Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 7th, 2006

[Wayne Ganim]

That report is for the Treasury Board, and it is also tabled in the House every year. That's the requirement of the Treasury Board, yes.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

And that does include the full unit costing for each immigration service a fee is charged for?

[Wayne Ganim]

Basically it is a total cost of providing that fee, not necessarily the unit cost. It's the cost of providing that fee or that service. We report the cost of that service, not necessarily the unit cost.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Is there a reason why you don't do the unit cost?

[Wayne Ganim]

You could get into a discussion of what's a unit in terms of what makes up the cost of providing that service. What we provide are the total revenues that we bring in vis-à-vis that fee versus the total cost of providing that service. That's what we're required to report.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Does that include the cost that the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade incurs in delivering some CIC programs?

[Wayne Ganim]

It's part of the overall costing of the government. What we report there is basically the cost of CIC only. In the overall cost what we're required to do is the costs of the overall government, including DFAIT and all other departments that provide services like the RCMP, CSIS, etc.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Is that included in the report that goes to Treasury Board?

[Wayne Ganim]

That's included in the report that goes to Treasury Board. There's a category called “services provided without charge”, and that's where those costs are reported to parliamentarians.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Minister, you've been noting that you're planning on some new initiatives around the temporary workers program. I've raised concerns with you about that program in the past. I'm wondering if that's going to include many measures to strengthen the labour market opinion process with the other department, Human Resources, that's involved in that. Also, is there going to be any requirement for provinces to step up inspections of working conditions and labour standards in those provinces as part of any increased or facilitated temporary worker program?

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

I would say that Human Resources has an obligation in the law to make sure that there actually is a shortage of Canadian workers who are able to do jobs before labour market opinion can be obtained. That is required in the act. A labour market opinion is only given to an employer after they've done advertising to ensure they have really tried across the country to find Canadian workers to do that job. That's important, and we understand the need to do that.

In response to your other question, this is a serious concern. The good news is that there are mechanisms in place to ensure that if there is an accusation that somebody is not meeting labour standards, it can be followed up on, which is what's happening now with the RAV line in British Columbia, and we support that. Workers do need to be protected, but there are provisions in place and there should be.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you, Minister.

It is now 10:55. We have five minutes left.

It's your turn, Mr. Jaffer.

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm willing to propose, as our side has the last five minutes for the round of questioning, and I could take it up and ask questions, because I do have some.... Seeing we do have the last five minutes, I think we can pass the estimates in that time. I don't think anything I'm going to ask is going to be too pressing that I couldn't follow up with the minister later. Unless there's opposition.... We're going to be carving into our time on the security certificates next Thursday if we postpone the estimates until then. As I said, normal procedure has been that we pass the estimates after ministers present. I know in the previous government we did that regularly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

That would be in the hands of the committee. We did have a vote a moment ago. If the committee wishes to reverse that vote....

Does the committee desire to reverse that vote and accommodate Mr. Jaffer's concern?

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Since it is my time, I'm going to ask the committee if they'll accept the motion to pass the estimates now. I can introduce a motion any time, and I'm introducing one that we pass the estimates. If not, I'll revert back to the time that I have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The motion is on the floor.

(Motion agreed to)

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, on a point of order, in order to introduce a motion, isn't it customary that you have some time length before you introduce that motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We do have four minutes left.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

My point of order, Mr. Chair, is that Mr. Jaffer introduced a motion. Don't you have to have a motion written ahead of time and presented to us?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

No, it is not necessary.

We've heard the motion. The motion has been voted on and it's been carried. Now we can move for the next few minutes to the votes.

You all have a copy of the estimates in front of you. We'll move to the votes.

Shall vote 1a carry?

CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION Department Vota 1a--Operating expenditures – To authorize the transfer of $1,400,000 from Citizenship and Immigration Vote 5, and $5,576,200 from Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Vote 10, Appropriation Act No. 1, 2006-2007 for the purposes of this Vote and to provide a further amount of.........$14,663,397

(Vote 1a agreed to)

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

We need to speak about discussion on the estimates, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Sir, there's a lot of discussion on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay.

I want to thank the minister, first of all, for his attendance here today. It's very much appreciated, Minister. Sorry to ignore you.

Look, I think we're going to have to move to Thursday in any event, because we now have eleven o'clock and we do have a committee waiting to come in.

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, I think, as the chair, you can run through these votes quite quickly, if you ask for the will of the committee members. On every vote you can ask whether there should be debate or not—