Bill C-12

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of Canada's borders and the integrity of the Canadian immigration system and respecting other related security measures

Part 1 amends the Customs Act to provide the Canada Border Services Agency with facilities free of charge for carrying out any purpose related to the administration or enforcement of that Act and other Acts of Parliament and to provide officers of that Agency with access at certain locations to goods destined for export. It also includes transitional provisions.
Part 2 amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to create a new temporary accelerated scheduling pathway that allows the Minister of Health to add precursor chemicals to Schedule V to that Act. It also makes related amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Police Enforcement) Regulations and the Precursor Control Regulations .
Part 3 amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act to confirm that the Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, make regulations exempting members of law enforcement from the application of any provision of the Criminal Code that creates drug-related inchoate offences when they are undertaking lawful investigations.
Part 4 amends the Oceans Act to provide that coast guard services include activities related to security and to authorize the responsible minister to collect, analyze and disclose information and intelligence.
Part 5 amends the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act to authorize the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to disclose, for certain purposes and subject to any regulations, personal information under the control of the Department within the Department and to certain other federal and provincial government entities.
It also amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to authorize the making of regulations relating to the disclosure of information collected for the purposes of that Act to federal departments and agencies.
Part 6 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to, among other things,
(a) eliminate the designated countries of origin regime;
(b) authorize the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to specify the information and documents that are required in support of a claim for refugee protection;
(c) authorize the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board to determine that claims for refugee protection that have not yet been referred to the Refugee Protection Division have been abandoned in certain circumstances;
(d) provide the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration with the power to determine that claims for refugee protection that have not yet been referred to the Refugee Protection Division have been withdrawn in certain circumstances;
(e) require the Refugee Protection Division and the Refugee Appeal Division to suspend certain proceedings respecting a claim for refugee protection if the claimant is not present in Canada;
(f) clarify that decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board must be rendered, and reasons for those decisions must be given, in the manner specified by its Chairperson; and
(g) authorize regulations to be made setting out the circumstances in which the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration or the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness must designate, in relation to certain proceedings or applications, a representative for persons who are under 18 years of age or who are unable to appreciate the nature of the proceeding or application.
It also includes transitional provisions.
Part 7 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to, among other things,
(a) authorize the Governor in Council to make an order specifying that certain applications made under that Act are not to be accepted for processing, or that the processing of those applications is to be suspended or terminated, when the Governor in Council is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so;
(b) authorize the Governor in Council to make an order to cancel, suspend or vary certain documents issued under that Act, or to impose or vary conditions, when the Governor in Council is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so;
(c) for the application of an order referred to in paragraph (b), require a person to appear for an examination, answer questions truthfully and produce all relevant documents or evidence that an officer requires; and
(d) authorize the Governor in Council to make regulations prescribing circumstances in which a document issued under that Act can be cancelled, suspended or varied, and in which officers may terminate the processing of certain applications made under that Act.
Part 8 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to add two new grounds of ineligibility for claims for refugee protection as well as powers to make regulations respecting exceptions to those new grounds. It also includes a transitional provision respecting the retroactive application of those new grounds.
Part 9 amends the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to, among other things,
(a) increase the maximum administrative monetary penalties that may be imposed for certain violations and the maximum punishments that may be imposed for certain criminal offences under that Act;
(b) replace the existing optional compliance agreement regime with a new mandatory compliance agreement regime that, among other things,
(i) requires every person or entity that receives an administrative monetary penalty for a prescribed violation to enter into a compliance agreement with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (the Centre),
(ii) requires the Director of the Centre to make a compliance order if the person or entity refuses to enter into a compliance agreement or fails to comply with such an agreement, and
(iii) designates the contravention of a compliance order as a new violation under that Act;
(c) require persons or entities referred to in section 5 of that Act, other than those already required to register, to enroll with the Centre; and
(d) authorize the Centre to disclose certain information to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, subject to certain conditions.
It also makes consequential and related amendments to the Retail Payment Activities Act and the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations and includes transitional provisions.
Part 10 amends the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act to make the Director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada a member of the committee established under subsection 18(1) of that Act. It also amends the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to enable the Director to exchange information with the other members of that committee.
Part 11 amends the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to, among other things,
(a) make certain changes to a sex offender’s reporting obligations, including the circumstances in which they are required to report, the information that must be provided and the time within which it is to be provided;
(b) provide that any of a sex offender’s physical characteristics that may assist in their identification may be recorded when they report to a registration centre;
(c) clarify what may constitute a reasonable excuse for a sex offender’s non-compliance with the requirement to give at least 14 days’ notice prior to a departure from their residence for seven or more consecutive days;
(d) authorize the Canada Border Services Agency to disclose certain information relating to a sex offender’s arrival in and departure from Canada to law enforcement agencies for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of that Act;
(e) authorize, in certain circumstances, the disclosure of information collected under that Act if there are reasonable grounds to believe that it will assist in the prevention or investigation of a crime of a sexual nature; and
(f) clarify that a person who discloses information under section 16 of that Act with the belief that they are acting in accordance with that section is not guilty of an offence under section 17 of that Act.
It also makes a related amendment to the Customs Act .

