Evidence of meeting #19 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
In your opinion, is that directly related to the absence of new appointees on the board and to the number of vacancies?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Yes, because our productivity has not changed.
There are two boards on which backlogs are developing. There's the appeal side, where we're now at 9,000 and will possibly be at 11,000. Anything can happen.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
The refugee side numbers were the first numbers I gave you, and on the appeal side I'm giving you the....
Conservative
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Mr. Fleury, once again, from what you've indicated, it's good to know that reappointments and appointments actually have been made—twenty out of sixty positions, or about a third, in my estimation.
Given the fact that we want to be sure we get it right this time in terms of selecting the best people available for the job, you do want to take some time in the appointments to make sure you have the right people, that they've gone through the process, and that due diligence is in fact taking place. Wouldn't that be a fact?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Yes. I do invest in the selection process, and a lot of people invest in it with me.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
The other thing you have to realize is that when there's a transition in governments, there's another issue on top of that. I can think of when the Martin–Chrétien transition took place. I would take it there was some extra time required for appointments.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I reported the last time that every time there's a transition of government—or transitions—the appointment process is affected.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Having said that and having regard for the fact that we have a new process in place that screens out people and goes through certain qualifications and so on, can there be something done that would make your process quicker, faster than what you now have to even produce the names for the minister for appointments? How long does the process take from start to finish?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
It was longer because it was a continuous process as opposed to a campaign. When we do a campaign like we did recently, we will be able to provide names to the minister as soon as we can get them, but it will take about four months.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
It takes about four months from start to finish for this process.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Executive search firms will take that, and executive staffing in the federal government is six months.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
So four to six months is the process itself, without anything happening in terms of the appointment.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
No, I don't want to mislead. We won't wait until the 300 have been interviewed. We will give the government people as we progress and as I qualify them.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
But to get the widest possible pool and the greatest competency of people, it takes a process of four to six months.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Okay, four months. Is there any way you can improve on that? In terms of when the applications come in, can you do something practical that would get that process into a narrower window of, say, thirty days or sixty days?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
If you want selection, you can have it in one day. I'm not being facetious when I say this. What I'm saying is, could you improve on what we're doing? It's subject to evaluation. We said we would evaluate it. The government said, and I agree, that we would evaluate after two years. I didn't proceed with the evaluation because I thought, when it was declared there would be a commission on merit, that group could do the evaluation far better than I could.
Can you improve it? If you want to put people in full-time and double your costs, you can improve.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Having said that, the people you have involved in the process, particularly on the advisory panel that does a lot of the screening...we had talked about their qualifications and who they are. Perhaps you can give us the background of their occupations and so on.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I'm going from memory without naming names, but it's all on the website. There is a university professor in Edmonton who teaches public law and was a former member; a former assistant deputy minister of immigration who has a long-standing high reputation; the former president of the Canadian Council for Refugees; Mr. Ron Ellis, who was a chair of a tribunal in Ontario, now known as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Ontario--he has a doctorate, is a specialist on tribunals, and has run a tribunal; and Beverly Nann, former president of the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society.
I've tried as much as possible to have people of different backgrounds. The person who presides, and was elected from among themselves, is a former assistant deputy minister of human resources and has worked in human resources in the private sector.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
You've got quality people in position to do the screening. Having said that, and as we mentioned before, in all the good work you can do there still will be bad apples who will do bad things that you need to deal with through the disciplinary channel.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I must say there is a service to the public.
