CIMM – Parliamentary Context - March 23, 2026

About The Committee

Committee Mandate

The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) studies and reports on all matters relating to the mandate, management and operation of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).

Motion for this Study

That the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, along with the appropriate officials from the Department and the Immigration and Refugee Board, be invited to appear on the Supplementary Estimates (C), 2025–2026, for two hours; and that this meeting take place at least five calendar days before the Supplementary Estimates are to be reported to the House.

About the Appearance

Environmental Scan

On February 24, the Conservative Party of Canada put forward an opposition day motion and held a press conference critical of the costs of the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), with a strong focus on benefits provided to asylum claimants. The party has linked the housing crisis, employment crisis and reduced access to public services to higher immigration levels. The immigration Shadow Minister has stated that temporary foreign workers are taking Canadians’ jobs, especially the younger generation. She advocated for a complete scrap of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). In the last few months, Conservatives also questioned the International Student Program in relation to fraud and security screening.

The Bloc Quebecois regularly advocates for greater autonomy for Quebec over immigration, and for more equitable distribution of asylum claimants between provinces, arguing that Quebec is suffering from a disproportionately large burden.

Both opposition parties have been vocal on asylum. In the House and at committee appearances, the CPC has been linking the record-number of asylum requests to higher costs for taxpayers through the IFHP and increased pressure when it comes to housing, labour market and social services. As the top item of these Estimates is funding to support asylum claimants in Toronto, it’s expected that the BQ will raise a comparison to the situation in Quebec and raise the redistribution of asylum seekers to other provinces and territories.

Appearance Details

The Minister will deliver a five-minute opening statement, followed by rounds of questioning from committee members. The Minister will leave after the first hour, with the officials below remaining for the second:

• The Hon. Lena Metlege Diab, ECNS, KC, P.C., M.P., Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
• Scott Harris, Associate Deputy Minister
• Jean-Marc Gionet, a/Assistant Deputy Minister, Protection & Family Programs
• Annie Rémillard, a/Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister

Conservative Party of Canada

The Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner
Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Vice-Chair of CIMM
Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Immigration

• First elected in 2011.
• Served as Shadow Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship from November 2015–September 2019, and was the Vice-Chair of CIMM during that time. She was also a member of CIMM from October 2022–September 2023.
• Has regularly expressed concerns about immigration policy across various platforms, with particular focus on temporary immigration and asylum.

Fred Davies
Niagara South, ON
Member

• First elected in 2025.
• MP Davies replaced MP Michael Ma on CIMM.
• MP Davies has shown interest in the auto sector, crime, and immigration

Costas Menegakis
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Member

• First elected in 2011, defeated in 2015. Returned to Parliament in 2025.
• Served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration from 2013–2015.

Brad Redekopp
Saskatoon West, SK
Member
Associate Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

• First elected in 2019.
• Served as a Vice-Chair of CIMM from 2022–2025 and has been a member of CIMM since 2021.

Bloc Québécois

Alexis Deschênes
Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

• First elected in 2025.
• Newly appointed to the role of critic for immigration.
• Former BQ Critic for Fisheries and Oceans
• Historically most interested in fisheries and oceans issues. MP Deschênes’ priorities on immigration have yet to come into clear focus.

New Democratic Party

Jenny Kwan
Vancouver East, BC
Critic for Immigration, Refugees, and Housing
*Not currently a member of CIMM*

• First elected in 2015.
• Longstanding critic for immigration and former Vice-Chair of CIMM.
• Historically very active on immigration files, with an emphasis on refugees, asylum claimants, undocumented foreign workers and social justice, broadly.

Liberal Party of Canada

Julie Dzerowicz
Davenport, ON
Chair of CIMM

• First elected in 2015.
• MP Dzerowicz previously served as a member of CIMM from 2016–2017.
• This is her first time serving as chair of a committee.

Peter Fragiskatos
London Centre, ON
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Member

• First elected in 2015.
• MP Fragiskatos held a variety of parliamentary secretary roles prior to his current appointment.
• This is his first time sitting on CIMM.
• Worked in academia before politics.

Amandeep Sodhi
Brampton Centre, ON
Member

• First elected in 2025.
• This is MP Sodhi’s first time sitting on a committee.
• MP Sodhi is one of the first members of Parliament born in the 21st century.

