Evidence of meeting #97 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
I call the meeting to order.
Are there any questions on paragraph 18? I had Mr. Chiang on the list.
Go ahead, Mr. Chiang.
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
We're now on the public record. Is that right?
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
We've moved to a public meeting.
Before we get on with other business, I'd like to first ask if the clerk can give us an update on the appearance of the minister at the committee. We have passed a number of motions asking for the minister to come.
One was for two hours on the Gaza and Sudan issue, which was actually passed more than a month ago, back on March 20. As we know, we have an urgent situation with Sudan and Gaza. People are literally dying, and we need to get answers from the minister and officials on this.
Have we had any response from the minister on his availability to come before the committee?
There were other motions as well. There was the Hong Kong study. We asked for officials to come, along with ministers. Of course, there are the supplementary estimates. Finally, there's the issue of smuggling and human trafficking.
Have we had any response from the minister on his availability to appear before the committee?
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
The clerk is still waiting for the response with the minister's availability for the months of May and June.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
My understanding is that this was before the meeting that we continued to suspend. If you want the exact dates, I will ask the clerk to look into them and to please give the information to the honourable members.
Clerk, do you need some time? Do you need a suspension, or is it okay?
5:35 p.m.
The Clerk
It's okay.
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Mr. Chair, maybe we can have the clerk report that back to committee members.
Just so that we have it on the record, the Gaza-Sudan motion was actually moved on March 20. The Hong Kong study motion was on February 12. The supplementary estimates motion was also on February 12. The smuggling operations and human trafficking study motion was on February 26.
It's been months and months and months since—
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
I will just correct you on the Gaza thing. The minister was here. In fact, the meeting was interrupted because of the votes and whatnot. On that issue, the minister was here and we made another request that the minister should come back on that issue.
I just wanted to correct you on that one, but about the others, you are absolutely right.
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Yes. On that day, I moved a motion after we were interrupted by many votes, because the issue's urgent and it remains urgent. That motion was passed, but to date, we have not had any dates offered by the minister.
I have to tell you how disturbing that is. I know the minister is busy, but people's lives hang in the balance. No matter how busy we are, we need to make time. People deserve answers and they deserve information. This is what we're charged with doing, so I hope the minister responds.
Perhaps when the clerk has the dates when those requests were made to the minister, they could be reported in the public record, because I think the public deserves to know.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Does the clerk have the dates now? If he has the dates, I'll take them now.
5:35 p.m.
The Clerk
Yes.
Ms. Kwan, if I remember correctly, we had the meeting on March 20. We adopted the motion and then the motion was sent to the department on the 21st. There was some follow-up after that about the Gaza and Sudan motion.
The other outstanding motions are also up in the air. I followed up with the department to know the availabilities, not only for Sudan, but for the other motions that were adopted, and I've had no response yet with exactly when the minister is available.
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you.
I need unanimous consent to carry on as the bells are ringing.
Is there unanimous consent to carry on the meeting?
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
There is no consent. We'll come back 10 minutes after the vote.
Thank you.
The meeting is suspended.
6:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
I call the meeting back to order.
Madam Kwan has the floor, and then I have Mr. Chiang, Mr. McLean and Mr. Kmiec on the speaking list.
6:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
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.
6:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you.
Your motion is in order.
Is there any debate on this particular motion?
Mr. McLean.
6:35 p.m.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
I would like some clarity. I am in support of this motion, but I want to make sure that, as with the previous motion, we have the relevant IRCC officials along with the Global Affairs Canada officials at the same meeting. We're tired of having one department blame the other department for the inaction on this file. When you talk to Global Affairs Canada, they seem to think the delay is entirely at IRCC, which should be before this committee. I want to make sure that when they're here, we also have the Global Affairs Canada officials whom the IRCC officials are going to point the finger at, saying they're the reason for the holdup. I disagree. If it's friendly.... It's not clear, but could we have both sets of officials at the same meeting as an assistance, please?
Would that be okay, Ms. Kwan?
6:35 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I think that's okay.
This was just to add to the motion that's already been passed. It already requested all of those officials. It's really just an extension of it.
