Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 29th, 2022
Evidence of meeting #45 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session
4:15 p.m.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the minister and his officials for coming to the committee.
My first question for the minister relates to the Hong Kong lifeboat scheme. Approximately 12,000 individuals have come to Canada and applied under that scheme, and 6,487 people were approved as of October 2021. Only 45 had permanent resident status approved by January 2022. According to research from Community Family Services of Ontario, 22% of the open work permit applicants graduated in 2016 or 2017, making them ineligible for PR under the scheme. By the time they complete their PR requirements, the degree, the limitation of five years will be over.
As the minister can see, there remain substantial barriers for Hong Kongers to access the open work permit scheme. It's set to expire on February 7, 2023. No replacement has yet been announced.
My question for the minister is this: Will he eliminate the five-year rule to make the lifeboat scheme actually workable for Hong Kongers? Second, will he extend the program?
Sean Fraser Immigration Minister
Liberal
Thanks very much.
The program you referred to has provided some unique benefits to allow people from Hong Kong to come to Canada. I have no reason to question the numbers you've cited. We wanted to make sure we had a program that we could implement. I think having some objective criteria on the timelines that we could work with to determine eligibility would have been important at the time. Of course, this was before my tenure in the position.
We have not made a decision to formally extend the program at this stage. I'd be happy to follow up with further conversations, if you wish.
I would point out as well that access to Canada for people from Hong Kong was made easy some years ago with the expansion of the eTA program to allow people to travel here more quickly. It's different from a permanent residency stream, I'll acknowledge.
To answer your question, I think there has been some real utility to the program, but we have not made a formal decision on what will happen after the expiry of the existing program.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Thank you for that.
I'd love to engage further with the minister on this, about the extension of the program but also the five-year rule. The current situation in Hong Kong has not actually improved. In fact, if anything, it has worsened. Consequently, a lot of these students, if they do not make PR here, will be sent back and will be faced with persecution. These are real issues. I'd love to work with the minister on that to see if we can find a path forward.
I want to bring another situation to the minister's attention. There's a group of 12 migrant workers, mostly women, in Niagara Falls who filed for a vulnerable workers open work permit on November 9. They're subject to harassment, racism and horrible things by the employer. According to the IRCC website, once the application is received, the worker will be contacted by IRCC within five business days. For this group of workers, it has been almost a month. There has been no contact from IRCC whatsoever.
Luckily, they are being housed by the union, by UFCW. This situation was brought to their attention. The union is paying for their accommodations so that they can actually be in a safe environment. The union is ready and willing to line them up with employment. They have good employers who are ready to hire them, but they need that open work permit.
Minister, I can put UFCW in contact with the officials to try to get this sorted out. I don't know why it has taken them more than a month when the standard is five days.
Sean Fraser Immigration Minister
Liberal
First of all, thank you for raising this with me. I was not familiar with the individual details of this case. We'll discuss it with our officials immediately at the end of this meeting.
For what it's worth, my view on the temporary foreign worker program is that to maintain the social licence to have this program, we cannot allow employers to abuse workers. We need to provide an opportunity for people to seek alternative employment arrangements if they're in an abusive situation.
I will undertake to have this conversation immediately when this meeting ends and report back to you at my earliest opportunity.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
I would appreciate that very much. These workers want to work, and they should not be subject to abuse. They've been waiting and waiting. Time is not on their side.
With regard to delays in processing for TRVs and study permits, the government website indicates that the processing time is 12 weeks, and yet our office and my colleague's office have been experiencing extraordinary delays in processing TRV and study permit applications. This is especially the case for students or individuals from Africa and Iran.
One student from Iran had to wait for over a year. They are still on track to miss yet another semester next year for their study permit, and there has been no word. No matter how we've tried to phone the urgent case line and phone the inquiry line, zero information can be provided. I don't know how this can be. It's the same thing for African students. One student we are aware of has been waiting for seven months.
I don't know if there are internal issues, or if it's the systemic racism that's been exposed within IRCC with respect to the Pollara report, or what is going on. How is it that cases, particularly from Africa and Iran, are so severely delayed and off the mark from the processing standards? I'm not talking about individual cases. I'm talking about a class of people.
Sean Fraser Immigration Minister
Liberal
Look, thank you for raising this with me. It's no secret that we need to improve our processing times. I think we've accomplished significant gains. I think the people who have been in the system for some time and who are getting approved today have taken longer than what a new applicant who makes their application today will take.
We expect that by the end of the year we'll be back to having 80% of cases processed within the 60-day standard, but there is a real issue that we need to continue to examine with people who come from particular countries, particularly countries that have a majority racialized population, because systemic discrimination is not okay with me.
You've referenced the Pollara report and some really troubling findings. That was something we did proactively and that we should not hide from. We should embrace the change that we need to make, not just internally to our organizations, but in the potential impact our policies have from an outward-facing perspective.
4:35 p.m.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Perhaps the minister can actually put that as a caveat on the IRCC website so that people know, because right now, for example, with respect to the processing of refugee travel documents and certificates of identity, there is no processing time timeline. People have no idea, even though they are desperately in need of trying to go back to visit loved ones.
I could go on with the lists, but I won't because I only have two minutes or something. Suffice it to say, that needs to be done. People need to know so that they can plan.
The other thing I want to bring to the minister's attention is this: For urgent processing, this is a real problem. The government indicates that urgent processing through the inquiry line will be dealt with within 48 hours. The reality is that it's anywhere between one week and 10 days, or more. I have multiple cases where people can't get urgent processing. By nature, the situation is urgent, but it's not being processed accordingly.