Salma Zahid
Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
Member

• First elected in 2015.
• Former chair of CIMM and longtime member.
• Record of interest in immigration and advocacy for marginalized populations globally.

Sameer Zuberi
Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Member

• First elected in 2019.
• Previously served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities.
• First time member of CIMM.

Conservative Party Of Canada

Top Party Issues

Since the conclusion of the 2025 federal election, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) has been vocal on immigration. The party has regularly linked immigration to housing shortages, health care wait times and unemployment. The Party has recently been especially active on issues involving asylum, including IFHP benefits available to failed asylum claimants, IRB’s practice of “file review” leading to claim approvals with no hearing, and bogus asylum claimants remaining in Canada.

The CPC has proposed eliminating the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and abolishing birthright citizenship for children of temporary residents. They also sought unsuccessfully to amend Bill C-12 to achieve the below:

• Remove access to federal social benefits for failed asylum claimants, except emergency health care.
• Disallow asylum claims from G7 or EU countries, or persons who transited through a G7/EU country before arriving in Canada.
• Modernize security screening requirements.
• Require educational institutions to share costs of bogus asylum claims made by their international students.
• Automatically abandon claims if the claimant returns to their home country while the claim is pending.
• Reject claims if a claimant is found to have lied to an officer.
• Shift onus to claimants to prove they filed their claim in a timely manner.
• Require claimants to state full grounds for protection immediately on arrival, reducing later manipulation by consultants/lawyers.
• Modernize appeal and judicial review processes for asylum claims.
• Create a transparent reporting requirement for federal benefits paid to asylum claimants.
• Modernize the Annual Report to Parliament, including expanded data requirements.

Recent Party Activity

*CPC Immigration Shadow Minister, Michelle Rempel-Garner, posts about IRCC matters numerous times a day on her X account.*

March 12 – Debates: Spoke in favour of her PMB, Bill C-220 (an Act to Amend the Criminal Code – Immigration Status in Sentencing) at Second Reading (Rempel-Garner).

March 10 – Oral Questions: Argued the government’s “open borders policy” led to criminals being admitted to Canada, including IRGC officials (Poilievre).

March 10 – Oral Questions: Repeatedly rose to pose questions on 700 IRGC officials allegedly in Canada, raised public safety concerns, questioned the minister’s competency (Rempel-Garner).

March 9 – X: Posted a clip from CIMM, said the government could act against IRGC officials in Canada but refuse to do so, argued IRB is hiding the identities of such persons (Rempel-Garner).

March 9 – CIMM: Gave notice of a motion for comprehensive review of IRPA with the aim of expeditiously deporting IRGC officials from Canada (Menegakis).

February 26 – Oral Questions: Said 86% of rejected asylum claimants stay in Canada, 25 000 have been admitted without security screening, and the CBSA has 33 000 non-citizens listed as wanted criminals in Canada (Gladu).

February 26 – Oral Questions: Argued IRCC’s Minister is unable to tell the House how many rejected asylum seekers remain in Canada or “how many thousands of people came here without a proper security screening” (Lantsman).

February 26 – Oral Questions: Alleged 25 000 asylum seekers have been admitted “without any screenings or checks” (Godin).

February 23 – CIMM: Indicated concern about IRB acceptance rates of asylum claimants (Redekopp).

February 23 – Oral Questions: Contended the government has enabled hundreds of thousands of bogus asylum claims, costing billions (Rempel-Garner).

February 23 – Oral Questions: Pointed to a PBO report suggesting the IFHP costs 1.5 billion a year, contended bogus refugee claimants receive benefits not available to Canadians (Mazier).

Bloc Québécois

Top Party Issues

The Bloc Québécois (BQ) is frequently vocal on immigration. The BQ advocates for Quebec to have greater control over immigration. The party has persistently raised concerns about the number of asylum claimants housed in Quebec, which they believe is suffering under a disproportionately large burden. They have also argued government measures related to international students and temporary foreign workers impact Quebec negatively.

During the 2025 election campaign, the party made the following commitments:

Temporary foreign workers

Open sectoral and regional permits for temporary foreign workers.

Border or asylum issues

Creating a Minister of the Border and implementing stronger border security measures. The BQ intends to introduce a private member’s bill aimed at improving processing times for asylum claims.

French immigration and Quebec

The BQ is opposed to the Century Initiative and wants Quebec to have full autonomy over immigration.

