This committee meeting was part of a study on Canada’s immigration system. Witnesses included Adam Hummel (immigration lawyer), Zhixi Zhuang (associate professor), Émilie Caissie-Richard and Michel Denis Richard (Comité atlantique sur l’immigration francophone), Luisa Veronis (professor), Sheung Ching Cheng (Hong Kong Pathway Ontario Committee), and Alexandra Chyczij (Ukrainian Canadian Congress).
Adam Hummel described a broken security screening system where four agencies operate separately, leading to backlogs and inconsistent decisions; he cited a 2023 evaluation where IRCC approved 46% of cases the CBSA had deemed inadmissible. He recommended creating an immigration security coordination centre, implementing continuous vetting, modernizing the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to cover modern threats, and properly funding the system to address backlogs that have led to processing times exceeding 50 years for some pathways.
Zhixi Zhuang argued that immigration levels planning is not aligned with municipal infrastructure capacity, creating pressure on housing, transit, and services, especially in smaller communities. She recommended a formal federal-provincial-municipal coordination mechanism, a clearer role for municipalities in integration planning, requiring higher education institutions to demonstrate housing and support plans when recruiting internationally, and incorporating measurable local capacity indicators into immigration planning.
Émilie Caissie-Richard and Michel Denis Richard stated that while Canada has made policy progress on francophone immigration, implementation remains too centralized and poorly adapted to Atlantic Canada, with programs disappearing and no additional funding planned for 2026-2027. They asked for official recognition of the Société nationale de l’Acadie as the umbrella organization for francophone immigration in Atlantic Canada, with a clear regional coordination mandate and stable funding, and also recommended an economic immigration program tailored to regional francophone labour needs.
Luisa Veronis argued that the Express Entry system cannot fulfill the dual mandate of francophone immigration, which is both economic and community-based under the Official Languages Act. She recommended a stand-alone francophone immigration program with its own selection criteria that consider host community capacity, and called for strengthening the francophone community immigration pilot, easing pathways for French-speaking international students, better leveraging the provincial nominee program, and recognizing family reunification as a retention tool.
Sheung Ching Cheng reported that the backlog for humanitarian and compassionate grounds applications has existed for over two years, with processing times potentially extending to 10 years, leaving many applicants in limbo. She recommended establishing a priority system for applicants waiting over two years by transitioning them to permanent residence and waiving work experience and language test requirements, facilitating transitions into skilled trades and key occupations, and providing presumptive approval-in-principle letters earlier in the process.
Alexandra Chyczij noted that almost 300,000 displaced Ukrainians are in Canada under the CUAET program, but their temporary status creates uncertainty and psychological stress as the war continues. She recommended that the minister approve a temporary public policy pathway for permanent residence for Ukrainians on CUAET visas and increase provincial nominee allocations across Canada, noting that polling shows 69% of Canadians support creating more permanent residency pathways for Ukrainians.
The committee also debated and voted on several motions and amendments. A motion by Brad Redekopp requesting monthly reports from IRCC on citizenship by descent applications under Bill C-3 was amended to require quarterly reports, and a subamendment to add “broken down by the country of origin” and specify applications from the United States based on French-Canadian ancestral ties was adopted. A motion by Brad Redekopp regarding the Auditor General’s report on international student permit fraud was debated, with an amendment to change reporting from monthly to quarterly and to strike a paragraph calling for former ministers to appear; the motion was adopted as amended. A motion by Costas Menegakis concerning the presence of Iranian regime and IRGC agents in Canada was debated, with an amendment by Peter Fragiskatos calling for a legal review of the measures for charter and international law compliance; a subamendment by Amandeep Sodhi to remove the reporting requirement from that amendment was adopted, and the motion as amended was adopted. The committee also agreed to instruct the clerk to clarify that quarterly reports under two previously adopted motions should cover the preceding three calendar months.
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