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

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

That is not a point of order; that is debate.

The hon. member can resume her answer.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I get that the Liberals want to silence me, but, again, I got the information right off their website. Do they not know how to use the Google machine?

It was fewer than 10,000 when they formed government. Today it is almost 300,000, after they hashtagged “WelcomeToCanada” to every economic migrant in the United States. This is insane. I wish we had our former immigration minister back. This never would have happened. The bill never would have been here.

Now, today, the Liberals had better not punt the issue back to the courts, and they had better fix the system.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Health studied the issue of the toxic drug crisis, and several witnesses told us that there needs to be better control of precursors, the substances used in the manufacture of drugs such as fentanyl.

I would like to know what my colleague thinks about part 2 of the bill, which gives the Minister of Health additional powers with respect to precursors.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of things. I am speaking to the immigration provisions in the bill.

My colleague mentioned health. The impact that the government's completely bananas, unsustainable levels of temporary residents and letting the asylum system get out of control has had on our health system needs to be measured and be dealt with.

With regard to fentanyl, I will note that this week the Canada Border Services Agency issued a very important tweet about apprehending paper plates. I am wondering what it is doing with fentanyl precursors.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's speech, and yes, eight years ago the government, through a deliberate choice of the then prime minister, blew up the asylum system, and the conflation of economic migrants and asylum seekers began.

We have been in opposition for the tenure of the government. The government then purports to table a solution in the bill to a problem we have spent eight years trying to explain, and we have been called horrible names, horrible things, over the years.

Could the member tell the House just how much credit the government deserves for at least finally tabling something to acknowledge the problem it created?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in Greek mythology there is a character called Cassandra, who was fated to know the future and have nobody believe her.

I know that colleagues on this side believed me when I said that tweeting “#WelcomeToCanada” and then rolling out a literal actual red carpet at Roxham Road and instructing the RCMP to help illegal border crossers with their baggage was going to be a problem with the asylum system. The Liberals did not believe me, but here we are today.

The Liberals created this mess. The bill is going to punt stuff to the courts. I guarantee it will. I guarantee it is going to incentivize more response. They need to amend it. There need to be better solutions. They need to stop the incentivization of the abuse of the asylum system, so we can protect the world's most vulnerable.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would love to dive into some of the refugee questions, but I know the member's knowledge of this place, and I wonder whether she would agree with me that the change from Bill C-2 to Bill C-12 still leaves us with an omnibus bill.

The member has chosen to focus on the refugee portions, which I appreciate. I am very concerned about the refugee portions of Bill C-2 and now Bill C-12. They are almost the same. They would get rid of the warrantless access to private information by Canada Post and Internet providers, but not the concerning parts.

When we have an omnibus bill like this, it means that one committee studies the whole bill. Would the member agree with me that it would be better to split the bill up so the committee on immigration could study and call witnesses only on the immigration portions of the bill?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, where I will agree with my colleague is on what we have seen with the Liberals in their omnibus bills. They consistently want to push a narrative to Canadians that somehow they have to sacrifice their civil liberties in order for the government to fix messes of its own making.

I think that what the Liberals have done with the immigration provisions in the bill is to purposely design a bill to punt the issue off to the courts so the Liberals can somehow skate through while the system continues to get worse. That is not going to help.

I encourage people who have viewpoints on this issue, experts in the field, to either refute or support my hypothesis and also to come up with constructive ways to help parliamentarians modernize the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act so we can protect the world's most vulnerable people, restore order and fairness to the system, and stop the incentivization of abuse on our once fair and wonderful asylum system.

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

Mr. Speaker, the point I am trying to get across to the member is this. At the end of the day, there were changes made under Jason Kenney because of a serious issue in 2012, 2011 and 2010, which happened to be at the same time the member's leader was part of the government. The then government had to deal with asylum claims that hit 60,000 in one year.

Now fast-forward, and we have a situation, because of a number of factors, some of which are beyond the federal government's control, that dictates that we again make changes. Would the member not agree that in order to protect the integrity of the system, yes, Bill C-12 would address the issue?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, since we are going through history, I will say that Jason Kenney, bless him, had to impose a visa on Mexicans because of the number of bogus asylum claimants there were. What did the Liberals do as soon as they came into office? They immediately reversed it. Now, after that, there have been over 60,000 asylum claims. Whose fault was that? Was it Jason Kenney who reversed the visas? No, it was the Liberals.

Come on. I am so tired of the Liberals' trying to say anything. They just try to absolve themselves of responsibility after 10 years of mess. No.

Conservatives have better plans and better ideas to restore order, compassion and fairness to Canada's immigration system. That is what we are going to do.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, according to the Customs and Immigration Union, another 2,000 to 3,000 border officers are needed to protect border security properly. Does my colleague think that there is enough personnel to meet the bill's requirements?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am so glad my colleague brought this up. It gives me the opportunity to talk about the magical missing promise of more border agents. The Liberals keep getting up and saying that they promise 1,000 more border agents. They keep making this announcement, but they are not hiring anybody.

