Evidence of meeting #62 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Karen Swol  Director, Program Management, Rail Safety, Department of Transport
Dean Beyea  Director, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
Olivier Nicoloff  Director, Democracy, Commonwealth and Francophonie Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Colleen Barnes  Executive Director, Domestic Policy Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Nancy Leigh  Manager, Governance Secretariat, Canada School of Public Service
Jane Pearse  Director, Financial Institutions Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Suzanne Brisebois  Director General, Policy and Operations, Parole Board of Canada, Public Safety Canada
Louise Laflamme  Chief, Marine Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Department of Transport
Lenore Duff  Senior Director, Strategic Policy and Legislative Reform, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Lawrence Hanson  Director General, Strategic Policy Directorate, Department of the Environment
Pamela Miller  Director General, Telecommunications Policy Branch, Department of Industry
Allan MacGillivray  Special Advisor to the Director General, Telecommunications Policy, Department of Industry
Alwyn Child  Director General, Program Development and Guidance Directorate, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Mireille Laroche  Director General, Employment Insurance Policy, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Mark Hodgson  Senior Policy Analyst, Labour Markets, Employment and Learning, Department of Finance
Patrick Halley  Chief, Tariffs and Market Acess, International Trade and Finance, Department of Finance
Vivian Krause  As an Individual
Mark Blumberg  Lawyer and Partner, Blumberg Segal LLP
Dan Kelly  Senior Vice-President, Legislative Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
Dennis Howlett  Coordinator, Canadians for Tax Fairness
Jamie Ellerton  Executive Director, EthicalOil.org
Blair Rutter  Grain Growers of Canada
Marcel Lauzière  President and Chief Executive Officer, Imagine Canada
Tom King  Co-Chair, Finance and Taxation Committee, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada
Sandra Harder  Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Cam Carruthers  Director, Program Integrity Division, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
David Manicom  Immigration Program Manager (New Delhi), Area Director (South Asia), Department of Citizenship and Immigration

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

I'm posing it to anybody who can answer.

I do believe it was Bill C-4 where we had all-party agreement on that particular bill. There were some changes that were going to happen to immigration. This particular situation, clause 707, is where you're striking the people before February 27, 2008, which happens to be my birthday.

I've had a number of people in Hamilton who are very concerned. Hamilton, as you are probably aware, is the second destination for an awful lot of new Canadians who go to Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver and who can't afford to live there, so they come to Hamilton. We have a vibrant community as a result of that, but they're panicking about family reunification and what the implications might be for them in that particular area.

So my question is, how much work has been done by the government or your offices to look into the potential of legal action over this?

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

We did legal analysis at the time we were looking at this particular provision, and there was a legal risk analysis done. Certainly it's one of the considerations that gets fed into policy development and legislative development. So, yes, it was taken into consideration, but there was a view that a clear direction from Parliament with respect to legislation would mitigate some of the legal risk around this approach.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

How long have you been working on these particular changes?

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

These particular changes? I would say that the genesis of a lot of the changes that feed into how we're dealing with the backlog is at least 10 years old, definitely.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

So it wasn't anything to do relative to budgetary cutting, austerity, or anything like that. This was other motivation.

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

This, I would say, is a provision that has been examined in the context of trying to deal with a better management of our application intake over a number of years, absolutely.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

We understood that the backlog has been there forever, from many people's point of view, whatever the reasons. I'm not about to address those reasons. The shocking thing for people is that this is in a budget bill. People are asking why in the world they have piled all of the different things in there. Was there ever a plan to put forward legislation directly on this so that it could have gone to the proper committee to be looked into, as opposed to a budget bill?

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

It's the decision of the government as to how to proceed, there's no question about that. There is also a monetary feature attached to this because refunding those applications is $130 million, which is part of the budget bill.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

Well, that's not saving money—no offence meant.

We're concerned too about privacy issues. It allows the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to make available to the minister or public officers or the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development any information obtained under the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Do you see privacy issues there at all?

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

One minute.

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

Are you speaking just with respect to these provisions?

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

Yes.

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

No, and privacy is a consideration that we take very seriously on all policy development. So generally there's a privacy impact assessment done on new policy—

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

The mechanisms that you have today will handle this, in your view.

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

Yes, and we have information-sharing agreements with provinces and territories, etc. So it's a serious consideration.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

Thank you.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

Thank you.

Colleagues, I have three more colleagues. I have Mr. Adler, Ms. Nash, and Mr. Brison. I'll just remind you that it's about 9:25, and we have two more divisions. I'll just point that out to everybody and go to Mr. Adler, please.

We have two more divisions after this that the parties have agreed to deal with.

9:25 p.m.

An hon. member

Well, at 9:30 we finish.

9:25 p.m.

An hon. member

That was my understanding too.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

Well, I thought there was agreement on that, but I guess there is not.

Mr. Adler.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the great work that you do, officials.

I have a couple of quick questions. How large is the backlog for FSW?

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

The oldest portion of the backlog is 280,000 people, about 100,000 applications. There will remain in the inventory approximately 160,000 FSW applications. Those would be applications that have come in since ministerial instructions were put in place in 2008.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

So is the oldest application from 2008?

9:25 p.m.

Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Sandra Harder

No, the oldest application could date back to, I think, about 2003.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

Okay. Was there an application fee for applying to be an FSW?