Settlement and integration

The BQ has committed to a policy for integrating immigrants into Quebec society. The party would also remove all references to the British monarchy in citizenship ceremonies.

Recent Party Activity

March 12 – Debates: Advised the BQ would vote in favour of MP Rempel-Garner’s Bill C-220 (an Act to Amend the Criminal Code – Immigration Status in Sentencing) at Second Reading, but disputed CPC claims on immigration generally (Deschênes).

February 24 – Debates: Criticized timelines for asylum decisions, suggesting they take 40 months. Urged the government to expedite its processing and to issue work permits to asylum claimants more promptly (DeBellefeuille).

February 24 – Debates: Spoke in opposition to a CPC motion on failed asylum seekers’ access to healthcare, argued the reasons IFHP costs have increased is due to larger asylum volumes, disputed that IFHP costs are impacting the healthcare available to Canadians, suggested the motion would increase the burden on provinces (Deschênes).

February 23 – Debates: Tied housing shortages to high immigration levels, blamed the government (Ste-Marie).

February 23 – Oral Questions: Held that the BQ support immigration in principle but the government’s policies have “opened the floodgates” and led to shortages in healthcare, housing, and employment opportunities (Ste-Marie).

February 23 – Oral Questions: Pointed unfavourably to a report 25 000 people had been accepted as refugees between 2019–2023 without being interviewed, demanded this practice be halted (Deschênes).

February 2 – Debates: While delivering remarks in favour of excluding Quebec from the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, contended immigration is the principal lever influencing the future of French in Canada and spoke in support of Francophone immigration (Larouche).

February 2 – Debates: Alluded to a PBO report saying 25% of the increase in housing costs could be tied to immigration policies (Beaulieu).

December 11, 2025 – Debates: Referred to a 2024 ministerial commitment to more proportionately distribute asylum seekers through the country as a “dog and pony show,” with no concrete results (Brunelle-Duceppe).

December 10, 2025 – Debates: Pointed to the BQ’s longstanding concerns about asylum seeker volumes and immigration levels, criticized the other parties for maligning the BQ in the past while now adopting similar positions (Simard).

Liberal Party of Canada

Top Party Issues

The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) made the following commitments during the 2025 election campaign:

Refugees

Supporting legal aid for asylum seekers and refugees and expanding the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Partnership.

Temporary foreign workers

Capping the total number of temporary workers and international students to less than 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027.

Processing times and client service

Enhancing cooperation between governments, agencies, and organizations for real-time information sharing to improve efficiency and service delivery.

Border or asylum issues

Planning to strengthen border integrity by increasing resources for security screenings, tightening visa requirements and enhancing enforcement against fraud.

Digitization

Leveraging digital tools to reduce processing times and eliminate backlogs.

French immigration

Increasing French immigration outside Quebec to 12% by 2029.

The LPC leader said it is important to improve the distribution of immigration between provinces.

Levels

Stabilizing permanent resident admissions at less than 1% of Canada’s population annually beyond 2027 and capping immigration until it can be returned to a sustainable trend.

Recent Party Activity

March 13 – Oral Questions: Remarked on the government’s mandate to strengthen the immigration system, asked what measures have been taken stabilize Quebec’s workforce in light of fewer TFWs (Joseph).

February 25 – Debates: Said the CPC persist in attacking the most vulnerable, specifically refugees and asylum seekers. Argued the CPC have no immigration policy (MacKinnon).

February 24 – Debates: Disputed that the IFHP provides better care than that available to Canadian citizens, pointed favourably to changes to the program (Dhaliwal).

February 24 – Debates: Accused the CPC of divisive rhetoric on asylum, disputed any suggestion that Canadian healthcare is under strain because of refugees (Gerretsen).

February 24 – Debates: Noted only “a couple of dozen” cases a year are found by the IRB to be fraudulent (Eyolfson).

February 24 – Debates: Spoke to the benefits of government measures to reduce processing times for asylum claimants, argued fewer delays equates to lowered costs (Sari).

February 23 – Debates: Argued PBO reporting on IFHP costs present an incomplete picture, and that the Program provides only basic and temporary coverage to asylum seekers (Dhaliwal).

February 23 – Debates: Contended Bill C-12 will help reduce the number of refugee claims and restore sustainability to associated programs (Leitão).