Human Resources Committee on Nov. 18th, 2014

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

So, what you are explaining to us is that concretely, at this time, you have no idea of what the impact of the new part-time members will be on the processing of the accumulated files? You really have no idea of the capacity and the number of part-time hours needed to process these 11,000 files? Have you seen some kind of progress? If yes, what was that progress? Apparently you have not, is that really what you are telling me?

[Murielle Brazeau]

Obviously, with a greater number of members, we will be able to take bigger bites out of the backlog.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Excuse me, but with more members, how much can you do? Do you have a target?

That is important. After all, there are 11,000 cases in the backlog and behind those files, there are people who are waiting.

[Murielle Brazeau]

Absolutely; there are people.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

As Mr. Birch mentioned, these people, who are living under the poverty line, are waiting for their files to be processed. As professionals, it is important for you to assess the response time needed.

But since that does not seem possible, I'm going to ask another question.

[Murielle Brazeau]

Very well.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

What is, to your mind, a reasonable time frame for the tribunal to examine an appeal and hand down a decision?

Has that time frame been estimated?

[Murielle Brazeau]

Are you talking about the program regarding income security?

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

In terms of...

[Murielle Brazeau]

Are you talking about employment insurance or the Appeal Division?

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Let's talk about the Appeal Division.

[Murielle Brazeau]

You are referring to the Appeal Division?

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Yes.

In your opinion, what would be a reasonable time frame that would allow you to answer these people in an efficient way?

[Murielle Brazeau]

The situation at the Appeal Division is different from that at the General Division. At the Appeal Division, in order to be heard, the parties must submit a request to obtain the permission to make an appeal. That request must be heard by a member, who renders a decision according to certain specific criteria, and determines whether the appeal can be heard. The criteria are set out in the law.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Madam Brazeau, I think we're going to have to end it there. We're over the time and we want to keep it on track today. If there's more to be added, possibly you could add it to another questioner's time.

Mr. Armstrong.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today.

First, I have a point to make with Ms. Casipullai.

You mentioned in your comments that the $1,000 fee that employers are paying to put in a labour market impact assessment is being downloaded upon the temporary foreign worker. As you know, that is absolutely illegal; that cannot happen. If you have any information about specific cases, please forward that to us at the department and we'll investigate. That's what those fees are for and we'll make sure that doesn't continue.

Ms. Brazeau, could you tell us a little more about the qualifications of SST members, the rigours of the assessments, and how the employment process as a whole has worked?

[Murielle Brazeau]

The appointment of members is a prerogative of the Governor in Council, but it is done following a very rigorous selection process whereby members are assessed based on education, knowledge, and experience. After they pass this rigorous process, the Governor in Council makes the recommendation. They are screened in and there's a whole detailed selection process to qualify them.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you for that.

Second, to turn back to our discussion on the backlogs, could you explain where the backlog is currently and when you expect the backlog in income security to be completed? Let's just focus on income security because that seems to be the main point of contention here.

[Murielle Brazeau]

We have a few months of experience in working with the income security backlog. With this experience, we are now able to start looking at and defining a reasonable amount of time that members should take to complete the different types of cases, because even in income security we have different types of cases.

With this information that we are working on right now, we will be able to come up with an estimate, looking at the remainder of our caseload and the number of members who we actually have or would potentially have in the future, and we will be able to determine a precise date when the backlog could be completed. We are working on that very actively right now.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Do you know what the timeline is for that process to actually set these performance standards? Is there a timeline for that process to be completed?

[Murielle Brazeau]

This is my priority. I am working on it and I hope to have it concluded in the coming...very soon.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Once that's concluded, you'll be able to make a pre-staff assessment of how many members you'll need to make these decisions in a certain amount of time.

[Murielle Brazeau]

Absolutely, that's the objective.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you for that.

There's a last question I have for you. What progress have you made over the past year and what measures have been put in place already to stop a future backlog issue from taking place? What are you doing proactively to try to avoid a backlog in the future?

[Murielle Brazeau]

We have taken a number of measures to work on the efficiency of our processes. We provide our members with significant amounts of training so that they become more efficient in dealing with the backlog.

We put in place a new process as of April 1, whereby we are assigning older cases first so that we are fair with the backlog. Within this process, parties are allowed time to exchange documents before the hearing and then the hearing is scheduled.

We are working with our members to encourage them and we work hard to provide training with them so that they deliver their decisions in a very efficient and effective manner. Our members are very conscious and concerned about.... They realize the importance of their work and how that has impacts on every Canadian who is behind each and every one of these cases. It is a significant preoccupation of our members to be effective and efficient in delivering a fair decision.