Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 25th, 2013

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, I see in the estimates there are investments in biometrics. It's something we've discussed before with you here.

Can you please update us on the implementation of biometrics?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Menegakis.

I'd also like to thank the committee for its positive recommendations with regard to biometrics in its recent report on immigration security.

I can report to the committee that we are moving forward with the implementation of the first tranche of biometrics this fall. Following an exhaustive tendering process, we have selected a supplier, a vendor, for the biometrics technology, and our officers are currently being trained in the first 30 countries for which biometrics will be a requirement for TRV, temporary resident visa, applications.

I'll ask Bob Orr to give a further update.

[Robert Orr, Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

The implementation of biometrics is going ahead very rapidly right now. This is in combination with the opening of a number of visa application centres. We are increasing the number of visa application centres we have across the world to 131 over the coming months. That will allow us to collect the biometrics at these centres across the world, plus a robust network within the United States in addition to that.

Biometrics will be in place. It's being phased in. There are three different periods for the 30 countries when it becomes compulsory. The first three countries come online on the 4th of September.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Overall, when will biometrics become mandatory?

[Robert Orr]

By the end of the year, for the 30 countries it will be a mandatory requirement.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Then in due course we will assess the effectiveness of the system based on the first tranche of countries. We'll learn technical lessons from that and then we will proceed, at some point in 2014, with the rollout of the second tranche of countries. Eventually the objective is universal application of the biometric visa requirement for all countries from which there is a TRV requirement.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

So it's fair to assume that the visa application centres are being equipped—or have already begun—from now until some time near the end of the year. Is it fair to say that?

[Robert Orr]

That is correct. In fact, the first three have already been opened and it's a very aggressive program over the coming months to open those visa application centres.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Minister, what is our government doing to ensure that the applicants from the countries from which we collect, or will be collecting, biometrics are aware of the new requirements?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

We intend to make people aware. My deputy has something to say about that.

[Neil Yeates, Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Yes, I can just add that we've been doing outreach already through missions abroad, through Canadian embassies abroad, so we've been in contact with those countries and are briefing them on the biometrics process. So far so good.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

I would just point out that this isn't entirely new for those countries. If they're frequent travellers—many of them would be going to the United States—they will already have enrolled their biometrics to get to the United States, Australia, the U.K., so there is already a high degree of familiarity with this process, certainly amongst frequent travellers.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Minister, we've often heard in the House in the last few days—and I'm actually getting some questions on this from my constituents—from both the NDP and the Liberals who claim they have problems with the temporary foreign worker program, but they write to you asking for TFWs for their ridings. Could you comment on that?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

I do find it a bit peculiar that we should be criticized for allowing the temporary foreign worker program by people who have asked for faster access to temporary foreign workers, including Mr. Lamoureux, who actually wrote me, as did Mr. Trudeau, who wrote officials seeking streamlined access to temporary foreign workers for “his father's favourite restaurant” in Montreal.

I have a large stack of such letters. When those MPs approach me, especially MPs from the New Democratic Party, I always say to them, are you aware of your party's policy that you want to shut down the program? Are you sure you want us to facilitate this movement? And they'll say, yes, absolutely, it's essential for this business in my riding, without it they might have to close down.

What can I say? I think actions speak more loudly than words.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I just think it's important for Canadians to understand that the, pardon the expression, dog and pony show that happens with some of these questions in the QP are considerably different from the reality of what is happening. It takes a certain amount of audacity to write to a minister to ask for something and then stand up in the House and criticize the very program that your asking for. That also boggles the mind.

Minister, I want to ask you a question on the start-up visa. Do any other countries have a visa program like the start-up visa?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, Australia and the United Kingdom have analogous programs but those programs only grant temporary residency with conditions. Effectively, the business has to be successful in order for them to get permanent residency. What is a competitive advantage in our start-up visa is that it will grant immediate permanent residency to successful applicants. We do so in the full knowledge that not everyone who arrives through the start-up visa will see a success in their first start-up venture here.

The point is that if they've been selected by a Canadian investor, venture capitalist or angel investor, and they meet our human capital criteria, which includes intermediate English or French language proficiency, and at least one year of post-secondary education, we are confident that they have the level of human capital that indicates success in the long term. They may not succeed in their first business effort, but are very likely to do so in the long run. Also, many of these people will be coming in with IT backgrounds and will be able to work if their first business doesn't succeed.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

We'll go to Ms. Sims, then to Ms. Freeman.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you very much.

First of all, let me make it categorically clear that the NDP is not opposed to a temporary foreign worker program that addresses genuine labour shortages where no Canadians are available to do the work. We've been very clear about that, and I just wanted to reiterate it so that my colleagues across the way hear it loud and clear.

Minister, I see nothing in votes 1 and 5 that indicates money towards reducing wait times at CIC. You have indicated to us that there has been a 73% reduction in the number of permanent residents receiving Canadian citizenship under this government because there are fewer people to process more applications. Yet we learn of office closure after office closure, with no money dedicated towards clearing the backlog. We have constituents across the country who are permanent residents telling us that they are now being quoted wait times of up to four years to obtain their citizenship, where previously they were quoted 12 months.

Can you tell me, Minister, is four years the new wait time that a permanent resident can expect when awaiting citizenship, and how can you possibly consider this acceptable? When will you introduce measures to reduce these wait times?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Allow me to clarify that while these estimates do not include additional resources for the citizenship program, we did announce additional resources in our economic action plan of 2013, which you will find in supplementary estimates (B). It allocates $44 million over two years to help us address the backlog in citizenship applications. That will be offset by an upward adjustment in citizenship fees, which have not been changed in 15 years. It costs us in the range of $650, if you can believe it, to process a citizenship application. But the current fee plus the privilege fee generates a total of $200 per application in revenue. We're running a $450 shortfall on every application that we process.

So the member is right. We're concerned as well about the backlog, and my department is working on an action plan to address it. To answer the question directly, no, the average wait time is not four years. Four years is the worst-case scenario for someone who's received a residency questionnaire, which is a more detailed analysis of whether they in fact meet the statutory residency requirements. The average processing time is less than half of that.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you, Minister. Let me tell you, when I visited our local citizenship ceremonies, the judge there took me into a room that was just solid with files of people for whom, according to him, it would take at least four years.

I'm going to pass the rest of my time over to Ms. Freeman.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Minister, the report on plans and priorities states that 385 positions are being cut. That is an 8% reduction in personnel for refugee protection, family reunification and permanent residence applications in general.

We know that visa offices like the ones in Nairobi, Islamabad and Dakar are experiencing serious problems with processing times.

How many foreign positions will be cut? Will other visa offices be closed?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

I don't have the exact figures. I would ask Mr. Orr to respond.

[Robert Orr]

Over the course of the last year, we have closed 10 visa offices abroad. There were no foreign service officers who were cut as a result, but there were a number of other positions cut in the process. In addition, about 233 locally engaged staff positions were cut.

That's being offset by new ways of processing applications and centralization of a lot of work. Some of the work is now being done now in Ottawa that had previously been done overseas. Because of the new electronic tools, which the minister made reference to earlier, there are new opportunities. No longer are we restricted by where the people and the paper are. Because of these new tools, we are able to move work around our international network and indeed our domestic network, so that we can move the work to where there is a capacity to deal with it.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

If I may ask, what is being done to reduce the wait times in the offices I mentioned, or what will be done, what is planned on being done?

[Robert Orr]

In many of those offices, what we are looking at is trying to reduce certain types of work, remove certain types of low-risk, straightforward work where we don't need local knowledge, particularly, and where we're able to do some of that work in other parts of the network. This is still a work in progress, but we're making very real strides.