Senator Gold: Thank you for your answer in the form of a question. I will add it to my answers.

[English]

Senator Gold: I’ll certainly speak to the minister, whom I will be seeing later today in committee, and I will pass on that message.

Hon. Jane Cordy: Senator Gold, as we return to the Senate this week, there are many university students across the country who are returning to their campuses. However, thousands of international students who have applied to attend university here in Canada are all no doubt under a tremendous amount of stress and face uncertainties as they continue to wait for study permits.

It was reported that, as of August 18, the government was still processing 163,000 applications from international students. With those numbers, and with only two weeks before the start of the semester, I would think that many of those students would have missed the start of this fall term.

Senator Gold, would you be able to provide an update to this chamber on the backlog of international student study permit applications?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Batters, I’m sorry, but I tried to make it possible for everyone to have a question and an answer. Maybe you can go to Senator Dawson and have your question answered.

(At 4 p.m., pursuant to the order adopted by the Senate earlier this day, the Senate adjourned until 2 p.m., tomorrow.)

Senator Cotter: I note, Senator Gold, that the United States has recently announced its net-zero strategy in agriculture that highlights dramatically the potential for carbon sequestration as a significant tool in the net-zero strategy. Indeed, the estimate is that they will reduce carbon emissions at a level of 50 million metric tonnes in five years. That is actually one quarter of Canada’s total goal to be achieved by 2030 and exceeds the goal with respect to agriculture by a factor of 10.

It feels to me, Senator Gold, that we are not on the same page in this country with respect to carbon sequestration despite the enormous opportunities. Could you respond to that?

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Senator Housakos: My supplementary question, Senator Gold, is equally simple. Can you please share with us what the Trudeau government’s position is on cabinet ministers’ right to travel to Taiwan, particularly as representatives of the Canadian government?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Honourable senators, my question is for Senator Gold, the Leader of the Government in the Senate. My question is a simple one. Senator Gold, can you tell us what the Trudeau government’s position is on issuing visas to Taiwanese officials who are travelling to or through Canada?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question and for highlighting this issue that is important both to the students who want to come here and also to our universities and our country that benefit from those students. The government understands the hardships, difficulties and uncertainties caused by longer wait times in their applications.

That’s why the government has taken a number of measures to do more to tackle the backlog while making the immigration system more sustainable in the long term. That includes the fact that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, will have hired approximately 1,250 new employees to improve processing capacity.

Allow me to share some figures with you regarding student permit processing. IRCC finalized almost 560,000 study permit applications in 2021, and that beats their previous record in 2019 by 31%. IRCC is already outpacing that amount this year, with almost 452,000 study permits finalized between January and August this year, which compares to about 367,000 finalized during the same period last year.

Government will be open and transparent in their plan to tackle the backlog and return to service standards. That’s why the government has, in fact, started publishing their progress online on a monthly basis.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Yes, of course.

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Will Senator Gold take a question?

Senator Gold: Thank you for your supplementary question. Attaining net zero is a commitment that this government has made. Both Canada and the United States are investing in their respective strategies to meet that goal. Those strategies are meant, intended and designed to reduce emissions as well as to grow our economy and create good jobs for Canadians.

The government regularly engages with its counterparts in the United States on many subjects, including on this particular topic. It is looking forward to seeing meaningful reductions in emissions, both in Canada and on the other side of the border.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): I thank the honourable senator for his question. Members of the Parole Board of Canada and the panels that are established to assess specific cases in different regions work within a legislative framework, which means they must take into consideration the recommendations of correctional institution workers and those who keep track of the people involved in the process.

Parole Board members make independent decisions free from interference by the federal government or even by their team supervisor. This system relies on the members’ independence.

The minister will look into the tragedy that happened in Saskatchewan and we will be very interested to learn what he finds.

Senator Boisvenu: Senator Gold, in 2018, the Auditor General released a scathing report on the Parole Board and Correctional Service Canada. He identified some significant deficiencies regarding the supervision of offenders in the community. Will you present in this chamber, as soon as possible, the action plan that the Parole Board and Correctional Service Canada implemented in response to the recommendations that the Auditor General made four years ago?

Senator Gold: I will inquire with the government to see whether that is accessible. I do want to point out, however, that there’s a big difference between decisions made by the tribunals and those made by the Parole Board. The Parole Board itself does not do the monitoring. This is done by the Correctional Service of Canada. That said, I’ll look into it and will report back in this place.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): I don’t know. I have no idea.

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: I rise today to honour the 10 women and men who were tragically killed in the September 4 massacre in James Smith Cree Nation, which has left me feeling deeply troubled and grappling with many questions.

This tragedy directly affects all First Nations in our country as it has shaken this northern Saskatchewan community, where people were living their lives peacefully and everyone knew and liked one another.

I would first like to offer my deepest condolences to the families of the victims who were brutally murdered and to wish a speedy recovery to the other 15 people who were injured in this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones. I understand only too well the pain and anger you are feeling as a result of this tragedy.

Unfortunately, crime is an unpredictable scourge of humanity that can affect us at any time in our lives, but that could be avoided if our justice system were more rigorous.

Colleagues, these families will be forever traumatized and will have to survive what I would call unspeakable violence, just like the families of the victims of the Portapique massacre.

One of the two suspects in the James Smith Cree community stabbings was 30 and a repeat offender. He had accumulated 59 criminal convictions since the age of 18, or an average of six crimes a year over a decade. Clearly, the principle of rehabilitation did not work, and incarceration was the only solution that would guarantee the safety of that community.

This tragedy unfolded as a result of the current dysfunction of the Parole Board of Canada and the Correctional Service of Canada. In a 2018 report, the Auditor General highlighted the significant shortcomings with supervised release in the community and the role of correctional officers.

In 2020, the brutal murder of Marylène Levesque by a repeat offender on day parole was the result of the Parole Board of Canada’s negligence. Unfortunately, the Department of Public Safety did nothing to fix our deeply flawed correctional system. Even the study done by the House of Commons public safety committee into the murder of Marylène Levesque made no difference.

It is unacceptable that the board agreed to release the offender and deemed that his release would help protect society. Today, we see the result of that decision. Ten people paid with their lives for this institutionalized incompetence because the justice and public safety systems utterly failed to protect the public from this dangerous criminal.

Honourable senators, please know that I am tired of making such statements, and that I would rather talk about new measures and lives saved than lives prematurely stolen from families.

I remain convinced that, like me, you are outraged and agree that the Senate must take urgent action to remind the government of its duties and responsibilities and ensure that protecting Canadians is a real priority; otherwise, the death of these victims will be meaningless.

Thank you.

[English]

Hon. Raymonde Gagné (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, with leave of the Senate and notwithstanding rule 5-5(j), I move:

That, for the remainder of the current session:

(a)when the Senate sits on a Wednesday, it adjourn at 4 p.m., as if that were the ordinary time of adjournment provided for in the Rules, unless it has been suspended for the purpose of taking a deferred vote or has earlier adjourned; and

(b)if a vote is deferred to a Wednesday, or to later that same day on a Wednesday, it take place at 4:15 p.m., notwithstanding any provision of the Rules, with the Speaker interrupting the proceedings immediately prior to any adjournment, but no later than 4 p.m., to suspend the sitting until 4:15 p.m. for the taking of the deferred vote, with the bells to start ringing at 4 p.m.