This House of Commons committee meeting on Canada’s immigration system heard from six witnesses: Audrey Macklin, a law professor; Alina Murad and Eva Gracia-Turgeon of The Refugee Centre; Christopher Worswick, an economics professor; Jonathan Oldman of the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia; and Luc Bonaventure Amoussou of the Immigrants Working Centre.
Audrey Macklin argued that the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement is no longer valid because the United States has become unsafe for refugee claimants since January 2025, citing examples such as the barring of asylum claims at the Mexico-U.S. border, deportations to unsafe third countries like Sudan and Rwanda, and the use of mandatory indefinite detention in abusive conditions. She called on the committee to require the minister and deputy minister to justify the continued designation of the U.S. as safe, or else Canada should withdraw from the agreement and redirect resources to orderly processing at ports of entry.
Alina Murad and Eva Gracia-Turgeon recommended modernizing the asylum system by adopting a secure ID card with a QR code to replace paper documents, standardizing legal aid access across provinces through a federal-provincial cost-shared envelope, and expanding complementary pathways like the economic mobility pathways pilot to reduce pressure on the system. They noted that bureaucratic delays in work permits and documentation hinder integration, and that faster processing times in Quebec in 2024 led to a 60% reduction in social assistance claims from asylum seekers.
Christopher Worswick argued that Canada’s economic immigration selection has drifted from a human capital model focused on high earnings, and that policies like category-based selection, provincial nominee programs, and francophone targets outside Quebec reduce the earnings performance of economic immigrants. He recommended selecting economic principal applicants expected to have above-average earnings 10 years after arrival, and suggested eliminating the temporary foreign worker program in favour of permanent immigration focused on high-income individuals.
Jonathan Oldman called for a renewed positive vision for immigration, grounded in five principles: clearer programs for economic growth, whole-of-government coordination, repudiation of anti-immigration rhetoric, recommitment to humanitarian programs, and transparent measures of success. He urged the committee to transform the levels plan process into a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach and to endorse these principles as a baseline for a reset.
Luc Bonaventure Amoussou emphasized that immigration is essential for Canada’s labour force and population growth, but that budget cuts and project-based funding have weakened settlement services. He recommended a return to five-year funding cycles, stronger collaboration between IRCC and the settlement sector to address digital and language barriers, and better communication to help newcomers navigate complex processes, noting that newcomers often face a 10-year earnings gap compared to Canadian-born workers.
The meeting included questions from members on topics such as the disappearance of refugee claimants, the impact of the safe third country agreement on Canadians, processing delays, legal aid funding, and the role of language in economic immigration. No procedural debate, motions, or votes occurred.
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