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Business of Supply

This was a Committee of the Whole examination of the immigration minister’s spending plans, where Conservative members used their questions to press the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship on asylum numbers, border screening, visa decisions, fraudulent immigration consultants, temporary foreign workers, and the removal of people with no legal status. The minister pointed to falling asylum claim numbers, cooperation with provinces to relocate refugees, enforcement actions including the removal of 23,000 people last year, and Bill C-12 as a measure to further reduce asylum claims. Liberal members also used some questions to highlight immigration’s economic benefits and summer jobs for youth.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text

171 statements

Gabriel Hardy

Conservative
“Quebec has too many temporary residents, and it is straining daycares, schools, and hospitals. I want the minister to tell us when the government will limit these numbers so our systems can handle them.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, before coming to tonight’s debate, I asked people to send me their questions, knowing that I would be meeting the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Here is a question based on a message from Sonia Brisebois. On January 1, 2025, Quebec had 616,000 non-permanent residents. This includes asylum seekers, refugees, temporary workers and international students. This puts pressure on day care centres, schools and our health care system. How many will there need to be before the minister admits that the system has collapsed and that we are no longer able to provide proper care to Quebeckers and Canadians? Basically, at what point do we turn off the tap so we can take care of people properly?

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Gabriel Hardy

Conservative
“Free health care for asylum seekers will cost 1.5 billion dollars a year by 2030, even for people who were told they cannot stay. I want to know if the minister thinks it is fair to spend that much money on non-citizens when Canadians cannot find a doctor.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the Parliamentary Budget Officer forecasts that the interim federal health program, which provides free health care to asylum seekers even when their application to remain in the country, on our territory, is refused, will reach an annual budget of $1.5 billion by 2029–2030. Does the minister think it is acceptable to spend $1.5 billion a year on services for non-residents, when citizens are not even able to see a doctor?

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Gabriel Hardy

Conservative
“Does the government still want Canada to be a country with no identity, no history, and no values?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, do the minister and her government still intend to make Canada a postnational state, like the former prime minister and all the ministers who are still here wanted? Do they still want a country with no identity, no history and no values?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“The citizenship bill will allow endless chain migration. The minister said it would add fewer than 5,000 new citizens a year. I want to know if she still believes that number.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, Bill C-3 introduced unending chain migration to Canada. The minister told the committee this bill would create fewer than 5,000 new Canadians per year. Does she stand by her estimate?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“Does the minister still believe this bill will add fewer than 5,000 new citizens each year?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, does the minister stand by her estimate of fewer than 5,000 new Canadians per year?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“Your department already gave citizenship to more than 2,600 people under this new law in just two months. Do you want to change your estimate?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I will help the minister a bit. Her department has already confirmed over 2,600 new Bill C-3 citizens in just two months. Perhaps she wants to revise her forecast?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“I want the minister to tell us how many people will become citizens under this bill. She says only a few thousand, but reports say millions of Americans could qualify.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the minister seems very scared to give a number. The Liberal news organization, the CBC, says, “Millions of Americans can now claim Canadian citizenship”. How does the minister sleep at night, knowing her estimate of a few thousand might actually be a few million?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“This is the opposite of what the minister told our committee. We wanted more rules, but the minister said people will automatically become citizens if they meet the basic terms. Will the minister admit that more people will get citizenship than she first said?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, this is the exact opposite of what we heard in committee. We, Conservatives, suggested some conditions that people might have to adhere to, but the minister suggested the law is the law; if people check these boxes, they automatically come in. Does the minister want to revise her numbers up?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“Did the minister know that this citizenship bill could apply to millions of Americans?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, did the minister understand that Bill C-3 could apply to millions of Americans?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“This bill could let millions of Americans become Canadian citizens. The minister did not tell Parliament about this. I want to know if she hid it on purpose.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we know there are certain things that have to be done, but this still allows millions of Americans, potentially, to become Canadian citizens. The minister never told Parliament about this. Did she deliberately hide this information from Parliament?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“Tens of thousands of Americans are applying for Canadian citizenship through their family trees. Did the minister tell cabinet this bill could let millions of Americans become Canadian citizens?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the record shows that tens of thousands of people from the United States who are looking to trace their ancestry are starting to apply for citizenship. Did the minister tell cabinet that Bill C-3 could make millions of Americans eligible for Canadian citizenship?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“Did the minister consider stopping people from claiming citizenship through distant ancestors?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, in proposing Bill C-3, did the minister consider excluding claims through distant ancestors?