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to be here today to speak to Bill C-12. The bill proposes amendments to various acts that would make our laws even stronger and that would keep our families, children and communities safe while protecting privacy and charter rights. The bill would help the government fight the flow of illegal fentanyl, enhance the integrity of our immigration and asylum systems, and combat money laundering. The focus of my speech today will be with respect to parts 2, 3 and 4 of the bill.

I will begin by stating that I do not think there is any member of the House without stories about how their communities have been touched by the fentanyl overdose crisis, the flow of precursors and the significant impact those have on families and communities across the country. According to Health Canada, in 2022 an average of 21 lives were lost each day because of opioid-related overdoses.

Part 4 of the bill would amend the Canada Post Corporation Act to enable police to search the mail as part of a criminal investigation. The amendments would remove a legal barrier to otherwise lawful seizure of mail, but would not create new search and seizure authorities. With this change, law enforcement could rely on existing search and seizure provisions in federal legislation, which is most commonly a search warrant issued under the Criminal Code.

The need for judicial pre-authorization would ensure that mail seizures are conducted in accordance with the law and the charter. This would bring Canada Post into alignment with other courier and parcel delivery service providers such as Purolator that are already subject to lawful search and seizure. The bill would also expand inspection powers for postal inspectors. These changes would enable the police to stop the mail service from being used to traffic drugs and other illegal materials.

With the measures in the bill, we would be in a stronger position to prevent dangerous drugs such as fentanyl and their precursor chemicals from finding their way onto our streets and into our communities, to keep Canadians safe. Right now, police officers are not allowed to search and seize letter mail as part of an investigation, not even with a warrant; as a result, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids can be easily trafficked in small amounts by drug traffickers exploiting the postal system by sending illicit drugs through this method. The amendments to the act outlined in part 4 of Bill C-12 become crucial to correcting the issue and stopping the flow of illegal drugs into our communities.

The amendments to the Canada Post Corporation Act would allow police to search and seize contraband, including fentanyl, from Canada Post mail with a warrant. If I may, I will repeat, “with a warrant”, because I have heard many times a lot of misinformation coming from the other side of the House. Police could not just open our mail; they would be required to obtain a warrant from a judge to lawfully search and seize letter mail during an investigation.

The provisions would bring Canada Post in line with other mail couriers such as FedEx and Purolator.

The change would, notably, help remote indigenous communities and rural municipalities in their efforts to intercept dangerous illegal drugs such as fentanyl, which is often delivered through the mail via Canada Post. The Minister of Public Safety has heard from these communities, and they are supporting the measures. ln fact, they have been calling on us to do this. The Mushkegowuk Council stated that the government's proposed amendments to the Canada Post Corporation Act are a good first step in addressing current enforcement gaps.

We also need to address the flow of chemicals used to produce fentanyl. Criminal groups mislabel precursors used to produce fentanyl to smuggle them into the country. Often these chemicals enter Canada legally to support the production of legal goods. To disrupt the flow of illegal fentanyl, the bill would create a new accelerated scheduling pathway to make it easier for the Minister of Health to order limits on precursor chemicals to ensure that they are used legitimately.

We have already made significant progress toward strengthening our border, but the measures in the bill would make our country even safer. By stopping the flow of illegal fentanyl, reinforcing our immigration and asylum systems and cracking down on money laundering and terrorist financing, we will keep our country strong and safe.

Like all of my hon. colleagues in the House, I too want fentanyl off our streets. Together, let us keep our communities and children safe by supporting the bill.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to let my colleague know that he is welcome to come back to OGGO any time. We miss him.

He mentioned the issue around Canada Post. I am wondering whether he can tell us if his government has consulted with Canada Post about its role. I have spoken to people at Canada Post, and they have told me that, no, they will not participate in any of these actions and that in fact they have not been consulted on the proposed legislation the government has put forward.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member is still the chair of OGGO, and I look forward to, at some point, maybe sitting in or substituting for somebody. I know of the very important work the committee does, and I miss it. As for the member's question, perhaps the chair of OGGO could have representatives of Canada Post come to the committee and further share their thoughts.

