Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[Claudette Deschênes]

Do you want to take that, or do you want me to?

[Les Linklater]

You can take it.

[Claudette Deschênes]

We are reviewing the schedule that has been put in place.

Another aspect that is difficult to deal with is the refusal ratio, which varies somewhat depending on the category. That being said, we are hoping to put in place a strategy that, if nothing changes, will allow us to resolve all of the delays between now and 2017.

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

Could you provide us with a summary table encompassing all of these schedules?

[Claudette Deschênes]

We are still working on some of these schedules. As soon as they have been completed, we will be able to share them with you

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

The idea would be to have a comprehensive view, a short or medium term perspective.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Go ahead.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Going back to working inventory processing, there might have been a little bit of confusion. I've done totals for you now of pre- and post—that's pre-MI-1, pre-MI-2, pre-MI-3—and of all of them together.

These are three-month prorated numbers: 2011 processing was 15,000 and change; 2010 processing was 27,000 and change; 2009 processing was 32,000 and change.

So from 2009 processing to 2011, we're seeing a drastic decrease, from 32,000 to 27,000 to 15,000 each year, within the three-month time. Why is that?

[Les Linklater]

If we take a step back and look at the annual levels plan, in which we anticipate federal skilled worker admissions over the course of the last three years of around 60,000, that means we're processing to a fixed number every year. With ministerial instructions, if we take MI 3 and put those appplications into immediate processing, that accounts for x of the 60,000, MI-2 accounts for y—so you have x and y within the 60,000—and MI-1 and pre-C-50 would make up the difference.

In 2009, when the ministerial instructions were new and we were centralizing processing, there was a delay in getting the files that qualified under ministerial instructions to the missions for processing, which meant that they were working on the pre-C-50 backlog, on people to whom we owed a decision. That's why you see in 2009 thirty-odd thousand coming out of the backlog, and that number declining as the MI-1, MI-2, MI-3—

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

No, these are total numbers. The 32,000 is total foreign skilled workers. This is coming from the—

[Claudette Deschênes]

Do you mean pre- and post-?

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Yes, pre- and post- together come to 32,000 in 2009; pre- and post- together is 27,000—

[Les Linklater]

Those would be the applications.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

It's working inventory.

[Les Linklater]

Right, but each application comes with potentially a partner and/or children. It's also important to remember that within the skilled worker category, the people we assess for their human capital are the principal applicants, but they also come with spouses and children.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

So we're processing fewer of the foreign-skilled workers?

[Les Linklater]

Admissions of 60,000 federal skilled workers would be principal applicants plus their family members, so the 32,000 would be about right in terms of pre-C-50 cases, with the refusal rates that we would have seen.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Sure.

What are the reasons that applications are not being put into active processing? Earlier, Claudette, you mentioned.... The numbers I'm quoting are for the working inventory, which means once they're in active processing. Why would they not be put into active processing? What is the reason that there are such long wait times? I know, from the experience we're having out of our offices, that we're having people wait 14 months before they get into active processing.

[Claudette Deschênes]

It's because once we put them into active processing, we want to touch them as few times as possible. Normally you will initiate medicals at that time, will initiate the security clearances—police certificates and that type of thing—and you will make the final selection decision, and then all of these results will come in, and within a short period of time we'll be able to finalize the case, contact the client, get the passport, issue the document, and expect the people to travel to Canada. They have to travel within the validity of their medical. For us, active processing means we're planning to finalize the case and get these people into Canada.

So we go back to the levels plan. If we don't have space, we get into a problem that too many people are coming for the levels plan that has been approved.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Lamoureux.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to go back to the investors backlog. Can you give the hard number of how many we have in the backlog and how many we actually approved in the last fiscal year?

[Les Linklater]

I wouldn't have the approval rate with me, but we can get that information to the clerk. My understanding is that in terms of overall backlog, there are about 27,000 applications, representing more than 80,000 people.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Can you give me a guesstimate as to what number you believe were actually approved in the last year, in 2010?

[Les Linklater]

I wouldn't....

[Claudette Deschênes]

I'm getting there.