CIMM - Committee and Appearance Overview - December 4, 2025
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, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, along with the appropriate officials from the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, to appear before the committee for no less than two hours, no later than Friday, November 7, 2025, in relation to the immigration levels plan tabled to Parliament.
About the Appearance
Environmental Scan
Since the Immigration Levels and Supplementary Estimates (B) are the basis of IRCC’s work, it is expected that the focus of this appearance will be wide ranging. However, we can expect the opposition to focus questions on key areas, such as the effects of immigration on affordability and employment, the integrity of the immigration system, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and abuse or fraud related to temporary resident pathways in general.
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) have recently asked about illegal immigration, specifically what measures are being taken to prevent large operations from bringing in foreign nationals to work illegally in Canada. They have also asked about fraud and security screening in relation to the International Student Program.
The CPC will continue to advocate for caps on immigration levels and raise concerns about them. They continue to press for immigration caps due to the difficulties Canadians are facing with housing, the labour market and health care capacity. They will also focus some of their questions on Bill C-2 and its impact on levels.
The Bloc Québecois will continue to advocate for greater autonomy for Quebec over immigration, and for a more equitable distribution of asylum claimants between provinces, arguing that Quebec is suffering under a disproportionately large burden.
The party has also been focused on security screening and fraud, particularly as it pertains to students. They have been referencing how poor IRCC’s response was to the show Enquête, saying that IRCC is responsible for assessing the eligibility and admissibility of foreign nationals, and that its officers must base their decisions on all the information available to them. They have therefore questioned whether there are loopholes in IRCC’s system.
Appearance Details
The Minister will deliver a five-minute opening statement, followed by rounds of questioning from committee members. The Minister will appear for two hours, supported by the below officials:
- Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar, Deputy Minister
- Emmanuelle Deault-Bonin, a/SADM, Strategic Policy
- Soyoung Park, ADM, Economic Programs
- Jean-Marc Gionet, a/ADM, Protection and Family Programs
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.
Michael Ma
Markham—Unionville, ON
Member
- First elected in 2025.
- This is MP Ma’s first time as a member of a committee.
- MP Ma highlights his background as an immigrant. He came to Canada from Hong Kong.
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 of CIMM
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-Brunelle-Duceppe
Lac Saint-Jean, QC
Vice-Chair of CIMM
Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
- First elected in 2019.
- MP Brunelle-Duceppe is also the Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE).
- Historically most interested in Quebec autonomy over immigration, alleged discrimination against Francophone international students, and IRCC’s responses to international crises.
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 CPC has recently proposed eliminating the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and abolishing birthright citizenship for children of temporary residents. They have also announced a series of amendments to Bill C-12 that would significantly overhaul the asylum system. These are intended to:
- 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.
- Reform Immigration and Refugee Board appointment processes to better reflect provincial representation and increase merit-based appointments.
Recent Party Activity
CPC Immigration Shadow Minister, Michelle Rempel-Garner, posts about IRCC matters numerous times a day on her X account.
November 25 – X: Alleged Bill C-12’s new authorities would be used to change temporary residents to permanent ones on mass and speed up access to citizenship (Paul-Hus).
November 25 – Debates: Spoke to her Private Members’ Bill, C-220, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (immigration status in sentencing), at Second Reading. Argued fundamentally that judges should not be able to “use a non-citizen's immigration status to issue a more lenient sentence to non-citizens convicted of serious crimes” (Rempel-Garner).
November 25 – Debates: In the context of C-220, argued for greater security screening and for deporting non-citizens who commit crimes (Poilievre).
November 22 – X: Announced the “biggest immigration and asylum reforms in recent Canadian history,” shared a lengthy article on X explaining these reforms (see sidebar for details) (Rempel-Garner).
November 21 – Oral Questions: Asked about the government’s commitment to resettle Uyghur refugees and 9 857 Uyghurs are still waiting (Reid).
November 20 – Oral Questions: Using a particular case as an example, contended the government relies on refugee applicants to self-declare whether they are terrorists or not (Rempel-Garner).
November 17 – Debates: Alleged international students and temporary foreign workers compete for jobs with Canadian youth (Menegakis).
November 8 – X: Posted a story involving a temporary resident involved in a highway crash, argued non-citizens convicted of serious crimes should be deported (Rempel-Garner).
November 7 – Oral Questions: Raised the case of a non-citizen convicted of criminally abusing his dog, suggested “strengthening” IRPA so such cases would result in deportation (Rempel-Garner).
