In Committee

CIM#103: Pension Transferability and Access to MPF, and Delays in PR and Visas for Hong Kongers

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all three of the witnesses, from Canada-Hong Kong Link, VSSDM and Hong Kong Watch, not just for appearing today but for your ongoing work in support of Hong Kongers. I truly, deeply appreciate that.

My first question is around the interim measure. The government has announced that its interim measure is really meant to be a bridging process. However, related to that and as we heard, what Hong Kongers really need is permanent resident status.

Related to the permanent resident status are the immigration level numbers, because the level planned this year under the categories of H and C and protected persons is set at 13,500. Next year it will be at 8,000, and the following year it will be at 8,000 also.

In light of those limitations, in order to facilitate the processing of applications for PR for Hong Kongers, would the government need to change the immigration level numbers and have a dedicated path for Hong Kongers?

I'm going to start with you, Andy, please.

CIMM#102: Government's Response to the Afghanistan Final Report Closed Work Permits and TFW

CIMM#101: Briefing on the Temporary Immigration Measures Initiated in Response to Ongoing Conflicts in Sudan and Gaza

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the minister and officials for finally coming back to this committee.

Just to be very clear, Netanyahu is committing a war crime. As we know from what we're seeing in the news with what's happening, civilians are being targeted. There's an act of genocide taking place right now, and Canada should be doing everything that it can to support the Palestinian community and be more precise to hold Netanyahu to account in accordance with the International Criminal Court.

I want to turn to the immigration issue for a second.

On the last appearance on March 20, we were informed that 986 applications have been processed. The NDP has also submitted an order paper question that indicates that, as of April 24, that number remains the same.

Between April 24 and May 26, has that number changed? If so, what is that number now?

Marc Miller Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC
Liberal

This is for Gaza. The number of TRV applications that have been accepted into processing is 2,903. That is the stretch of time between when the pathway was launched on January 9 and May 24, 2024.

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Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Let's just say that of all the applications that have gone through the process, even the ones that have gotten the TRV, only 356 names have been submitted to COGAT. I get there's a rolling number because some of them have already exited, etc.

That number is really low—I would just say that—so there is a holdup with respect to the security screening processing, which is what I'm hearing from families as well. This is not necessarily to get a biometric. It's the pre-screening in order to get them onto that list. What is the holdup with the pre-screening from IRCC's side?

HESA#113: On Women's Health

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for sharing your expertise with this committee.

I'm particularly interested in what work you think can be done and what the government should do, particularly in looking at the issues through the lens of under-represented communities, for example, in the racialized community, the LGBTQ2+ community and, I would even venture as far as to say, for seniors, who are often put on the back burner, especially as they age. What are some of the health concerns, both on the research side, as well as on the side of actually providing real supports?

That is to all of the presenters, please.

 

Dr. Pamela Valentine
President and CEO, MS Canada

I'll jump in. I don't know if anybody else will make the same comment.

We have a real problem with information and data in this country. I sit as the CEO for MS Canada, and I cannot answer what the diversity of our population living with MS in this country looks like. I can give gender—it's fantastic to know that there are three times as many women as there are men—but after that, it's really difficult to answer those questions.

To get data in this country that crosses provincial borders is exceptionally difficult. That will not be a surprise to you. That definitely costs us more time, money and energy to get the solutions that we have today, as Ruth Ann has suggested, into the hands of the people who are going to put that information to work.

It's a very real barrier for us.

CIMM#100: In Camera on Government's Response to Afghanistan Final Report and Closed Work Permits and TFW

CIMM#99: In Camera on Government's Response to Afghanistan Final Report

CIMM#98: Government's Response to Afghanistan Final Report, Processing Times for PR Pathways for Hongkongers and Canadian Armed Forces' Applications

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

At this juncture, I would like to move the following motion:

That the committee request that Global Affairs (GAC) provide the unredacted findings of the internal investigation regarding the issuance of “inauthentic” facilitation letters to third parties to the law clerk and parliamentary counsel for redaction according to his discretion before being sent to the committee, and further that GAC provide to the community the unredacted name and title of the official(s) within GAC who provided the “inauthentic” facilitation letter to George Young, acknowledged receipt of Senator McPhedran's email and shared the names of the vulnerable Afghans with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada no later than 30 days following the adoption of the motion.

Mr. Chair, I'm moving this motion today because we heard on August 25, 2021, from Senator McPhedran. In her testimony, she said, “the facilitation template in question was sent to me by George Young”. That's a quote from her testimony. She went on further to say, “Mr. Young received this facilitation template from Global Affairs Canada, and he told me this in writing.” She then further stated:

Names for the rolling list were sent frequently to George Young and Mr. Oz Jungic, a senior policy adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Jungic confirmed receipt of the names to me on August 24, with an assurance that they would do everything they could to try to help get these people out.

