis of which a person has entered into Pakistan, particularly when people have crossed into Pakistan in an unofficial way. There's a big challenge for certain people who didn't enter with proper documentation to leave Pakistan, even though they have very good reasons for not having that documentation. I don't think an evacuation flight solves the problem of getting people here. If there are people who have been approved to come to Canada, we're seeing there's an ability for people to be moved from Pakistan to Canada.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

Afghanistan Committee on April 25th, 2022
Evidence of meeting #10 for Afghanistan in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session

7:45 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

We will now go to Ms. Kwan for six minutes.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the minister for coming to our committee.

I want to follow up on the former interpreters issue. With respect to the additional documents that are being required of them, many of them would not be able to produce them because they have actually had to burn them. The family members had to burn them. What they are asking the government, in those instances, generally speaking, is to waive the onerous documentation requirements and to provide them with a single travel journey document, so that they can exit Afghanistan to a third country.

Will the minister do that, similarly to what is being done for Ukrainians?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

Just to clarify, that is a bit different from what is being done for Ukrainians. We can issue single journey travel documents for people who are seeking to come to Canada from Afghanistan or a third country, but they get the travel document after they have completed the process. The challenge I see with what you propose, which is issuing a single journey travel document that would allow them to exit Afghanistan, is that it doesn't actually solve the safe passage issue.

I'm sorry. It looks like you want to jump back in.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

I do want to jump back in.

First, for them to actually get out of Afghanistan, they need to have that as a travel document. Then we can talk about exiting the third country, but without that first document, they can't go anywhere and they are stuck in Afghanistan.

Will the minister issue single journey travel documents for these Afghans?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

A Canadian single journey travel document doesn't guarantee you entry into a country, from Afghanistan into Pakistan or Tajikistan, for example. The requirements to enter into those countries will be set by those countries. Having a travel document to come to Canada doesn't satisfy that requirement.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

According to the Afghan witnesses, or the witnesses who presented to committee, many of them have actually said that if you present them with a single journey travel document, they will find a way to get to a third country. There seems to be some discrepancy. The minister is saying that even if they got one, they can't get into a third country. They're saying that they could. Even so, the minister is not issuing those documents to them and is requiring them to provide all kinds of documentation, which some of them will not have because they have had to burn them.

That is the reality. I ask that the minister please understand that. If the idea is that the single journey travel document is not a thing that will work, then find a mechanism that will work. Right now, none of it is working and people cannot get to safety.

I want to raise another issue as well regarding the people who have actually made it to Pakistan. I have been advised that there are about 700 Afghans who have actually made it to Pakistan, but Canada has not done the final step to bring them here to Canada. Will the minister organize evacuation flights for those individuals?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

Evacuation flights from Pakistan.... There are people who are in Pakistan who are able to leave now. An evacuation flight wouldn't necessarily.... It's a solution to a problem that we're not having right now.

The issues facing people who have made it into Pakistan depend greatly on the individual case files, oftentimes on the basis of which a person has entered into Pakistan, particularly when people have crossed into Pakistan in an unofficial way. There's a big challenge for certain people who didn't enter with proper documentation to leave Pakistan, even though they have very good reasons for not having that documentation.

I don't think an evacuation flight solves the problem of getting people here. If there are people who have been approved to come to Canada, we're seeing there's an ability for people to be moved from Pakistan to Canada.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

There is no question that some people actually entered Pakistan or a third country illegally because they had no other means to do so. It's the only way they can actually get away as best they can from the Taliban. We have to recognize that.

For them to be in that third country, for them to fly to Canada, it means a single journey travel document would assist them. Waiving those documentation requirements would assist them. It means waiving the refugee determination requirements which, by the way, they would need if they were to extend their stay in a country such as Pakistan, for example, because the visa in Pakistan would actually expire. All of those things come together.

The minister needs to look at these issues not with tunnel vision but with a broad vision as to the combination of approaches that could be done to assist individuals. Instead of saying that doing this or that won't help, if you did all of these together, it would actually make a difference.

