Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 11th, 2014

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you.

The electronic travel authorization is going to further protect the safety and security of Canadians overall, and it won't actually harm the tourist industry. Would you be able to tell the committee how the electronic travel authorization is going to work, and what those projected timelines are?

[Anita Biguzs]

The electronic travel authorization is not a new phenomenon. Certainly the United States has already been operating with their electronic travel authorization, as has the Government of Australia, and I think a number of other jurisdictions.

It will require people who are coming by air to Canada from visa-exempt countries to apply for an electronic authorization before they travel here. At this point in time U.S. citizens will be exempt, so this will be a light touch. The intention is that it should be very quick and very easy, but it will actually allow us to screen most visitors before they board a plane, to verify whether or not they pose a risk. The intention as well is that it will be low cost, quick, and easy.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's great. Thank you.

We did discuss the express entry with the minister, and I think it's a very exciting recruitment process that's going to ensure Canada's global competitiveness and our advantage overall when attracting skilled workers. As we know, Australia and New Zealand and others have had this program and it's been highly successful for them and I think it's definitely something that has been lacking for us. So I'm delighted to see that it's here.

Can you explain in detail how this will work and the timeline for its implementation?

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, the intention is to have the express entry system, a new application management system, up and running as of January 2015. Further to what the minister indicated, it will provide an opportunity for people to apply online through a very facilitated process, identifying their skills, their education, their age, and why they think they would be suitable to come to Canada. It would be a two-step process so they would go into a pool and be ranked in terms of their application, based on a methodology that the department has developed to assess the skills they have. They would be ranked, and then based on their ranking, they would actually be invited to apply, and then they would make a formal application to come to Canada.

I may ask my colleague, Catrina Tapley, just to fill in a few more details about how that will work specifically.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I think we'll have to move on.

Mr. Daniel.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, visitors, for being here.

As a committee, we studied biometrics last year and reported that it's an integral part of the safety and security of Canadians. I think you've mentioned some of the countries that have already implemented these biometric collections. What role do the visa application centres play in the collection of biometrics?

[Anita Biguzs]

The visa application centres, Mr. Chair, play a critical role. We've rolled out biometrics now. That was first deployed in May 2013 for individuals seeking temporary resident applications from 29 countries and one territory. The service has extended to over 180 points of service in over 90 countries.

Essentially, it's through our VAC network—our visa application centre network—that individuals can come forward and actually provide their biometric information, which is then put into our central electronic network. We are then able, as I say, to have that information and verify it when they come to Canada, in terms of verifying their identity. The VACs play a very critical role in terms of the number of points of service that are available to people who want to come to Canada to visit.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you.

Turning to the subject of express entry, how does CIC work with businesses to ensure that this program will benefit them? How will businesses be able to access express entry?

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, we think this will provide an excellent opportunity for employers to be able to access high-skilled workers who meet their labour market requirements. The intention of the program is to actually have an expedited process. From the time we receive a completed application, we expect a processing time of approximately six months.

We have been doing a lot of work with employers. We've been holding a series of round tables with employer groups across the country and also working very closely with our provincial-territorial counterparts, because they will also have a role, certainly, and an interest in drawing down high-skilled workers out of the express entry pool.

I'll ask my colleague Catrina Tapley, who has participated in many of these employer round tables, to perhaps give a little more information specifically in terms of how this will work with employers.

[Catrina Tapley, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you.

As the deputy minister has just indicated, we've just finished another round of consultations in all provinces and two of the three territories, focused on employers. Employers will have an opportunity, through the revised Job Bank, to be able to search or look for candidates who are in the pool, who are after that first stage. Where they find a good match for skills, and where they have a labour market opinion in most cases, then what we see is that employers will be able to make a job offer.

Once employers have made that job offer, that's almost an automatic invitation to apply for those who are in the pool; that's significant to pull through.... When we talk about drawing candidates from the pool or providing those invitations to apply, those who have job offers and those who have provincial nominee certificates are drawn first, so to speak. Then we go to our ranking list, which the deputy minister has described, on who we're pulling next for those high human capital models or those high characteristics on their ability to participate and succeed.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you.

What programs actually will work under the express entry?

[Catrina Tapley]

There are three main programs that will be part of the express entry: the Canadian experience class, the federal skilled worker program, and the federal skilled trades program. As well, a portion of the provincial nominee program will also come through express entry. For the most part, provincial nominee programs will work as they have in the past, but there will be a top-up to provincial nominee programs. For that top-up portion, provinces will be required to come through the pool, to come through that express entry system.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

How will CIC work with ESDC to ensure that job matching runs smoothly?

[Catrina Tapley]

We are working very closely with our colleagues at ESDC, particularly on a redesigned Job Bank. There are particular enhancements in the Job Bank for employers, making it easier for employers to use and giving employers greater surety around the candidates who are there. There will be a particular portion for a Job Bank set-aside for candidates in express entry.

Once a candidate comes through that first screen on express entry and is part of the pool, if they don't have a job offer or a provincial nominee certificate, then they are required to fill out that job-seeker profile. Once they fill out the job-seeker profile, then they're in a portion of the Job Bank where employers can go and find them. That job-seeker profile becomes really important and is something that we're working closely on with our colleagues in ESDC.

[Anita Biguzs]

I would just add that ESDC officials have actually participated in all of our consultations with employers. It's very clear that the system is very integrated when people apply for the express entry with the enhanced job bank. ESDC is very much at all of the consultations and the tables with employers in terms of how all of this will come together and will work.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Ms. Biguzs.

Ms. Blanchette-Lamothe, you have about two or three minutes.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As I do not have a great deal of time available to me, I will ask a general question.

The minister spoke to us of investments made within the context of various programs. In his conclusion, he said that there was a net reduction of $270 million compared to the previous financial year.

Could you tell me exactly where and why the savings were made and exactly what they represent? Is this a staff cut or restructuring?

Much has been said about areas where money was invested, but it can also be seen that savings were made. I have the impression that these are the result of cuts.

Regardless, I will leave that for you to answer.

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, I would like to explain. I think the minister did comment on the fact that, largely, this reflects the fact that the Department of Citizenship and Immigration became responsible for the revolving fund of Passport Canada, so the decrease in main estimates is largely a reflection of the accounting treatment for the Passport Canada revolving fund.

The Passport Canada revolving fund is not appropriated. It is fully cost-recovered through revenues, but the way it's accounted for—and I'll turn to my chief financial officer, Tony Matson to explain—is more of a technical accounting reflection rather than a real reduction in any of our expenditures for the department.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I will have to interrupt you because we don't have a great deal of time available to us and it seems that this is a technical explanation.

Are there programs or other items that were the target of reduced expenditures, aside from the passport program which you mentioned earlier?

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, there are, I think, a few areas of reductions in terms of the main estimates. I think, primarily, some of it reflects budget 2012 decisions in terms of some of the efficiency measures and modernization measures that the department has achieved because we've been able to gain efficiencies through using automation and being able to move work around the network.

There are also a number of reductions for areas in which we received one-time funding, for example, the biometrics initiative. We've actually completed the work we needed to do to implement biometrics and the same thing is true in a number of other areas where it's just been incorporated as part of our ongoing operating costs. These are funds that are just sunsetting because we've completed all of the investments in IT and information management and that kind of thing.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

On behalf of the committee, I thank you, Ms. Biguzs, Ms. Edlund, Ms. Tapley, and Mr. Matson, for coming and assisting us with the estimates.

The meeting is adjourned.