Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 10th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Monsieur St-Cyr, you're well over five minutes. We'll have to continue this on another round.

Ms. Wong, please.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Good morning, Mr. Minister and members.

In addition to your responsibility for citizenship and immigration, you have been given responsibility for multiculturalism. Can you explain your view of Canada as a multicultural country?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you. As the member knows, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, which was adopted in 1988, describes multiculturalism as “a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage and identity”.

In my judgment, it's important for us to ensure that multiculturalism doesn't become a kind of fixed relic, a kind of shibboleth in our political discourse. It has to be something that's dynamic and changes with changing needs. For me that means a focus on a multiculturalism that leads to social cohesion and successful integration of newcomers. I think most of our cultural communities are sufficiently robust and well resourced that they don't need government subsidies to do their own activities, to celebrate their own heritage. I think we need to focus more on bringing communities together, to make sure that we don't experience the kind of ethnic enclaves that we see in parts of Europe and elsewhere. That's why I have asked the multiculturalism program to put its emphasis on projects that respond to the concrete need for integration, building bridges between communities, and also assisting youth at risk.

I'd be happy to come back to the committee sometime, perhaps, and share in greater detail the modifications we're making to the multiculturalism program to make it respond more directly to the need for integration.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

On that note, I notice that the government has moved the responsibility from the Secretary of State to a full minister. That also shows how important multiculturalism has been.

The fact is that you are now responsible for three areas, multiculturalism, immigration, and citizenship. Can you see the link among the three areas, where you feel that one minister looking after all three makes it even more efficient?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, I think it's a natural place to locate multiculturalism. Some time ago, I think in part of 1995, multiculturalism was situated in the main ministry as the citizenship program, and that makes a lot of sense. First of all, CIC has a lot of resources to focus on settlement and integration of newcomers, but those programs end when people become citizens. We obviously want new Canadian citizens to have an active and ongoing sense of their citizenship. So the way I see it, once people have become citizens, the multiculturalism program is there to provide programs to promote more active citizenship and better integration. People aren't necessarily fully integrated into our society the moment they become citizens.

I recently met a Canadian immigrant of Indian origin who is a citizen who has lived here for 12 years and who has great difficulty speaking either of our official languages. So there's clearly a need for ongoing programming to assist people even after they become citizens.

Also, I think there's a natural linkage between multiculturalism, i.e., our model of pluralism, and citizenship. It's part of our national identity. So I want to focus more on promoting Canada's identity, our historic routes, our civic values, in the citizenship program, and I think that's a natural fit with multiculturalism.

I should add that in fact in the ministry we've co-located the multiculturalism program with the citizenship program under the same director general to help identify those synergies.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

I think the committee has also raised the issue that at this very difficult time we have to act very responsibly.

How are you approaching your ministry officials with respect to budgetary expenditures during these very difficult economic times?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

As I mentioned, the budget for the ministry has increased significantly over the past three years to over $1.3 billion in total. The largest portion of that increase has been a 219% increase in funding for settlement services. I was recently in Vancouver, in December of last year, to announce our allocations for 2009 for settlement services, which see yet another increase, a total increase of $1.4 billion over four years.

It is a challenge, there's no doubt about it, for us to manage the business lines of immigration with our current budget, but our officials are doing their best to be innovative. We continue to have huge demand. One of the problems of Canada's immigration system is that we have more demand than we can possibly satisfy in any given year. But this means there's real operational stress on the department. Many of our overseas missions are operating at full capacity. Given the tough economic and fiscal times we're facing, it's clear that our ministry will have to continue to innovate in order to deliver its programs in an efficient way.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First, Minister, let me just thank both you and your predecessor, Minister Finley, for all the work you've been doing with respect to the backlog. As you know, I come from a riding that is blessed with a large number of new Canadians who have really added to the fabric of my riding.