November 7 – Oral Questions: Contended the government does not know how many convicted criminals have been granted citizenship, specifically noted this was admitted through an Order Paper Question and IRCC officials also did not know (Rempel-Garner).
November 4 – Debates: Expressed doubt that government targets for temporary immigration would be met (Redekopp).
October 27 – Debates: Alleged that 17 600 immigration applicants with prior convictions were allowed into Canada over the past 11 years (Ho).
October 24 – Oral Questions: Claimed a post on X by IRCC about public health care was implying Canada is a “walk in clinic for the world” (Rempel-Garner).
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. Most recently, the party has 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
November 25 – Oral Questions: Alleged a former immigration minister under Jean Chretien had “fast tracked” new Canadians’ applications in Quebec to sway the result of the 1995 referendum vote (Normandin).
November 25 – Oral Questions: Contended immigration applications face major delays and suggested applications would be expedited in a sovereign Quebec (Brunelle-Duceppe).
November 21 – Debates: Suggested a “grandfather clause” for temporary foreign workers already on site in Quebec who speak French (Deschênes).
November 5 – Debates: Spoke critically about cuts to the public service and claimed IRCC was already incapable of doing its job at current funding levels (Blanchet).
October 27 – Debates: Introduced Bill C-245, An Act to amend the Canadian Multiculturalism Act (non-application in Quebec), contended that multiculturism must be ended in Quebec for immigration to be successful [Barsalou-Duval]).
October 27 – Debates: Argued that in the context of Bill C-3, in general, immigrants with an address in Quebec should be required to speak French to obtain citizenship, without English as an option (Brunelle-Duceppe).
October 23 – Debates: Contended that Quebec is doing “more than its share” and other provinces should be encouraged to take in more refugees (Larouche).
October 23 – Debates: Alleged that asylum claims made by international students in Quebec had increased 1 500% over the past several years, and said IRCC’s response to this trend was “not reassuring” (Blanchette-Joncas).
October 22 – Debates: Remarked negatively to CPC messaging on temporary foreign workers and emphasized that some sectors in Quebec are in dire need of the workers (Simard).
October 21 – Debates: Emphasized that the BQ is committed to “improving [Bill C-12] at committee.” Noted “Quebec welcomed 55% of the 180 000 asylum seekers in Canada in 2023 […] this has had an impact on public services, which are already saturated and overloaded, particularly schools, health care and community services” (Larouche).
October 21 – Debates: Contended 40% of the total number of asylum seekers in Canada are in Quebec, which makes up roughly 20% of the Canadian population. Demanded more equal distribution of claimants (Barsalou-Duval).
October 21 – Debates: Said “we have seen that the asylum process increasingly became a completely separate immigration stream used to get around the regular immigration process. This was tolerated by the government and suited its purposes” (Barsalou-Duval).
October 9 – CIMM: Spoke of a report on the television show Enquête and said that “criminal organizations are taking advantage of gaps in the study permit system.” Alleged IRCC’s response was “catastrophic” and that it laid the blame on universities and the Government of Quebec (Brunelle-Duceppe).
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
November 17 – Debates: Discussed the history of Francophone demographic weight in Canada and lauded government targets for Francophone immigration outside Quebec (Deschênes-Thériault).
October 24 – Debates: Argued the government would not politicize immigration policy, suggesting this was an irresponsible strategy of the opposition (Fragiskatos).
October 24 – Debates: Expressed opposition to a moratorium on immigration numbers (Noormohamed).
October 9 – CIMM: Suggested that lackluster provincial funding for educational institutions is driving their recruitment of international students (Zuberi).
October 9 – Oral Questions: Asked how Bill C-3 would promote fairness in granting citizenship (Joseph).
October 9 – Oral Questions: Contended Bill C-12 would protect the integrity of Canada’s immigration system (Malette).
October 2 – Debates: Pointed favourably to Bill C-2’s expected impact on Canadian immigration (Deschênes-Thériault).
September 16 – Debates: Remarked positively on a measure preventing international students from claiming asylum if they have been in Canada for over a year (Dhaliwal).
September 10 – X: Shared a graphic on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and said the program ”has grown far beyond its original intent. Our government is rebalancing it—with stricter limits & new caps to protect Canadian workers and ensure a stronger economy & fair labour market” (Derkson).
July 29 – X: Highlighted an award received from the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and remarked that Canada is a haven for those fleeing oppression (Zahid).
July 16 – X: Wrote that the government remains committed to reuniting families and highlighted that “IRCC will invite up to 10 000 sponsors under the Parents and Grandparents Program from the 2020 pool” (Dhaliwal).