CIMM – Q-856 - November 18, 2022

Inquiry of Ministry

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

Question No: Q-856 by Ms. Michaud (Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapédia)

Date : October 5, 2022

Reply by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Print name of Signatory: Marie-France Lalonde, M.P.

Signature, Minister or Parliamentary Secretary

Question:

With regard to the bilateral negotiations between Canada and the United States to modernize the Safe Third Country Agreement and Canada’s efforts with the United States to crack down on the human smuggling network that uses Roxham Road: (a) how many letters, emails or other items of correspondence has Canada sent to the United States since January 1, 2017, in relation to (i) the modernization of the Safe Third Country Agreement, (ii) the human smuggling network that uses Roxham Road, broken down by month and year; (b) how many letters, emails or other items of correspondence has Canada received from the United States since January 1, 2017, in relation to (i) the modernization of the Safe Third Country Agreement, (ii) the human smuggling network that uses Roxham Road, broken down by month and year; and (c) how many meetings have been held between Canadian and American representatives that addressed primarily (i) the modernization of the Safe Third Country Agreement, (ii) the human smuggling network that uses Roxham Road, broken down by month and year?

Reply (Original text):

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

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) undertook an extensive preliminary search in order to determine the amount of information that would fall within the scope of the question and the amount of time that would be required to prepare a comprehensive response. While IRCC engages regularly with the United States on a variety of issues related to our shared border, including with regard to the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, the information requested is not systematically tracked in a centralized database. IRCC concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question would require a manual collection of information that is not possible in the time allotted and may not otherwise be accurate, and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and potentially misleading information.