Evidence of meeting #104 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 kongers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you very much. Your time is up.
Now we will go to Madam Kwan.
Madam Kwan, please go ahead for two and a half minutes.
6:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you for that.
I may add that we should actually be calling for the release of all political prisoners in Hong Kong in relation to the national security law and the most recent article 23. I hope the officials will bring that back to the minister as well.
I want to follow up with the IRCC officials, in particular Ms. Snow, on her comment that the average processing time is now eight months. There are about 10,000 people waiting for PR applications to be processed from Hong Kong at the moment. That's as of March 2024.
Can you confirm, then, that those individuals will get their PR applications processed in eight months?
6:05 p.m.
Director General, International Platform, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As was raised by another member, there is a limit to the levels for this year of 13,500 with another 8,000 booked next year. We will process according to the levels plan.
At the moment, the processing is under eight months. We don't anticipate that the processing will rise to 21 months, but we will work within the levels that have been approved by Parliament and that our minister is accountable for.
6:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
How many per month are being processed right now for Hong Kongers?
6:05 p.m.
Director General, International Platform, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The department will have to refer back if you wish to have monthly statistics. What I have is the year to date.
6:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I would like to get monthly statistics. Also, on the question around statistics, I asked at the Gaza meeting for the breakdown of the immigration level numbers related to the variety of different special immigration measures. That was on May 27, so by the end of this week it will have been two weeks.
Can we actually get that information by next Monday? It pertains to this study as well
Can I get a confirmation for that?
6:05 p.m.
Director General, International Platform, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I will take that back to the department and raise your concern that the committee has been waiting for two weeks.
6:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would actually raise this as a motion and have the committee call on the officials to provide that document. I'd like to get this before we actually adjourn this sitting of the House and still have enough time to go back to it, if necessary.
Mr. Chair, can you confirm if I need a motion to request that undertaking or can direction just be given?
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
You can give the direction and I will ask the questions of the officials—if they can. Otherwise, we can always pass this motion.
I will go to Mr. McNamee, Madam Snow or Madam Mascoll, if they want to respond.
I have stopped the watch because your time is already almost up. Let me figure it out.
6:05 p.m.
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
As Ms. Snow indicated, we will take this back and commit to providing that information to you. We are aware that the request is in the system and it's being worked on.
At this time, I can't give you an exact timeline on when it will be done, but requests from the committee are always given priority.
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Madam Kwan, your time is up
Are you satisfied with that or do you want to address this?
6:10 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that, especially in light of the fact that we know that people's pension funds are being withheld until the application can be processed.
We just heard from Ms. Snow that the immigration levels plan is going to impact processing in terms of people getting their PR. I think this is all related and the committee members need to have that information.
I would like to ask for the support of the committee members to ensure that we get that information back from officials by next Monday.
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Do we have the unanimous consent of the committee?
Is it yes?
Mr. Chiang, do you want to speak to that?
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
Paul Chiang Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
I will defer to our departmental official if that's an appropriate time or if they might need more time.
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Okay.
There is the question now and I will give Mr. McNamee the floor.
Mr. McNamee, do you want to respond to Mr. Chiang's question?
6:10 p.m.
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I would like to be able to come back to the committee with an exact date to be able to produce that information. It is Wednesday now and Monday is coming up very quickly.
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Basically, Mr. McNamee, you are saying that you would not be able to produce it by Monday.
Is that correct?
6:10 p.m.
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I would like more time, if possible, yes.
6:10 p.m.
Conservative
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
No, Madam Kwan, you know that your time is up, but I still entertained the question, so there's no....
I have Mr. McLean on the speaking list and I will put you on the speaking list as well.
Mr. McLean, did you want to speak?
6:10 p.m.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Yes. Thank you.
I'm sorry, we're talking about some readily available data here. Are you saying we can't get it in a day or two?
6:10 p.m.
Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Often the data that we release has to be reviewed to ensure that it is publicly releasable. Sometimes information includes small cell data that identifies individuals, and we want to avoid that wherever possible, so it takes a little bit of time.
6:10 p.m.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Well, of course, we're not looking for personal identification; we're looking for numbers. You should have a database of this, and it should be readily available to be able to handle it in a few hours, quite frankly, so I'm challenged by why this can't be produced very quickly here.