Senator McPhedran went on to say, “Mr. Young stated that he had put these names 'into the system'.” She also said:

When George Young sent me the facilitation templates on August 25, he wrote, with the first one, “I have received this from a colleague at GAC...try it. George.”

What we need to get to is who from GAC provided that “inauthentic” facilitation letter to George Young.

Mr. Chair, to that end, I am moving this motion so that we can get that information.

 

CIMM#97: Government's Response to Afghanistan Final Report and Committee Business

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

We were just talking about the issue of the appearance of the minister and those requests. As the clerk had indicated, the request on the Gaza and Sudan motion following the first appearance was actually made to the minister's office on March 21. It is now May 1, and we still have not had a response in terms of offering a date from the minister and the officials to reappear. I don't think that's acceptable. The reality is that this is an urgent situation. People are dying. I know of family members who submitted their application and since that time, they have already lost their loved ones. We can't just delay and delay. We can't have the minister ignore the request of the committee. We need to redouble our efforts and to get the minister here so we can get some answers for the families.

I'm going to leave it at that. I trust the work of the clerk. I have no doubt that the clerk has done what he needs to do on behalf of the committee. I thank the clerk for his effort. Perhaps this is more of a message for the minister and their office to get on with scheduling the minister to appear before the committee and to meet all the commitments that have been requested of the minister by the committee on the motions. All of those issues are important; otherwise, we would not have passed them at this committee.

Mr. Chair, at this point, I'd like to move this motion:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee add an additional meeting to the study adopted on February 12, 2024 regarding the pension transferability and access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) for Hongkongers, to study the processing delays for permanent residence applications of Hongkongers, potential differential treatment among different Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) visa offices, and the status of priority processing for applicants in Canada and abroad.

The reason I'm moving this motion at this point, Mr. Chair, is that I have spoken with a lot of Hong Kongers whose applications are simply stuck in the system. For example, Hong Kong Link and VSSDM are active organizations working with Hong Kongers. They are people who have made an application. Originally, the priority processing time for these applications was six months, and now it is to the tune of 21 months. People are still waiting for the PR applications to be processed. In the meantime, people's work permits are expiring. Their study permits are expiring. They're losing their medical coverage. Dependent children are having difficulty accessing education. You can see how difficult that whole scenario is for people.

While this is happening, in Hong Kong, they've recently passed the new Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which only means they will further escalate the arbitrary arrests and detentions of Hong Kongers.

You can see how frantic people are with the situation. They're so worried about their study permit or work permit expiring, falling out of status and being sent back to Hong Kong to face that situation. I can tell you nothing good will come out of that.

It is really urgent for the minister to come and also address this issue as well. I hope that committee members will support this. This will be in addition to the pension question, which is also a critically important issue.

CIMM#96: In Camera on Government's Response to the Final Report of the Special Committee on Afghanistan

CIMM#95: Briefing on the Temporary Immigration Measures Initiated in Response to the Ongoing Conflicts in Sudan and Gaza

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

How many people crossed the Rafah border as a result of the government program? Can you give just a straight-up number?

Marc Miller Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC
Liberal

You'd have to clarify the question. Do you mean as a result of the codes, visas or applications that they have received, or because they thought they could get to Egypt and then have the benefit of the program?

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

No.

How many people managed to cross the border as a result of the government's special immigration measure?

Marc Miller Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC
Liberal

Other than the ad hoc numbers that we have been able to get out individually, the number is 14.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP

Is the ad hoc number because of the government's program or because they cross on their own?

CIMM#94: In Camera on Government's Response to Afghanistan Final Report and Closed Work Permits and TFW

CIMM#93: Closed Work Permits and Temporary Foreign Workers and Briefing on Recent Changes to International Student Policy and Plans for Future Measures

On the question around student housing, I absolutely think that it is essential for institutions and provinces do their part and I think that the federal government should show leadership and perhaps initiate a program wherein the federal government contributes a third of the funding, institutions provide a third of the funding, and the provinces and territories provide a third of the funding towards the creation of student housing, both for international students and domestic students. That way you can have a robust plan to address the housing needs of the students.

I'm going to park that for a minute and quickly get into the students who were subject to fraud. We have a situation in which students have now been cleared and found to be genuine by the task force, but they have not gotten their passports back yet. I don't know what the holdup is, and I wonder if the minister can comment on that.

Second, there are students who are still waiting to be evaluated by the task force, and the task force work can't proceed because they might be waiting for a date for the IRB to assess the question on their permit on whether or not it was genuine or whether or not there was misrepresentation. They are consequently in a situation in which people are just chasing their tails and they can't get to the task force.

On that question, will the minister agree that instead of making people go through that process with the IRB, the task force evaluation can move forward first so that they can be found to be either a genuine student or not a genuine student?