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Mr. Chair, again, as I said, applications do not necessarily mean and do not equate to people receiving citizenship. The department is monitoring that, and we are not seeing those types of numbers.
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Mr. Chair, I believe that the member was a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration when many people testified at that committee when the bill was going through. I believe he already had the answers at that point. Again, we will monitor what happens in the future.
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Mr. Chair, the bill stopped citizenship indefinitely. The right thing to do was to pass that piece of legislation. It provided clarity, structure and control to citizenship by descent.
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Mr. Chair, that is a very interesting and good question. I have been transparent and clear. In fact, I was at the Toronto Club and was asked exactly that question and questions along those lines. In fact the individuals who were there asking me were all business people and people who knew about this program. They told me there was so much fraud in that particular program and that they understood w…
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Mr. Chair, in terms of Hong Kong, I believe I already addressed that with another member, but a number of measures have been implemented for Hong Kong, both for permanent resident pathways and temporary resident measures.
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Mr. Chair, through you, I would please ask that people not put words in my mouth. I said the program was paused. That was the right thing to do. There were too many applications in the system. We have heard about that for a little while. It was uncontrollable, but it was not because of the IRCC and the people working diligently in that department. It was because too many people were applying, and …
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Mr. Chair, again, as I have said, that program was paused. The department is actively looking at what the best way is, because part of my mission is to bring sustainability to our permanent resident numbers and our temporary resident numbers, to attract francophone immigration and to bring global talent to Canada. That is exactly the mission we are working on, and we are achieving clear results.
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Mr. Chair, let me tell everyone about processing and our service standards: 80% of completed applications are processed within service standards. There is high demand for the available level space that we have. We have been transparent. We have been clear with all Canadians and all members of Parliament on that. Our staff has cross-training so they can work with the demand we have.
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Mr. Chair, as I said earlier, the Canada Border Services Agency has deported 23,000 people this past year. We work with the CBSA and with our law enforcement. We are investing in over 1,000 more officers to ensure that we protect Canadians.
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Mr. Chair, I am not sure what my colleague is referring to. Is he referring to coverages that are interim for essential services for vulnerable people before they transition to provincial funding? He is going to have to confirm that.
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Mr. Chair, again, let me get back to the question of criminality. Serious crimes deserve serious consequences, period.
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Mr. Chair, the good news is that we are saving money because the asylum claim numbers are down. We will continue to bring them down with Bill C-12 to curb those numbers.
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Mr. Chair, this may be one of the first times that I have responded to the hon. member. I know she has been here for a while. I very much respect her as a person, but also as a parliamentarian. I know she has connections to my province of Nova Scotia. I really appreciate her wealth of knowledge here. She asked me a question about the STCA. The information I have is that the STCA continues to be pa…
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Mr. Chair, my colleague raises a really good point that we have been talking with my department's officials about, because we receive those concerns in my constituency office as well, as do all parliamentarians. I would say that part of the process is to do with the fact that we have a levels plan that is part of managing migration in Canada, permanent and temporary. As a result of that, we can on…
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Mr. Chair, it is a very good point. In terms of the IRCC's processing standards, 80% are processed in time within our standards. We have very high-demand volumes. To go back to the member's earlier question on security screening, we are working very diligently with both CBSA and CSIS to bring those down.
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Mr. Chair, it is a very good question because many people use home care workers. We had to pause the program because we found an abundance of volume there, and we felt, as everybody does now, that it is just not fair to keep accepting more and more applications until we are able to process some of the ones that we have in the queue.
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Mr. Chair, we have levels, in terms of the temporary resident population, that we can accept, whether it is students, workers or the people who are coming on humanitarian pathways. It is all calculated together. It is all in budget 2025, which was tabled in the House. We are working to process those numbers accordingly.
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Mr. Chair, again, these are excellent questions, and they are ones that Canadians are asking me when I go to different provinces, and the territories that I went to as well. No, it is neither of those. It is the fact that we have a levels plan. The levels plan has a permanent resident number, but for the first time, in 2024, Canada introduced the temporary resident plan—
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Mr. Chair, we definitely have a plan. We are definitely delivering on that plan. It has been transparent, it has been clear, and perhaps that is part of the reason there have been so many questions from Canadians. We have been so clear and so transparent, and it is different than in past years, and we will continue to do the best that—
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Mr. Chair, I appreciate my colleague's opinion. We are working to deliver for Canadians, to fulfill the commitments we made in the election, to bring down the numbers of temporary and permanent residents in 2027 and to bring in talent.
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Mr. Chair, I want to welcome my colleague to the discussion here tonight. She is my immigration critic, and I had a great discussion with her in the summer when we were talking about levels and everything else. I very much value her experience in immigration and also in politics, not just federally but provincially. The member does ask a good question on the STCA. Does she mind if I continue?
