Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Director of Social Planning

SUBJECT:

Bill C-11, The Immigration and Refugee Act

 

RECOMMENDATION

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The City Manager submits this report for CONSIDERATION.

COUNCIL POLICY

There is no Council policy applicable to this report.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to inform Council on the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Bill C-11 and to seek Council's authorization to make a submission to the Federal Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on the proposed Bill, which will be replacing the current Immigration and Refugee Act. Consultations on Bill C-11 have been scheduled for April 2, 2001 in Vancouver and the City of Vancouver has been invited to submit a brief.

Background

The following is a brief chronology of the federal review process on immigration and refugee legislation and Council's responses during that process.

1997
The federal process of reviewing immigration and refugee legislation began in the mid 90's. In 1997, the Minister of Immigration released the report " Not Just Numbers: A Canadian Framework For Future Immigration" with 172 recommendations. In May 1998, Council's Special Advisory Committee on Cultural Communities reviewed and commented on that report and , with Council's approval, made a submission to the Federal Legislative Review Secretariat. (Appendix A - on file in the City Clerk's Office)

1999
In March 1999, Immigration Minister Lucienne Robillard released a white paper titled "Building on a Strong Foundation For The 21st Century: New Directions for Immigration and Refugee Policy and Legislation". The document stated that: "Citizenship and Immigration Canada currently benefits from valuable partnerships at the local, regional, national and international levels with a wide range of stakeholders...these include municipalities...among others... Municipalities will continue to be included in stakeholder consultations where appropriate..."

Soon after the release of the white paper, Council's Special Advisory Committee on Cultural Communities reviewed and made comments on the document and recommended that Councilmake a submission to the Minister with the City's recommendations. ( See Appendix B - on file in the City Clerk's Office)

2000
On April 6, 2000, the Honourable Elinor Caplan, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, tabled Bill C-31, The Immigration and Refugee Act, in the House of Commons. In August, the City asked to make submission to the Standing Committee on Bill C-31. The House considered the Bill but was unable to pass it as Parliament was dissolved due to the Federal Election.

2001
On February 21, 2001, Elinor Caplan, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, tabled Bill C-11, the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which has now replaced Bill C-31. Bill C-11 has passed second reading and has been sent to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration for review. The Bill, if enacted, would replace the current Immigration and Refugee Act which is dated from 1976.

Public hearings in Vancouver have been scheduled April 2 and the City of Vancouver has been invited to submit a brief.

Discussion

The City of Vancouver is the primary reception centre for immigrants and refugees in the western region of Canada. According to the 1996 census, immigrants and refugees comprise 44.9 % of the City's total population, making Vancouver the city with the second highest concentration of immigrants in Canada. Regionally, between 1986 and 1998, a total of 283,924 immigrants settled in the Lower Mainland, and that number accounted for 77% of total immigrant landings in BC during the same period.

The profile of immigrants who settled in Vancouver in the late `80's and early `90's is very different from that prior to 1986. During mid `80's and the `90's, almost two thirds of the immigrants came from regions such as South Asia and South-East Asia. The shift in source countries has greatly changed the profile of ethnic composition in the city. The new immigrants also speak a multitude of languages . One in two immigrants landed in BC between 1986 and 1996 reported having no or limited ability to communicate in English. The diversity in this changing population is one of the key challenges faced by the City in ensuring its services and programs are relevant and accessible to newcomers.

In the 1980's and 90's, the City undertook different initiatives in response to needs of our culturally diverse communities. Civic institutions such as the Hastings Institute and the Equal Employment Opportunity Office are pioneers in providing leadership in the area of training and policy development in addressing diverse service needs. In 1995, the City'sadopted a Diversity Communications Strategy and launched its Multilingual Phoneline Services in five languages in response to identified language needs among the immigrant communities. Currently, the City is developing a Citywide Translation and Interpretation Policy which requires potentially significant implementation resources.

In addition, City Council has allocated significant funding, through the Community Services Grants program, to support agencies which deliver programs and services to the diverse populations, including services for immigrant youths, seniors, and families and children. The purpose of the city funding is mostly to bridge service gaps to those groups which do not receive support from other levels of government, and to strengthen the capacity of immigrant communities with the goal of successful social and economic integration in the community at large.

