Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 17th, 2018

[The Chair (Hon. Robert Nault (Kenora, Lib.)), Liberal, Bob Nault]

Colleagues, I call this meeting to order.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), this is our study of the provision of assistance to Canadians in difficulty abroad through consular affairs.

As was requested, we asked the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and Michael Ferguson to make a presentation to us on his report. With him is Carol McCalla.

It says “Principal”. Is that the right title for your name?

[Carol McCalla, Principal, Office of the Auditor General]

Yes, it is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

You'll have to explain to me what that means.

Without further ado, I'll turn it over to the Auditor General for his opening comments, and then we'll go to questions and answers.

The floor is yours.

[Michael Ferguson, Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our report on consular services to Canadians abroad.

Joining me at the table is Carol McCalla, who was responsible for the audit.

This audit examined how Global Affairs Canada responded to requests for consular assistance from Canadians travelling or living abroad.

Canadians requested things like help during an international crisis such as a natural disaster, new travel documents to replace lost or stolen passports, or assistance because they had been arrested or detained abroad.

We found that Global Affairs Canada was able to deploy staff quickly to help Canadians during a crisis in a foreign country, and that it updated its online travel advisories as crises evolved. We also found that the department was able to issue urgent travel documents quickly, through its missions abroad.

However, we found that in about two-thirds of the cases we examined involving a Canadian arrested or detained abroad, consular officers hadn't contacted the detained Canadian within 24 hours of being notified, as required by the department. Consular officers were able to contact most of these individuals within a month, but some were never contacted. When a consular officer did contact a Canadian arrested or detained abroad, it was usually by email or telephone, and not in person. In-person contact is important for assessing the well-being of individuals and determining how much help they need. Significantly, we found that Global Affairs Canada took too long to assess allegations of the possible mistreatment or torture of Canadians detained abroad.

In 2004, Justice Dennis O'Connor investigated the actions of Canadian officials in relation to the arrest and detention of Maher Arar. In his report, Justice O'Connor recommended that Global Affairs Canada train its staff to identify signs of torture and mistreatment and to inform the minister quickly of those cases.

We found that, more than a decade later, Global Affairs Canada's approach to cases of arrest and detention was still not sufficient. The department provided its consular officers with only general training on how to conduct prison visits and how to identify signs that torture or mistreatment had occurred. Also, we found that in one case, the department took seven months to inform the minister about the likely torture of a detained Canadian.

These gaps are critical for Canadians in distress. Global Affairs Canada must ensure that its consular officers are properly prepared and supported to help Canadians arrested or detained abroad.

When we looked at the level of service provided by missions abroad, we found inconsistent performance. For example, four of the 10 highest-volume missions didn't meet their performance targets for the timely delivery of regular passports. Also, Global Affairs Canada didn't allocate its resources according to expected workloads at its missions to ensure an effective and consistent level of service. Finally, we found that Global Affairs Canada didn't track the performance of most of its consular services because of poor data quality. This lack of tracking made it difficult for the department to know whether it was deploying its staff in a way that best delivered the services the government had promised to Canadians travelling or living abroad.

We made seven recommendations, and Global Affairs Canada agreed with all of them.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Ferguson.

Go ahead, Mr. Aboultaif, please.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you very much.

Thanks for coming today to appear before the committee.

I have a report here from the Auditor General showing that general assistance was about 34,000 cases, and citizenship applications were 24,577. Usually we look at the majority of the cases versus the ones that cause the most headaches. If we were to address the ones that are causing us...to give more attention to consular services, and more resources, if that can be the correct term, how do you suggest we handle that to make sure, as I said, that the cases that give us the most headaches, which are very minimal in number, are addressed properly without having bad consequences?

[Michael Ferguson]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think there are a few aspects to that. Number one, as we said, is understanding the volume of transactions at each mission, and then having a way of making sure that the resources available are assigned to deal with those. Some of the cases that cause the most problems, of course, are the cases of people arrested or detained abroad. Again, I think what we found here was that the staff of the Canadian missions received general training about how to deal with those people, but they didn't deal with all of the details. They didn't get training on all of the details of how they should conduct prison visits and how they should be able to identify signs of torture or mistreatment.

There was another thing in terms of general services that we mentioned in the report. I can't remember the exact number, but there were over 50 different types of services that Global Affairs Canada offers to people from the missions, but they were only tracking their performance on, I think, three or four of them, which is not very many. Unless they know whether they are meeting the service standards in all of the things they say they offer to Canadians, they don't know the best way to allocate those resources.

I think it's very much about understanding the services, where there's a shortfall, where they need to do better, and matching that up with the resources they have.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

We know that the world around us is changing almost on a weekly basis as a result of a lot of new circumstances occurring. Our relations with the outside world are always changing, and I think that really puts our citizens, when they travel abroad, in a very difficult position, and it puts our government and also our system in a difficult position. Do you think we need to give a new, fresh look to how we handle all these operations in order to prevent any future problems that could arise at a time when the world is changing very quickly around us?

[Michael Ferguson]

I think it's very important for Global Affairs to understand the demand on their services. What services are being demanded? Where are those services being demanded, and how can they can meet them? I think one of the things that we also indicate in the report is that the move from the five-year passport to the 10-year passport will cause, at least over a period of time, a decrease in the revenue being collected. That may indicate that there will be a significant difference between the revenue collected that is supposed to go towards consular services and the cost of providing those consular services.

