Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 2nd, 2025

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

My colleague will answer your question.

[Uyen Hoang, Director General, Citizenship Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

We have a program called entry-exit. It is outside my remit, so I don't want to go into details in terms of how it is implemented, but there are mechanisms in place in order to know when an individual is leaving a country.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Okay. I thought Canada didn't collect exit data on individuals. If I understand correctly, when I go to the United States, for example, the government is informed that I went to the United States based on when I left the country, not when I returned home. You have the date on which the person exited.

Okay. That's perfect. We'll look into that.

I want to get clarification on some of the numbers that are being presented. The Bloc Québécois has always been positive about the idea of passing legislation for “lost Canadians”, as you know. However, that still requires clarification. According to some, four million people are part of the Canadian diaspora abroad. Others say that one million people would be affected by Bill C‑3. The Parliamentary Budget Officer tells us it's 115,000 to 150,000 people.

What are the department's exact numbers? If we're going to put in place legislation that grants people Canadian citizenship, that's pretty important. A number is needed. I imagine that the department's resources can give us the number of people who will be covered by this legislation.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you for your question.

What we know—

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I'm sorry to interrupt, Minister, but I just want to get a number. You must know what it is. I'm talking about the number of people affected.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Okay. It's impossible to know the exact number, but—

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

That's perfect.

That's fine with me. So it's impossible to put a figure on it.

Minister, you told us that people in the country were already benefiting from Bill C‑3, which is quite commendable. That won't affect the housing crisis at all, for example, as they're already in the country.

However, if they are already in the country, I imagine you have figures. Do you know how many people already in the country will be affected by the bill and will be able to benefit from it?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

We have a bill that will have to be passed—

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

You have 15 seconds left.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

There is a limit imposed by the courts—

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Normally, when a bill is passed, we make sure we know how many people are affected—

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

We think we've put reasonable limits in this bill. Individuals must demonstrate a substantial connection to Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Brunelle‑Duceppe.

Thank you, Minister Diab.

That completes our first round.

Now we begin our second round with Mr. Redekopp for five minutes.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister.

Minister, in May 2022, you said, “Fostering bilingualism is a personal priority for me.... I think we can make inroads on this problem by working hard to increase francophone immigration”.

Obviously, language is important to you. It's important to me also. That's why I'm concerned that there is no language requirement for the new citizens who will be created by Bill C-3.

Can you assure Canadians that people getting citizenship through this pathway will be able to speak either French or English?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Of course language is very important to me. What is also very important is having both of Canada's official languages here, obviously in Parliament, and across the country.

This is citizenship by right. It is a right that we are restoring to people. Again, a number of those people will be infants and children. My hope is that they would be speaking both of Canada's official languages and, perhaps, a third or fourth language as well.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I would just point out that the courts are not the ones that are making this bill. This is your bill. You're creating this bill. You are the one who is creating the mechanisms by which people become Canadians. You have the option to put language into this bill.

You're right, if children are doing it, then that's fine; they don't have to do it. What about older people who come? That's what concerns me about this. There is no thought in this to getting language in here.

The other thing that I'm concerned about is that there's no requirement to take a citizenship test. Are you confident that these new Canadians you're proposing to create will understand Canadian values? How is that fair, if they aren't?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Canadian values are exactly why this bill is in front of us. It's to protect those Canadian values. It's to ensure that people who want to be Canadians because they value being a Canadian are allowed to be Canadian. It's to give back and to restore that right to many who have lost it. There is also the substantial connection test that is extremely important. We are here to right a wrong. That is exactly why we're here today.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Minister, what are the Canadian values?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

What are the Canadian values? Obviously, one of them is protecting our official languages in this country. It is helping each other. Our Canadian values are human values.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

If it's protecting Canadian languages, then why is that not in the bill? I'm surprised by that.

I'm also concerned about another thing. There is no security check of any kind in this pathway. We know that in every pathway to citizenship, a certain percentage of people fail our security checks, and then they are denied citizenship because of that. Your transition binder specifically talked about increasing scrutiny resulting in higher refusal rates. Some of these people will, for sure, have security problems and even criminal records. Admitting safe and secure people is paramount to Canadians. Are you okay that this law will grant citizenship to people with criminal records?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

This law will give citizenship to people who have lost it or to people who should have had it anyway. It's the same bill that was introduced in 2009 and 2015 as well, with regard to that.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

To be clear though, you're saying that it's okay—

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Many of them are children.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

—to introduce allowing people to have citizenship if they have criminal records, and we're not going to check that.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

On a point of order, this bill deals with people who are not yet born. How can an unborn person have a criminal record?