Bill C-11

The proposed Bill C-11 replaces Bill C-31, which was introduced in 2000 prior to the Fall's election. If passed, Bill C-11 will replace the current Immigration and Refugee Act, dated 1976. Bill C-11 is available on the website: www.cic.gc.ca

Some highlights from the Bill include:

For Immigrants:
· introducing a number of key provisions designed to expand the admission of workers with the skills that are most needed in Canada
· selection of skilled workers focused less on occupation than flexible and transferable skills
· provisions within the bill that reinforce the government's commitment to gender equality
· modernize the definition of "family" to include common-law and same sex partners
· including "parents" in the definition of family class within the Act
· incorporating the best interests of the child in appropriate provisions of the Act
· strengthening sponsorship obligations

For Refugees:
· pursuing agreements with NGOs to locate, identify, refer and pre-screen refugee applications in areas where refugees are most in need of protection
· ensuring that people in urgent need of protection are brought to Canada within days
· processing overseas families as a unit, including extended families of refugees wherever possible
· for inland refugees, referral to Immigrant and Refugee Board within 3 working days
· creating a new offence for human trafficking; raising the penalty to life in prison for migrant smuggling and trafficking
· eliminating appeals to the Immigration Appeal Division for serious criminals, people who present security risks, members of criminal organizations and war criminals
· extending the period after which a new claim can be made from 90 days to 6 months, to avoid "revolving door" situations

Overall, Bill C-11 proposes timely and significant changes to the current immigration and refugee legislation. It has made amendments to Bill C-31 as a result of input from the NGO sector, such as the inclusion of "parents" as part of family class, and the differentiation of "permanent resident" from "foreign nationals". It has taken into account the dynamics and challenges of global migration needs and proposed new ways to streamline Canada's refugee determination and protection system.

City's Recommendations

A stated objective of the current Immigration Act is co-operation between the Government of Canada and other levels of government. Bill C-11 has deleted this objective and requires the Minister to consult only with provinces and other stakeholders. With the increasing expectations that cities need to support and deliver services to all residents including immigrants and refugees, and with the high concentration of immigrants and refugees in large urban centres like Vancouver, it is imperative that the new Act recognise the role of, and have provisions for, local government input in addressing immigrant and refugee-related issues and the cost pressures placed on local government to meet the increased demand for services.

This issue was highlighted in a recent federal report commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage. ("Cultural Policy and Cultural Diversity in Canada", Greg Baeker, August 2000). The report stated that "immigrants enter Canadian society at the level of localities. It is here that the range of settlement and adjustment programs is delivered, and where essential social services are made available. A greater understanding of the effects of nationally defined policies at the local level is needed". The report further pointed out that "...over the past decade deficit-driven senior levels of government have been "downloading"responsibilities- the federal government to the provinces, and in turn the provinces to municipalities - without the transfer of funds, or powers of taxation necessary to assume these additional responsibilities".

On March 15,2001, FCM made a submission to the Standing Committee regarding Bill C-11 with 2 recommendations: 1 ) that the Act needs to be amended to include provisions for consulting municipal governments on immigration and refugee issues; and 2) that the Federal Government should reimburse municipal governments for services provided to immigrants and refugees living in the cities.

Staff concur with FCM's recommendations and propose that Council adopt similar recommendations in our submission to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Conclusions

Bill C-11 is an important and modern legislation which will have profound impact on how Canada is going to choose her future citizenry from around the world amidst a rapidly changing global environment. Local governments are the closest to the people and provide diverse services which meet the needs of newcomers, regardless of their culture, race, or language. The continued partnership and collaboration among all levels of government, whether through established channel of consultation, or the sharing of costs in developing responsive services and programs for our newcomers, are therefore essential to the well-being of our citizens. Bill C-11 should reflect this need for collaboration and working together by the inclusion of municipalities as one of its principal stakeholder groups and the allocation of resources to fund needed services.

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