I think it's very much, again, back to the department to really understand what level of service they are saying they are going to offer. How are they doing on that now? Where they aren't providing those services to the level that they said they should be providing them, can they then reallocate resources? If they can't reallocate resources, then how do they bridge that gap between the services they said they will offer and the resources they have available to offer them?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

Please go ahead, Ms. Laverdière.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your presentation today, Mr. Ferguson.

I am especially concerned about Canadians who are arrested or detained abroad. There seem to be a number of problems in this regard. First, in two thirds of cases, these individuals are not contacted within 24 hours. They are often contacted by email only, and not in person. I think it would be very difficult to assess potential torture or mistreatment, for example, without meeting the individual in person. This relates to the lack of ongoing training of foreign service officers.

What is the problem? I consider this a fairly serious matter. I am amazed that Global Affairs Canada does not provide that training and does not address prison visits. What is the problem?

Could you go back to your recommendations in this regard please?

[Michael Ferguson]

First, you gave a good overview of the problem. There are indeed problems with initial contact, that is, the way detained persons are contacted, and as to the training of officers in the department.

We made some recommendations.

In paragraph 52, we made the following recommendation:

Global Affairs Canada should strengthen its quality control process to ensure its consular officers contact and offer to help Canadians who have been arrested or detained, with a focus on those who may be at greater risk because of who or where they are. As well, consular officers should receive dedicated, cyclical training on arrest and detention cases throughout their careers. Such training should include how to conduct prison visits and provide tools for detecting incidents of torture, abuse, or mistreatment.

It is really a question of complying with departmental policies and standards and providing training to officers throughout their careers.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

In cases where torture or mistreatment are detected, you said that, in one case, it had taken up to seven months to inform the minister—I don't know who the minister was at that time.

As my colleagues know, I worked at Foreign Affairs myself. As I recall, it takes an average of 47 days to inform the minister, which seems very long to me. I know a memo has to be approved, but 47 days or up to seven months is a very long time.

How can you explain this? I would be shocked if this were due to a lack of interest. Are there administrative holdups?

[Michael Ferguson]

It is hard to explain. Perhaps employees from the department could explain it better.

We did find that, in those cases, officers from the department had indeed communicated with the persons directly affected when there were signs of torture. They contacted those persons in a timely manner, but it took them a long time to assess the whole situation and then to inform the minister of it. On the whole, I do not think it is acceptable to take such a long time for the whole process. There were certainly good practices at the start of the process, but there were also gaps in the subsequent steps.

It is very important for the department to assess these situations in a timely manner and to officially inform the minister within a reasonable period of time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj is next, please.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Good afternoon, Mr. Ferguson and Ms. McCalla.

This was a very substantive audit you performed, almost a two-year-long audit, so I would like to get into some detail.

You studied our department's response during hurricanes Irma and Maria. How many Canadians were impacted, were caught in those hurricanes? I don't need an exact number, but how many thousands?

[Carol McCalla]

We didn't...we have a number of requests for assistance that they responded to—

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Would that be information you didn't look into, or is that information that isn't being tracked by the department?

We know that in every hurricane season there will be Canadians caught in those same circumstances. It's an annual season. That's why I'm trying to get my head around how many Canadians we can expect in this hurricane season, for instance, to be caught in those sorts of circumstances.

[Michael Ferguson]

We certainly didn't put that type of information in the report. I believe we did indicate that the department received, I believe, 5,000 requests for information. I'm just trying to find that—

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Perhaps we could forward that information to the committee afterwards.

[Michael Ferguson]

—and they responded very quickly to the requests they did get.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That gets me to the second question. Do we have an analysis? What was the response time for Canadians, for instance, in Puerto Rico?

[Carol McCalla]

For the 5,000 requests for assistance by telephone or email that Global Affairs received, they tracked that they responded to them within an average of two minutes. That was a very fast response time to those inquiries.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's a communicated response. What about the response in removing Canadians? Do we have standards?

We know Canadians love the Caribbean, love Florida. Do we have standards so that should there be a devastating category 4 or 5 hurricane, we are prepared to remove 2,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 Canadians, depending on the circumstances, within 48 hours if there's no potable water, if there are no emergency services, etc.? Does the department have those sorts of standards prepared and ready for those circumstances?

[Michael Ferguson]

I will start, and then Ms. McCalla can answer about standards.

In paragraph 19 of our report, we particularly indicate that during Irma and Maria, which we say damaged 16 countries and territories—and we don't have the number of Canadians affected—the Emergency Watch and Response Centre added more than 200 staff members and sustained 24-hour operations for at least eight days during each crisis.

Then we also say that during those events, Global Affairs Canada deployed expert teams to affected areas within 48 hours when needed, although I guess in terms of the Caribbean hurricane season, it actually deployed eight employees over the course of the emergencies, and they all arrived within 72 hours.

In terms of their response, they seemed to have responded both to the people getting in touch with the department and then also by putting people on the ground.

I will ask Ms. McCalla if we know of any particular standards they've set.