As I mentioned, this is important work that needs to be done. There are major challenges our country and communities are facing with respect to fentanyl and the flow of precursors. If we look at the negative impact that has had on our communities, we see that it is important to make sure Canada Post, with a warrant, I would add, is co-operating.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I need my colleague to explain something to us. In April, through the Prime Minister, the government promised to hire 1,000 new CBSA officers and 1,000 new RCMP members.

Six months later, just last week, the government repeated its April announcement to us. Can my colleague tell us how many officers have been hired since April? If none have been hired, what is the plan? How many officers will be hired, and what is the exact timeline?

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think we are all looking forward to the budget on November 4, and we will see many of those measures in it.

With respect to the member's question on how many officers have been hired, we have committed to 1,000 police officers and 1,000 CBSA officers. Just last week, I had the opportunity to make that announcement in British Columbia, and it was very welcome by all police agencies that are impacted by the issues we have talked about in communities.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering whether my colleague could provide his thoughts on how the Prime Minister and the Liberal caucus are taking a holistic approach on the issue. Today we are talking about Bill C-12, which would do wonders in securing Canada's borders, but at the same time we are making tangible commitments. The member just referred to an announcement of additional RCMP officers and Canada border control officers.

Whether it is legislation or budgetary measures, we are taking the issue seriously, and when dealing with an issue of this nature, it is important that we take a holistic approach.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Mr. Speaker, fentanyl, precursors and issues related to crime and strengthening our borders have had an impact on our communities. Over time, these issues change and evolve, and we need to evolve and bring in new measures. That is what we are doing at this point.

If we look at strengthening the borders by adding police and CBSA officers, with the new search warrant measures and all the resources and tools they would be given, everything from going after ghost guns, which we announced earlier to new offences, such as in Bill C-70 with respect to transnational threats, that is a holistic approach. There is a whole level of different measures we have put forward to combat the ever-evolving challenges that this country is facing.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if we are going to talk about this piece of legislation, we should put a couple of things into context.

The first thing I would put into context is that this is another bill the Liberals are trying to bring forward to allegedly do something to deal with the massive surge in crime that has gone on in Canada over the last 10 years. It is a remarkable turnaround. I still recall when former minister of justice Arif Virani sat in this chamber. He would get up in question period and say we were trying to scare Canadians and were engaging in typical Conservative fear on the issue of crime when we raised the staggering increase in crime and violent crime. That was his answer. Now it seems like the Liberals have had their reckoning and realized that over the last 10 years, due to their policies, we have had a massive surge in crime.

If members do not want to take my word for it, I have a few statistics that I would like to go through so that Canadians can understand just how bad crime has gotten. in this country under the Liberal government. Total violent crime is up 49.84%. Let us round that up to 50%. There has been a 50% increase in violent crime after a decade of the Liberals running the country. Homicide is up 28%. Gang-related homicide is up 78%. Sexual assault is up 74%. Extortion is up 357%. Let that sink in for a moment. A decade ago, we had a certain amount of extortion and it is now up 357%. We know the terrible things that happen when people are trafficking in persons. That is up 83%. All of this has happened over the last decade with the Liberals running the country.

They introduced a massive omnibus bill, Bill C-2. To get to Bill C-12, we have to talk a little about Bill C-2. I am old enough to remember when the Liberals used to say it was a terrible thing to introduce omnibus pieces of legislation, and they would never do such things, but here we are. Bill C-2 was going to amend 15 statutes and had 120 pages of technical statutory changes. As Conservatives, we said, “That is a no go.” In fact, it is due to Conservative pressure, because of a number of things that were included in Bill C-2, that we ended up here with Bill C-12, which actually has some things that we think might do some good. I know it is a strange thing to say, but as they often say, a broken clock is right twice a day, so they may have gotten a couple of things right in Bill C-12.

To go back to Bill C-2, I really want to talk about some very deeply troubling things that were included in that piece of legislation. It shows the mindset of the Liberals, who have turned around on some of these issues.

One of these is how Canada Post would be able to search mail. In and of itself, it is problematic, but the statutory change the Liberals were trying to bring in said this could happen with reasonable suspicion. Bill C-2 reads, “reasonable grounds to suspect”. That is the lowest threshold in law that could be used to do this. Normally, to be able to search something, we need the much higher standard of “reasonable grounds to believe”. The Liberals were putting in the very lowest standard possible of reasonable suspicion.

Because this was about the corporation, it would mean that any employee of the corporation who had a reasonable suspicion could be opening mail. It is a particularly troubling standard that they were trying to put into the bill. It has been through hard work from the Conservatives, who said “absolutely not”, that those parts of the legislation remain in Bill C-2 and are not included in Bill C-12.