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Mr. Chair, it is not a yes-or-no question. I can answer that question if the member would like.
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Mr. Chair, we do monitor the U.S. We use a robust framework to continuously monitor U.S. developments and their impact on the refugee protection system.
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Mr. Chair, again, as I said, there is a robust framework. There is continuous monitoring by the department, but also by the partners that the department works with.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, IRCC monitors that with the partners we work with. It is not simply IRCC. There are other departments that it works with in order to monitor them, and we will continue to do that.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, we are continuously monitoring the situation in the U.S.
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Mr. Chair, first let me say that when the member speaks of Gaza and the Middle East, my heart goes out to everyone there. Obviously, I know it is very difficult. When the member speaks of students, they all go through the same application as any international student. I can tell the member that we have directed officials to accelerate the student visa processing for people in Gaza, and I can confi…
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Mr. Chair, I do not believe I can reply to that. I do not think I have what the member is asking for. I can tell the member that, as of February 28, approximately 1,360 Palestinians have been approved to come to Canada and approximately 985 people have arrived through the special measures.
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Mr. Chair, in 2024, prior to me becoming a minister, the government introduced special measures to facilitate temporary residence for up to 5,000 extended family members in Gaza of Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
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Mr. Chair, the Government of Canada made a commitment for certain numbers, and we are fulfilling that commitment to the best of our abilities.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, the government made a commitment, and the commitment is being fulfilled. I have cited the numbers of who has already arrived and of the applications that have been processed.
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Mr. Chair, the member asked for a number for the Hong Kong PR pathways. We received 46,444 applications for people, and the total that have arrived is 13,160.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, IRGC officials are inadmissible. Yes, we do work with the Minister of Public Safety and with CBSA. They are investigating all these cases. They will be taking action as required.
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Mr. Chair, as I have been saying all along, if there are IRGC officials, they are not being admitted to Canada. There is a continuous ban that the government has taken. It is still in place.
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Mr. Chair, I will quote the numbers again. Members like numbers. There have been 17,800 applications reviewed for potential inadmissibility and 239 visas cancelled by IRCC, and there are 176 investigations ongoing with the CBSA.
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Mr. Chair, if there has been misrepresentation, then there is a process and deportation is possible.
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Mr. Chair, if I were not a lawyer who practised law for 22 years, I might fall into that trap. The point is, there is nothing to amend. It is not in the act.
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Mr. Chair, serious crimes deserve serious consequences. It does not matter who criminals are and what status they have in Canada.
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Mr. Chair, I disagree with the member totally. If he really wants to look at my record, I am going to need a bit of time here, but asylum claims are down and temporary resident work permits and foreign students are down. Perhaps the member wants them at zero. I am not sure. Maybe he should be talking to his community. We have strengthened our program to attract the talent we need—
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Mr. Chair, I will continue on the fact that we are strengthening our communities. We are protecting our population. We are managing immigration. We are bringing in talented tradespeople, strengthening rural communities, attracting health workers, fast-tracking physicians and—
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Mr. Chair, there is nothing in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that reduces sentencing or disallows people from receiving it. CBSA investigates those cases, and deportations are conducted.
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Mr. Chair, serious criminals face serious consequences.
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Mr. Chair, again, I am the immigration minister. I am looking at the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and regulations. There is nothing in that document and in those rules that permits what the member is alluding to.
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Mr. Chair, we would be glad to work with the member if the member would bring a law that is constitutional and within the law. That is not what the member did. Her law that she brought in was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Canada had ruled on that over a decade ago, that it is not within the Constitution.
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Mr. Chair, the court clearly and unequivocally stated that public safety is paramount, and that is exactly what this government is doing. We have hired officers. We are complying with our obligations, and we will continue to do that. There is nothing in our law that offers otherwise.
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Mr. Chair, my role is to manage migration in Canada. We have clear rules. We are working. We have been transparent with Canadians. People who commit serious offences will be treated and should be treated seriously and sentenced. CBSA investigates and deports.
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Mr. Chair, again, as I said, serious criminals deserve serious consequences. Judges are applying the law within the Constitution. The Supreme Court has said public interest is the top priority. That is our—
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Mr. Chair, again, let us bring it back to immigration and why we are here tonight. CBSA removed, as the public safety minister said today, 23,000 people last year.
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Mr. Chair, non-citizens convicted of a serious crime are inadmissible, whether the crime happened in Canada or outside Canada. That means they are not allowed to enter Canada or stay in Canada if they are already here. We brought in many pieces of criminal legislation in this House, under this government, under our mandate so far, that the opposition has obstructed in each and every way. We have a…
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