My question for the minister is this: Will he commit to ensuring that the urgent processing of cases is actually dealt with within the processing time of 48 hours?
Sean Fraser Immigration Minister
Liberal
We'll do everything we can to get back to urgent processing timelines for urgent cases. I think for many reasons that we've outlined, some of the processes and challenges that we've had have slowed us down. I'll do everything I can to get back to a 48-hour timeline as quickly as possible.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
If that doesn't happen, what do we do? How do we deal with constituents who are in desperate need? What do we do? Where do we go?
Sean Fraser Immigration Minister
Liberal
The reality of the situation that I work in.... Look, for urgent cases—to answer your question—if you're not able to get it through the MED line, please get in touch with me if you need to for the truly urgent cases.
I will say that the number of urgent cases coming through.... Given our commitments to resettle some of the most vulnerable people and given certain challenging life circumstances with such immigration ambition, urgent cases are coming through to me in larger numbers than they ever have before.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Okay. Thank you.
I'm running out of time. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude.
The Chair Salma Zahid
Liberal
I'm sorry. Your time is up.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Oh, I wanted to get one more in.
5:15 p.m.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the officials.
To follow up on the question around processing delays for African applicants, as well as those from Iran, could the officials provide the median and the average processing time for TRVs and PR applications, along with study permits for applicants from Africa and Iran for the last six years? That would be minus the two years of COVID, because I understand that things were at a standstill, but it's so that we have some baseline to compare it to.
Can I also get the officials to provide to the committee the turnaround time for PR applicants waiting for instructions to create...the PR portal or to have the photo uploaded so that they can get their COPR? We're seeing unbelievable delays. People are waiting for these steps so that they can move forward with their application. They're stuck there. They can't get on the portal to upload their photos and the stuff that they're supposed to upload to move things forward. What is the hang-up there? That's really what I'm trying to get at.
Also, on the issue around the newly announced 3,000 family member spots for the group of five in the Afghan privately sponsored stream, could the officials advise if those spots are fully subscribed? If so, when did they become full? If not, at what stage are they now?
I'll pause here. If you have answers, I'll take them. If not, I'll move on with my other questions.
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationMaybe I'll start with where you ended, which is on the 3,000 spots for Afghans in the group of five. It is fully subscribed, but we're going through the subscription. There were a couple of cases of duplication, so we're going through to see whether or not we've reached that capacity, or whether, because of the few duplications, it's going to open up some spots. However, we're very close to it, if not at the 3,000.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
If you can advise the committee, I'd like to know exactly when it became fully subscribed. To my knowledge, people tried to get into that program very early on, literally within the first couple of weeks when the program was announced, and it was pretty well fully subscribed. It really goes to show you the demand and the need. I'm just trying to figure out what the lay of the land is.
With respect to that, what is the anticipated timeline for processing? Privately sponsored refugee applications right now are sitting at about three years in terms of processing, so what's the estimated timeline for these sets of applications?
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationFor Afghan processing, it's always a little bit challenging to put a specific time frame on it. Depending on the location of the individual, depending on the challenges, sometimes it's not a question about the processing time frame—
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Sorry, I appreciate that, but I'm running out of time.
I need just a quick answer. Do you have any projection within your department on how quickly these will be processed?
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationWe can give you the processing time that it would take for the department, but there are unknown elements that we don't control.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
That's fair enough. If you give us that information, I would appreciate that.
Will any of the resources allocated from the supplementary estimates assist with the processing of these applications? If so, how much?
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationIt's actually a significant portion of the funding that is going to Afghan refugees, including processing. It's $647 million—
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Is that all for this stream, or is it for all of it?
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationNo, it's for the entire—
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
How is it broken down?
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We can get you a breakdown of the funding.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Thank you.
In the supplementary estimates, $23.9 million is allocated to address inventory backlog for PR applications. Will this be for the backlog, or is it for new applications to meet standard processing?
Daniel Mills
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thank you for your question.
It's actually a mix of the two. Those funds will help us work on complex matters that have been pending for a number of years, but also continue to meet our service standards for certain categories of applications, including Express Entry applicants and family reunification. The minister has talked about this.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Is the entire amount being dedicated for the backlog and not for new applications? Just give a yes or no.
Daniel Mills
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationIt's a mix of the two, but as the minister said, immigration levels—
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Sorry, but I'm going to interrupt again. I apologize.
Could we get a breakdown, then, on how much is being allocated for the new applications and how much is for the backlog? What is the expected time frame for the processing of these applications? How many do you expect you would actually get through in both of those different streams? If you don't have that figure now, you can provide it to the committee later.
Daniel Mills
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationI don't have a detailed timeline for that, but as the minister said, the annual budgets are used for immigration applications. The funding requested in the supplementary estimates is primarily to reduce the backlog of files. We're basing it on the annual reference levels.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
If you can provide us with the projected numbers of how many cases you think you will get through with that amount of money, that would be appreciated, and then how many are still sitting in the backlog untouched.
With respect to IRCC-allocated funding to the IOM, does IRCC allocate funding to the IOM to provide housing for Afghan refugees in third countries? If yes, how much, and then in which country in those third countries? Also, how many units of housing are being funded? Who is responsible for the allocation? Whom can the families contact when they have been promised the housing but no provision of housing has been made available to them?
Can you provide that information to the committee?
The Chair Salma Zahid
Liberal
Your time is up. Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
With that, the rounds of questioning come to an end, and we will have to vote on the supplementary estimates (B), 2022-23.
Yes, Ms. Fox.
Christiane Fox
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Ms. Chair, I just want to confirm that with regard to the $2 million to the IOM, we will provide that detail and context to the committee.
Thank you very much.