It is also very interesting to note what is not included in any of these pieces of legislation which is trying to deal with the issue of crime that the Liberals are belatedly waking up to. For example, there is nothing in Bill C-12 that would deal with the issues of fentanyl trafficking and sentencing for fentanyl traffickers. Something like that could have been incorporated into it to crack down on fentanyl trafficking. We believe it needs to be done, but it is not in there.

The Liberals also did not take the time to eliminate, for example, house arrest for drive-by shootings, which is still okay. They put together a massive omnibus piece of legislation, in part to deal with crime, but they left things like that out of it. It is available, so somebody engaging in a drive-by shooting is eligible for house arrest.

If we go back to the statistics I talked about, gang-related homicide is up 78%. Generally speaking, the kinds of people who are engaging in drive-by shootings are people in gangs trying to cause homicides. The Liberals had so much opportunity to do better, and they failed on that.

Another thing they failed to do is make it crystal clear that so-called safe consumption sites should not be allowed anywhere near schools. We know the effects of these safe consumption sites. They become a blight in a neighbourhood, and having them near schools and children is not the kind of thing we want. Again, this was a simple place for the Liberals to have made that change, and they chose not to.

Let us quickly switch and talk a bit about some of the changes to immigration. I was around when Stephen Harper was prime minister and changes were made to the asylum system, and we brought asylum claims down to about 10,000. It sounds like a lot, but it is 10,000. If we look at where things are now, again, after a decade of these Liberals and their absolute and utter mismanagement of the immigration system, asylum claims are now at a whopping 296,000. Think about that. A decade ago, they were at 10,000, and now they are at 296,000. I think the estimate to process these 296,000 cases in the backlog is 25 years. Let that sink in. That is the backlog on asylum claims that has been created by the Liberals' absolute mismanagement of the immigration system.

What we are now hearing from some experts is that the proposed changes would not fix the broken system. This problem would be transferred to the courts, because they have decided they cannot fix it. The fix is not to figure out a way to quickly process the backlog, because we know so many of these claims are bogus asylum claims. In fact, one of the things we did under Prime Minister Harper was try to eliminate bogus asylum claims from certain countries by imposing visa requirements. One of the first things the Liberals did was eliminate those visa requirements. Surprise, surprise, we are up to 296,000.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member is laughing. The member who spends all day, every day doing nothing but talk about how great he thinks the government is doing is now laughing as I talk about the seriousness of a 296,000-person backlog. The system is absolutely broken after 10 years of the Liberals' management of the system.

There may be some things in this legislation that we could support. We have to send it to committee. I want to commend all of my colleagues for their hard work in getting this bill broken up into parts so that some of the things we know we cannot support are going to be in one particular piece of legislation, and some of the things we think we might be able to support with a bit of study are going to be in this particular piece of legislation.

I look forward to this particular piece of legislation being studied at committee.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑12 addresses some long-standing requests from law enforcement for the necessary resources to crack down on auto theft, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime.

Does my colleague recognize the importance of taking action to keep Canadians safe? If so, will he commit to working with us to quickly pass Bill C‑12?

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think most police organizations also want mandatory minimum sentences for trafficking in fentanyl. They also want to get rid of house arrest for drive-by shootings. I would encourage the member to talk to his caucus and see if they want to work on some of those things.

If he was listening, I said quite clearly that we would love to see this bill studied at committee. We think there might be some things in here that are worth supporting, but, of course, we need to study them at committee.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the residents of Rimouski—La Matapédia, whom I proudly represent. I would also like to acknowledge the residents of La Mitis, Les Basques and Neigette.

The government seems to be recycling announcements all the time, not just some of the time. Last week, it recycled a major press conference where it announced that it would secure our borders. This is the same promise that the government and the Prime Minister himself made back in April. The government talked about hiring 1,000 new CBSA officers. It promised to hire 1,000 new RCMP officers.

During this time, how many officers did the government actually hire? The answer is zero. The government repeated the same announcement twice.

Does my colleague think that the government needs to make the same announcement three times before finally taking action?

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I share the member's outrage for the recycling of announcements. The government has gotten very good at trying to trick Canadians into saying it has created new programs and new things, but it is, in fact, just recycling the same old things over and again.

The Liberals never answer a question directly in the House of Commons. The member asked a Liberal member how many police officers had been hired since April. The Liberal member rambled on about the importance of this and recycled the hiring announcement. It is the same thing that happened yesterday when I asked the government members if they had a jobs guarantee in the $15-billion contract they signed with Stellantis. Members should have seen them trying to tap dance on the head of a pin to avoid answering the question. They say they are going to fight hard, do this or that and stand up for Canada. The answer is they could not answer the question, which is also the answer here. They have not hired anyone, and God knows if they will.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member to give us his thoughts on the Liberal government pretending to get tough on fentanyl traffickers, yet there are no mandatory minimums in this bill. Can the member speak to that?