CIMM – Inquiry Of Ministry – February 7, 2024

Prepare in English and French marking "original text" or "translation"

Question No
Q-1497

By
Ms. Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk)

Date
May 2, 2023

Marie-France Lalonde, M.P.

Question

With regard to the closed illegal border crossing at Roxham Road: (a) on what date was the decision made to close the crossing; (b) what are the details of all meetings, letters, agreements, between Canadian and US officials in relation to Roxham Road or other illegal border crossing sites, since January 1, 2018, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) recipient, (iii) sender, (iv) title, (v) type of document, (vi) summary, (vii) subject matter, (viii) file number; and (c) between March 29, 2022 and March 25, 2023, how much was spent or transferred to the provinces by the government on housing, health care, meals, transportation and security for asylum-seekers and refugees who entered Canada at Roxham Road, broken down by department, program and amount spent?

Reply

Insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is concerned:

• Signing of the Additional Protocol to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) by the Minister of IRC, on March 29, 2022 (later signed by the United States Secretary of Homeland Security on April 15, 2022) represents the date on which the agreement was made to expand the STCA to apply not only at designated ports of entry, but across the entire land border, including internal waterways, ensuring fairness and more orderly migration between the United States (U.S.) and Canada. Regulatory amendments were required in both Canada and the U.S. to bring the Protocol into force at 12:01 A.M (EDT) on Saturday, March 25, 2023. The expansion of the STCA effectively removed the incentive for people to cross at irregular border crossings, including Roxham Road. The implementation of the Additional Protocol resulted in individuals arriving at Roxham Road being subject to the STCA, and returned to the U.S. to pursue their asylum claim unless they meet an exception, as they would where they arriving at a designated port of entry.
• IRCC undertook an exhaustive preliminary search in order to determine the amount of information that would fall within the scope of the question. Given that the engagement with the U.S. on certain discussions between other federal agencies and the U.S. counterparts may not be reflected in this response, notably those operational discussions that occurred from March 2020 to November 2021 when COVID-19 pandemic-related measures restricted entry from the U.S. IRCC has met on a regular basis with its U.S. counterpart since 2018 to discuss shared areas of concern including the border and the STCA. Please note that IRCC is unable to confirm whether or not the Roxham Road situation was explicitly mentioned in any other meetings with U.S. officials. As information on all U.S. engagements is not systematically tracked in a centralized database, the list below represents meetings and Agreements between IRCC and U.S. officials in relation to Roxham Road which were identified in the time allotted.

(viii) Please note there is no file number associated with these entries.

• For the period of March 29, 2022 to March 25, 2023, IRCC has expended an amount of $365.3M in operating expenditures (vote 1) for the accommodation, health care, meals, transportation and security of refugee claimants and refugees who entered Canada via Roxham Road. To note that Interim Federal Health Program expenses include expenditures from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023 (included in the $365.3M total above).

The response is based on the information readily available pulled from internal data sources and reports.