This is what the families are urging the minister to do.

I'm quickly running out of time, but I also want to ask this: Has the minister considered women athletes as women leaders? None of them have been able to get access to come to Canada safely.

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

I don't try to delve too deeply, after we set the criteria, into selecting which groups qualify for the program. Certainly, I think some could. We allocate spaces to referral partners who then identify people, typically based on their vulnerability. We make sure that we're bringing in people who are at risk of persecution.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

On the question around groups to determine who meets the vulnerability requirements, would the minister expand the groups to agencies such as Amnesty International and other reputable organizations to waive the refugee determination requirements?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

I don't want to announce, not having spoken with other groups, that we're going to have new referral partners come on. I'm happy to consider what recommendations the committee may make. The groups that we work with are not unprofessional or don't have the capacity. I'm talking about the UNHCR, for example.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

I'm sorry. I'm not suggesting that they're unprofessional. I'm simply saying that you need to expand the number of groups.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much.

Ms. Kwan, your time is up.

I have to go to my own member of Parliament, Madam Findlay, for five minutes, please.

Go ahead.

8:05 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

We'll move to Ms. Kwan for two and a half minutes, please.

Go ahead.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

The minister's answer to Ms. Damoff is actually contradictory. On the one hand, Afghan interpreters' families have said that they are told they need to get to a third country. Then when they get to a third country, they're asked what they are doing there and told that they need to actually be in Afghanistan because they can't be guaranteed passage if they're in a third country. On and on it goes in a circle, and nobody can actually figure out what the right thing to do is.

People have used all different kinds of measures as best they can in survival mode to try to access safety. I would urge the minister to use flexibility in terms of addressing these issues for these families instead of the rigid approach where they have to go through A, B and C in order to get to D. Otherwise, people will not be able to get to safety.

I also have this question for the minister. Human rights defenders have received written messages from GAC indicating that their applications have been deemed eligible by GAC for the special immigration measures and have been forwarded to IRCC for processing. That was eight months ago, yet IRCC has not even acknowledged receipt of the application. What is the holdup?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

You asked two questions or made two points.

On the first, with respect to third countries, my understanding is that people are, by and large, being told they should try to get to a third country in accordance with the laws of that country. In this conversation, the documents we are talking about issuing don't typically entitle a person to enter another country. A journey document to Canada doesn't necessarily mean that you get into another country.

Similarly, exit controls that a third country may put in place may depend on what documentation a person has. If they haven't entered in accordance with local laws, I understand this can be a factor that interferes. It looks like you want to....

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC

Minister, you have 30 seconds to answer my other question. Please don't repeat the same stuff over again.

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS

With respect to the individual circumstances.... On the referral piece, I would typically have to dig in to see the status of an individual case file. Once somebody is referred to our program, we would typically start processing it.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC

I'm happy to pass that information on to the minister, but it's not just one case. There's a class or group of people who are getting stuck and not getting to move forward with their application. They are stuck with IRCC. It is the red tape that is being created.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you, Ms. Kwan. I appreciate your intervention.

Now, I would love to welcome the Honourable Erin O'Toole again. I'm sorry for the mix-up in the last meeting. I was a bit emotionally impacted.

Mr. O'Toole, you have a full five minutes today. Please go ahead.

8:35 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

I am so sorry.

Generally, the tone in this committee has been perfect and I'm very happy with the way members have dealt with the past many months. I'm looking forward to the little more time that's left.

Now we'll move to Ms. Kwan for two and a half minutes.

Please go ahead.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Former Afghan interpreters have advised us that applications submitted since January 12 have yet to receive a file number. That's about 65% of the 300. This is about the same time as the government began its effort to expedite the process for Ukrainians.

Could the minister advise us how many existing staff or FTEs were assigned to process the special immigration measures for Afghan nationals, and how many new staff or FTEs were hired and when? Was there any change in staff deployment by IRCC for the Afghan measures since August 2021? If the committee could get those numbers if the minister doesn't have them at his fingertips, I would appreciate it. I'd like those numbers broken down by staff and FTEs, new and existing in the month to which this applies, and then the offices as well as the streams.

