CIMM - CIMM 117.1 – Contracts with Importation Guay Ltée - December 4, 2025

IRCC’s response to a request for information made by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on November 25, 2024

Question

Mr. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe: Minister, in August 2021, your government signed a five-year rental contract with Importations Guay ltée, which is owned by Pierre Guay, who is incidentally a Liberal and Conservative donor. It concerns two previous leases and two existing properties on Roxham Road. The contract was valid for the period from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2027. Did that contract terminate when Roxham Road shut down on March 25, 2023?

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Mr. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe: Rental contracts concerning Roxham Road were signed regarding leases, lands and building renovations. Those contracts will expire in 2027. Logically, when you sign that kind of contract, you add a clause providing that it will become null and void in the event of a closure. In this instance, we're talking about the closing of Roxham Road. This is a simple question. Did the contracts contain a similar clause? If one wasn't included, would you please tell us the amounts that have been paid out since Roxham Road was closed and the amounts that are still payable until the end of the contract? Have the contracts become null and void or not? It should be quite easy to answer that question. The year is 2024, and this isn't the first time these questions have been raised. If your department doesn't know the answer, maybe someone in the department didn't do his job.

Hon. Marc Miller: We can verify that information and get back to you at a later date. I don't have it to hand for the moment. It's also possible that the Canada Border Service Agency has that information. We'll look into it.

Response

When Roxham Road closed on March 25, 2023, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had to continue its operations on the land leased to Industries Guay Limitée (IGL) in St-Bernard de Lacolle. This site served as a reception and coordination centre for the temporary accommodation and transfer of asylum seekers to other locations leased by the Department. Although the volumes of new arrivals through Roxham Road decreased significantly after that date, the occupancy rate in the network of hotels leased by IRCC was already high. A sudden influx of arrivals, transiting through the two main airports of Montreal-Trudeau and Toronto-Pearson, has maintained strong pressure on the temporary accommodation network. IRCC continued to provide reception and coordination services at the Auberge St-Bernard until all occupants left for other premises rented by the Department or in private accommodation.

IRCC then exercised the early termination clause in the lease, by giving 30 days' written notice to the landlord on May 16, 2024. The Department proceeded with the final decommissioning of operations on June 17, 2024.

The amount paid to IGL from March 25, 2023 to June 17, 2024 is $3,848,227.78.