What an utterly inept and disastrous government it is. Canadians deserve something better. They deserve Conservative policies that restore order and fairness, actually deliver on promises, and will again make sure that immigration is focused on integrating people into the Canadian economic and social fabric at a pace that matches housing, health care and jobs.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech with great interest. I have a quick question for the member. There are three million temporary residents in Canada right now. Would the bill solve that problem, or is there something else that needs to be done? What suggestions does the member have?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot believe that the Liberals brought in three million temporary residents in such a short period of time. It is absolutely bananas, insane, crazy. It broke the immigration system. The bill would not fix that. Wow, what a disaster this is.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the inimitable member for Davenport.

Our government is committed to taking all the steps necessary to keep our border secure. Bill C-12, the strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act, is a crucial step in our ongoing commitment to keeping our communities safe, cracking down on sophisticated criminal networks and modernizing our immigration system. Today, I want to talk about aspects of this bill that will strengthen our borders even more and help us fight organized crime.

Earlier on, my colleagues seemed to suggest that an omnibus bill was a bad thing. I would respond that immigration is a complex problem that needs to be looked at in its entirety. That is why this bill takes a very broad approach, to ensure effective action.

Thanks to our $1.3‑billion border plan, we have already invested significant resources in our law enforcement agencies. Whether it is combatting the illegal trafficking of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals or other illicit drugs, fighting organized crime or stopping illegal immigration, our measures are working. According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, seizures of illicit fentanyl and illegal border crossings have declined significantly after peaking in 2024.

Although the tireless work of our law enforcement agencies has led to considerable progress, our efforts continue. Bill C‑12 is the latest example. It is a key step in the Government of Canada's border plan.

Thanks to these provisions, our law enforcement agencies will be able to better protect our borders, preserve the integrity of our immigration system, and combat the growing complexity of modern criminal organizations. This bill will also facilitate information sharing between our law enforcement agencies and their counterparts, improving integration and coordination in the fight against cross-border crime.

The bill gives additional powers to the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to effectively combat this transnational organized crime. Our efforts to combat criminal networks must keep pace with the increasingly sophisticated nature of their operations. One thing this bill does is expand the CBSA's powers to inspect and detain goods destined for export in warehouses and transportation centres. That is a first. This measure will close a significant loophole that is being exploited by criminals to facilitate auto theft. We are committed to taking effective measures to curb auto theft.

At the same time, the bill also expands the role of the Canadian Coast Guard so that it can conduct security patrols and gather intelligence. Our coasts will now be protected. These new security activities will help the Coast Guard enhance collective security by conducting surveillance and intelligence-gathering missions in addition to its current operations. It will also be able to exchange information with its security, defence and intelligence partners.

Specifically, the bill would allow the Canadian Coast Guard to use its ships, helicopters, sensors, operations centres and land resources to collect, receive, share and analyze intelligence in order to strengthen our surveillance activities and our sovereignty. These actions will help protect Canada's vast coastlines and waterways, particularly in remote northern regions.

With its fleet and its wealth of maritime experience, the Canadian Coast Guard has all the tools it needs to make a significant contribution to Canada's security. It is already active from coast to coast to coast, on the Great Lakes and in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

This change will be particularly significant in the Arctic, where Canada can and must play a leadership role in a region undergoing rapid change due to growing global interests, increased maritime traffic and complex security risks.

This bill also seeks to directly combat the opioid crisis. The trafficking of illicit fentanyl and dangerous precursor chemicals in our country requires the rapid implementation of meaningful measures. Bill C-12 will enable the Minister of Health and law enforcement and border agencies to take swift action to prevent the illegal importation and use of chemical precursors as they emerge. This is a meaningful measure that will save hundreds, if not thousands, of Canadian lives.

We are also significantly strengthening Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime to combat the illicit financing that fuels these activities. Bill C-12 increases administrative penalties and improves information sharing between federal financial institutions to prevent bad actors from profiting from their crimes. Its purpose is to crack down on criminals and individuals who seek to exploit our country's generous immigration system by importing new forms of crime.

It is a matter of integrity and fairness. Some folks may have reservations about these measures, but I can assure the House today that Bill C-12 strikes the necessary balance between security and the protection of rights.

We are equipping our agencies with modern tools, while ensuring that these measures comply with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bill C-12 addresses a number of immediate priorities that will have tangible and immediate effects on the safety of our communities and the integrity of our border. It is a clear, deliberate and necessary measure to protect our country. It sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate people using our borders to engage in illegal activities. Our immigration system will be based on fairness, integrity and order.

For all these reasons, I believe this bill deserves the unanimous support of all members of the House. Voting for this bill is a vote in favour of a more secure border, a stronger and fairer immigration system and, most importantly, safer communities.

I want to reiterate that Canadians deserve to feel safe and be safe. I invite my hon. colleagues to support this bill quickly and unanimously.