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

Do we want to just see if our officials have those now?

I doubt they have that particular information at their fingertips, but if not, we can....

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Maybe just a quick answer, because I have a minute and a half.

Catrina Tapley
Deputy Minister, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

I have some, but I don't have it all. We have moved temporary duty officers into the region. We do them in rotations now to keep up that work. We have reprioritized staff from other lines of business to work on these particular lines of business, but for the exact number that we have used throughout, we'll have to get back to the member.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

I would appreciate getting the exact numbers broken down by streams, months and offices.

Could the minister advise us on how many interpreters and collaborators who helped serve Canada are still in Afghanistan and how many of their family members are still in Afghanistan?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

I don't have that breakdown by.... I'm sorry. You said, interpreters and collaborators. Can you tell me what you mean by “collaborators”? Are you talking about people who came in the SIMs stream?

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

No, I mean people who actually helped and who may not necessarily be interpreters, but who also helped the Canadian military. They could be guards, for example, who worked at the embassy.

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

Okay. I'll ask our deputy minister.

Do we have it broken down by that information to provide to the member?

We would have that number for the applications that we have on hand, Minister. For those extended family members of interpreters who were resettled in 2009 and 2012, we believe all but 250 are still in Afghanistan. For those remaining SIM applications, Ms. MacIntyre—

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

The time is up now. We'll come back to you.

Jennifer MacIntyre
Assistant Deputy Minister, Afghanistan, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

It's just over 5,000, Mr. Chair. It's closer to 6,000.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Ms. MacIntyre.

Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

We'll move to Mr. Hallan for five minutes. Please go ahead.

9:05 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

I will move on to Ms. Kwan, the last speaker on this one, for two and a half minutes, please.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

First I'd like to ask the officials to also table the information I asked for previously, with respect to the two types of applications for Afghans that are in process. How many of them have received UIC numbers, how many of them are still waiting for the UIC numbers, and how many of them have been refused? Could I get that information?

Minister, around biometrics, I think you will understand this challenge. If you are in Afghanistan and you can't get to a third country and there are no in-country biometrics being done, then you have no hope of actually fulfilling all the requirements in order to get to safety. From that perspective, retired military personnel have said that the government can in fact do the biometrics in Canada.

That will go a long way to resolving the issue. Will the minister take that into consideration and change the requirement as it stands right now?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

I take a different view of it, because I don't think that solves the problem of getting people here more quickly. Even if you have biometrics and you're in Afghanistan, safe passage is not guaranteed or necessarily made easier by the fact that you've completed biometrics.

The other piece that concerns me is that, if you were to do biometrics in-country, you would lose whatever benefit it provided from a security point of view. We have both domestic and international legal obligations that would prevent the refoulement of someone going back to Afghanistan if they were inadmissible to Canada for security reasons. I don't expect that this is going to be an enormous number of people we're dealing with, but when it's part of the security screening and approval process, I think it's important that we do it before someone arrives in our country.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

On the question around refoulement, the government actually doesn't have any concerns with the safe third country agreement on refoulement. I'll just remind the minister of that and maybe he could keep that in mind when he's dealing with the safe third country agreement.

With respect to biometrics, it will go a long way. I think the minister will understand if people don't have documentation, there's no way they can go through all of the steps. They don't have the documentation because they've burnt them. What happens to those applicants?

Sean Fraser Central Nova, NS
Liberal

Every case is very unique. Trying to find unique solutions for people who we think qualify for our programs is an immense challenge. You've hit the challenge on the head, I think. Solving problems for people who were inside a country you don't have access to is what's making this difficult. For the people who were outside—

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you, Minister.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you very much, Ms. Kwan. Your time is up.

On behalf of the committee, I want to thank the honourable—

9:10 p.m.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you.

