Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 7th, 2006

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

My focus needs to be on finding a pathway for people who are here as temporary workers, who are contributing, to get here legally and stay here. And I think that's probably a view, I would guess, that members on all sides might support. We can deal with that other issue later, but my own view is that this would go some distance to tackling a lot of the concerns of people in all sectors around the country and would ensure that we can, in a way, have our cake and eat it too. We can have people who have those skills come to the country and can also ensure that they stay here legally and are a part of the legal migration to this country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

May I interrupt the committee proceedings and get some direction from our committee?

There seems to be some desire to go on until eleven o'clock for questioning. I indicated beforehand that we would dismiss the minister at 10:45 and deal with the estimates and the votes on the estimates, but I'm in your hands on that.

Mr. Komarnicki.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

If there were some extension, I think that's fine, but the estimates were planned to be dealt with and voted on today, and we should allow for that to happen. Even if we do it a little tighter to eleven o'clock, I still think we should deal with this today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We do have a committee coming in here at eleven, so we have to be out of here at eleven.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I would suggest we break at least five minutes to, or thereabouts, to make that happen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay.

Mr. Karygiannis, Mr. Jaffer, and Mr. Telegdi, we'll be into eleven o'clock before....

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'm sure, Mr. Chairman, if you ask for unanimous consent.... Certainly the minister will agree that he should take a few more rounds of questions. There is a need to hear the answers the minister has to provide.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Jaffer.

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I don't disagree with Mr. Karygiannis, but I think the minister has been quite thorough about the estimates. This is where we're supposed to deal with it. It's usually traditional that once the minister makes his presentation, the committee deals with the estimates. That's my experience over the years I've been here. I think we should allow for time to deal with the estimates today. Some of the issues the minister has talked about are very important, and this money needs to start flowing, so I encourage all members to end the questioning now so we can deal with these estimates.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. Telegdi, and then we will....

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Chairman, we can do this quickly enough on Thursday morning--deal with the estimates. We have the minister, and we're not going to get him back for a while, so I propose that we vote on extending the time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Is it the wish of the committee to keep questioning until eleven o'clock?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I think I interrupted Madame Faille when she probably had a minute and a half left.

Do you wish to continue for a minute and a half on your questioning, Madame Faille, or will I move...?

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Yes, I have a question. I had one more to ask, and I was sorry that I did not have the time for it.

All of the ministers who appeared before us talked about the backlog in processing citizenship applications, particularly with respect to the citizenship document.

In July, we were told that there were more than 44,000 citizenship applicants waiting for their tests; that there were between 31,000 and 32,000 people waiting for citizenship to be granted; and that it took about 13 months for the whole process to be finalized.

Can you give us an update on that?

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

I'm looking for my notes here. As I recall, the number is actually going down, and we're starting to make some headway on that. Right now it's 12 months per grant of citizenship, and three and a half months for a proof. In 2005-06 the processing time was 15 to 18 months, and the proof processing time was seven months. It's gone from 15 months to 18 months down to 12 months for grant, and for proof from seven months down to three and a half months. So we're making some headway.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

How many cases?

The number of cases?

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Oh, sorry, I don't have that, but we can get that for you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you.

Mr. Siksay.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Minister, can you explain to us why you decided to appeal the Joe Taylor decision?

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

It's very difficult when it's before the courts. Obviously we felt that there were implications from this that would affect the government in ways that would be difficult, and it's hard to go beyond that.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Okay.

Earlier I was asking questions about the User Fees Act, and I have a number of questions about the Financial Administration Act. Am I correct in assuming that CIC has to report to Treasury Board every year its full unit costings for immigration services where there's a user fee charged?

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

I'm going to defer to Wayne on this, if I may.

[Wayne Ganim]

We're basically required by Treasury Board policy to ensure that our user fees do not exceed basically the cost of the service. We have provided every year within our department a performance report, a report that's required by Treasury Board on user fees and the costs related to those user fees. It's provided in the DPR, the departmental performance report.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Is that what is required by Treasury Board, that the report is forwarded to Treasury Board as well?