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Brad Redekopp

Conservative
“Did the minister talk to Elections Canada about how new citizens will vote under this bill if they have never lived in Canada?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we know that new citizens can vote, obviously. Did the minister consult Elections Canada about where these new citizens through Bill C-3 will vote when they have never had a physical address in Canada?

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Fred Davies

Conservative
“Our immigration system is broken and full of delays. Now, about 43,000 business founders are stuck waiting up to 10 years for a start-up visa, so they are taking their businesses to other countries. Is the minister okay with this?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, for 10 years, IRCC has spiralled from backlog to backlog while temporary migration numbers exploded beyond Canada’s capacity for housing, health care and infrastructure. Nearly two million visas and permits are now approaching expiry, exposing a system riddled with abuse by questionable colleges that turn immigration into a business model. One of the programs that got caught up in this chaos is the start-up visa program, which has not been talked about by anyone since the new government has taken office. There are now around 43,000 innovation founders waiting in the queue, having paid substantial fees to go through incubation and business building programs, but your website now says, Minister, that there is a 10-year wait for visas to be issued. These entrepreneurs are going elsewhere, where there is no chaos and where economic certainty exists. Is the minister okay with this?

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Fred Davies

Conservative
“The minister admitted there was corruption in this program, and her department shut it down. Did the department ever audit the group it hired to check these organizations?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, that is interesting, because my next question was going to be about the corruption in the program. The minister has just verified and validated that there has been corruption in her department in the program. It cannot handle the backlog of applications, so it shut it down because it was corrupted. I wonder if the minister can tell me, did the department ever audit NACO when it was subcontracted to do the due diligence on designated organizations?

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Fred Davies

Conservative
“The government's own reports found fraud, weak oversight, and corrupt schemes in this immigration program. Why did the government fail to act before the backlog passed 43,000 applications? Why did it hand off the approval process to an outside group?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, it is not that I want to correct the minister by her trying to correct what she had already said, that the program had been rife with corruption, but the IRCC’s own evaluations identified problematic applications, weak oversight and pay-to-incubate schemes involving designated organizations. Why did your government fail to act before the backlog exploded past 43,000 applications? Why did you subcontract a designated organization approval process to NACO? Does the minister know what NACO is?

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Fred Davies

Conservative
“It takes over ten years to get a business visa approved in Canada, but other countries do it in months or days. I want to know if the minister is okay with that.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, let us talk about results. Right now, the minister’s website says the approval time for start-up visa program applications is in excess of 10 years. People can get approval in France in one to two months. In the United States, it is 15 days. In Germany, it is four to six months. In the U.K., it is two to four months. In Canada, it is 10 excruciatingly painful years. Is the minister okay with that?

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Dan Mazier

Conservative
“The immigration minister called things like physiotherapy, home care, and counselling essential services for rejected asylum claimants. Why are these services considered essential for them when Canadian taxpayers do not get them?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the immigration minister stated on the record that luxury health benefits like physiotherapy, home care and counselling are “essential services” for rejected asylum claimants. How are these essential benefits if Canadian taxpayers do not receive them?

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Dan Mazier

Conservative
“Does the immigration minister understand that Canadian taxpayers do not get free physiotherapy, home care, or counselling?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, does the immigration minister understand that Canadian taxpayers are not entitled to physiotherapy, home care or counselling benefits?

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Dan Mazier

Conservative
“Does the minister know that people lose these services once they qualify for provincial ones?”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, does the minister realize that once they become provincially eligible, they no longer get those services?

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