Madam Kwan, please go ahead.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I think that if we are efficient with our time, we should be able to give instructions. If we cannot get an extra half-hour at the end of that meeting, we should be able to give instructions in half an hour and then, therefore, split the two panels into 45 minutes for each panel. That way, we give an opportunity for both panels to appear.

In terms of instructions, I urge committee members to come to the meeting and be ready to tell the analysts and the clerk what the instructions are, so that we're not hemming and hawing, and delaying that process. If we're efficient and if we've done our work beforehand, I think we should be able to do that.

Aside from that, Mr. Chair, I have one other request that I'd like to put forward pertaining to this committee and related to the report. I've sat on committees many times and the Library of Parliament does excellent work with respect to suggested questions.

Mr. Chair, I would like to make the request that, for the questions that have been given to us for this particular meeting for the minister and officials, we actually ask the officials to provide answers to all those questions. I think they are excellent questions, but we did not have time, obviously, to go through all of them. If I need to move that as a motion, I will.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Let me say that, for the NDP and Liberals, the way I see it is that on May 16, for the first 30 minutes, we come prepared and we give instructions to the analysts, and then there will be 45 minutes for each panel. If I have consensus, I can get that meeting out of the way.

Mr. Chong, are you in agreement with that?

He's the one who brought this forward. I just want to make sure he's on board.

Michael Chong Wellington—Halton Hills, ON
Conservative

I agree.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Thank you. I appreciate that. We're all set. It makes my life very easy.

Now I will move on to Ms. Kwan's request. I think we made sure earlier that, for the information Ms. Kwan or anyone else asked for, officials have already agreed. I don't think we have to vote to clarify that.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

I'm sorry, but do you mean to say that in terms of my request for the officials to provide answers to all the questions submitted by the Library of Parliament pertaining to this report, it will then be an undertaking for officials to provide those answers to us before we draft the report? Do I understand that correctly?

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

I thought you were asking about the questions that were asked by the members.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

No. I am asking about the questions in the document we received from the Library of Parliament, the suggested questions for ministers. They were excellent. These were just excellent questions that I think would help our committee write a report.

I'm moving a motion that committee members to request that officials answer these questions provided by the Library of Parliament before we write a report.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

We'll have Ms. Damoff and then Mr. Sidhu.

Ms. Damoff, please go ahead now.

Pam Damoff Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Liberal

Thank you, Chair.

I agree the Library of Parliament does excellent work with their questions. That's why all of us have the opportunity to ask those questions. We just had the minister and officials here for two full hours. It was very generous of his time to stay for the full two hours even though we started late. I think those questions could have been asked by any of the members during the two hours that we had the minister and officials here. I don't think it's reasonable to ask the officials to then, in turn, answer more questions that were done by the Library of Parliament.

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

Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Perhaps you didn't see me, but I had my hand up.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, please go ahead.

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

I don't think we should drag this out. I suggest we go ahead and vote on Ms. Kwan's motion.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Let's do it, and then we can all go home.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Is there an agreement on Ms. Kwan's motion?

Maninder Sidhu Brampton East, ON
Liberal

Mr. Chair, there's some confusion here. What's going on here? I hear a lot of echo, and we're all talking. Perhaps you could just reiterate.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Ms. Kwan brought in a motion saying that we should ask the officials to answer all the questions that are in the document from the Library of Parliament. I would like to ask if there is consensus on the motion she brought forward.

Kerry-Lynne Findlay South Surrey—White Rock, BC

I agree with it.

Yvan Baker Etobicoke Centre, ON
Liberal

I'm opposed.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Let's have a recorded vote, Mr. Chair.

The Chair Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal

Sure. Thank you. Let's have a recorded vote.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

The time is already 9:21.

Thank you very much to all the members, interpreters, technical staff, the clerk and, of course, the analysts.

I'm going to call the meeting adjourned.

https://openparliament.ca/committees/afghanistan-s/44-1/10/the-chair-11/

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.

AFGN#10: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

https://openparliament.ca/committees/afghanistan-s/44-1/10/the-chair-11/

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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