In your opening remarks you did mention that in 2009 we're anticipating keeping the immigration levels the same. I wonder if you might comment, going forward, whether you've made any projections beyond 2009. I know a lot of other prosperous countries are considering cutting back. Where are we going with that?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

We don't typically publish our planning levels more than a year in advance, because we always want to be sensitive to current economic and labour market developments. For the year 2009, we have published a planning range of 240,000 to 265,000 permanent residents to Canada. I don't know of another developed country that is actually planning to maintain its current levels of permanent residents. I can report that for the year 2008, which is completed, we received 247,000 permanent residents, which was well within our planning range.

I have to make a clear caveat. Obviously the economy is changing on a weekly basis, and we have to monitor the situation very closely. That's why I indicated earlier that my deputy minister will be meeting with his provincial counterparts at the end of March to discuss whether there is a sufficiently dramatic need, changes in the labour market, such that we need to revise our planning targets for 2009. I should also add, though, that in November of last year I spoke to all my provincial counterparts—ministers of immigration, who are often also ministers of human resources and labour—and all 10 of them indicated that they felt there was a need for maintaining our intake levels or actually increasing them. They all identified, three months ago, continuing significant labour market shortages in some regions and certain industries. But the situation is changing and we will be responsive if need be.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

I have one other quick question for you.

Recently I've had a number of e-mails at my office about the issue of foreign skilled workers, which has come up. Those e-mails and calls are basically along the lines that there are Canadians able to fill some of these roles, and would the government consider changing its policies? I wonder if you might comment on that, on the availability of foreign skilled workers.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

On...?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

On the availability of foreign skilled workers.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

The main changes we've made through the action plan for faster immigration relate to foreign skilled workers, which is to say that we are trying to align more closely the intake in that program with our labour market needs. We did so through a series of consultations with stakeholders, the provinces, cultural communities, and others, to identify occupations that are in need across the country. Those are the 38 categories that we published under the ministerial instructions. It's a result of those changes that we've now been able to turn the corner on the skilled foreign worker inventory, reducing it from 600,000 to 515,000. As I said, I anticipate further reduction before the end of this year, which is very important.

I'm also very excited that we will be providing a decision within six to 12 months to the applicants under that program who have entered the inventory since February of last year. So they're no longer going to have to wait four to six years, in some places, to get a decision. They'll be able to get one between six to 12 months.

I've been getting very positive comments from stakeholders on how the action plan is working. This is really important. Highly skilled immigrants from developing countries are able to get a decision and go to a country like New Zealand or Australia within six to 12 months. We were telling them to wait over four years. We were simply losing the opportunity to attract many of the most talented people.

This puts us back in the game, to attract those highly skilled and educated people, and I think that's a very positive development in the long run for our economy.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Mr. Calandra.

Ms. Mendes.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Good morning, Minister. I'd like to make a few comments on the processing of citizenship files in Montreal, in Quebec. The backlog in Montreal is currently 34 months. There is currently only one sitting judge. I can't tell you the number of files that are on my riding desk.

Why do we have so much trouble appointing judges? Why do the officials responsible for processing files take 34 months to do it? Something's not working.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you for your question, Ms. Mendes.

This week, I met the senior citizenship judge, Mr. Springate. We discussed the challenges we're facing. We've sent certain judges from other parts of the country to Montreal to preside over citizenship ceremonies. I have informed the committee that I will be recommending judicial appointments to the board to Cabinet very soon . I hope we'll be able to fill the vacant positions in Montreal and Vancouver so that we can conduct more ceremonies.

The backlog in processing citizenship files is one of our operational challenges. I'll invite the deputy minister to comment on that subject.

[Richard Fadden]

Mr. Chairman, one of the difficulties is that the department has resources to process 280,000 files a year, whereas we currently have approximately 290,000.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

You have how many?

[Richard Fadden]

We have 290,000. The difficulty is that the department and judges have to process a much larger number of files than their resources enable them to process. We're currently discussing the matter with Mr. Kenney to see what adjustments we could make. That's our basic problem.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Are you talking about staff adjustments?

[Richard Fadden]

Yes.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

All right, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Grewel.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Minister, for coming here to be with us today.

My question concerns a new immigrant class that was introduced by our government. Can you please explain to the committee how the new experience class will help Canada by accepting immigrants who have proven track records and integrate well?