Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 17th, 2006

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

How are those decisions made? Are they reviewed regularly? I think eight countries are on that list at present.

[Claudette Deschênes]

That's right.

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

Is that reviewed regularly? How would a country be added? How often is that process considered?

[Claudette Deschênes]

Technically, I think we have a commitment to review them every two years.

One way new countries could be put on the list or be reviewed is based on our own intelligence telling us there is a problem here, and we should be working on it. We depend a lot on Citizenship and Immigration officers overseas to say there's a problem with sending people to this place or that place. NGOs can also make a request for us to look at it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You'll have to wait for the next round, Bill.

Mr. Komarnicki.

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

I have a couple of quick questions.

In respect to the study of permanent applications and the recently announced initiative relating to off-campus employment of foreign students, do you see that as causing any particular spikes in concerns or increases in applications?

[Daniel Jean]

We're starting the implementation, so we've not yet seen....

We're certainly prepared for that. We have funding. We have an operational plan. As we are signing the agreement with the provinces and start implementing, we're probably going to see increased activity. We think that potentially 100,000 people may be able to benefit from that, but right now it's been smooth sailing.

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

In relation to refugee claims, you say there is no correlation between the countries from which the claims are actually made to what you would perceive as actual potential refugee claims that could be made. Do I understand you correctly on that assessment?

[Daniel Jean]

I would qualify that it's not “no” correlation, but limited correlation. You have countries where people are making claims in the refugee system but which may not be the countries that necessarily expect claims for protections, versus other countries where it is just easier for some people to have access to Canada rather than going to other countries.

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

When you look at it retroactively, is there a way of looking at it in advance so that when they come to the port of entry or make the application, you would have an objective standard to say in those cases they would not qualify and thereby increase the number of disqualifications and not have to deal with them through the whole system? Has that been a consideration at all?

[Daniel Jean]

No, because once they reach Canada, they are entitled to argue their case that they need protection. In some of the measures that have been looked at, when we think there is flagrant abuse of our system, we might try to streamline those cases and deal with them more rapidly. That's what we did after the boat arrivals in 1999, for example. That's what we've done, to some extent, with claims coming from Costa Rica in recent years, before we imposed the visa. We made targeted efforts to try to get those cases through the system faster and to remove them faster, hoping that it was going to be a deterrent or a signal to people in Costa Rica that the likelihood of their being successful would be very low, and hoping that we wouldn't have to impose the visa. In the end, we had no other recourse.

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

I notice from the inventory of about 800,000 we keep talking about, if the quotas given to the department are not increased and if we continue at the same pace, in my estimation that's roughly a four-year backlog to clean up, if you don't have any additional applications. Would you agree with me on that?

[Daniel Jean]

As I've described before, the situation is more serious in two particular categories, that of parents and grandparents, and skilled workers. So this is actually not linear. And there's also another element of complexity, as the inventory is also not linear in our locations. So right now, for example, we have tremendous growth in India. In the last years, we've been getting tremendous growth in the volume of applications for permanent residence from India, while our inventory in China is decreasing.

So it's dangerous if you make an assumption that it's linear and think that since we have 800,000 and are bringing in 200,000 a year it will take four years, because in some categories or some locations it may take a bit longer than that.

What we tried to do, for example, with parents and grandparents last year was to assign most of the incremental targets to the locations where the inventory was older in order to bring them all into the same timeframe.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you.

Nina, please.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a very short question. Yesterday I met with a group of people trying to streamline the system for seasonal temporary workers. In the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, construction sites and farmers find themselves struggling to operate because of labour shortages in their respective trades. Has the department discussed criteria that can be connected with HRDC to make it easier for temporary workers to be brought in?

[Daniel Jean]

For labour market assessment needs, as you've pointed out, the lead is really with the human resources and skills development department. We currently have programs for seasonal workers; we bring in about 10,000 people, primarily from Mexico and some Caribbean and Central American countries, who come to work in the seasonal industry.

It's been extended to a couple of sectors as a guest worker program, but not to a large extent. For example, in the service industry and the hospitality industry, we hope that some of the measures we've taken for off-campus students, for example, are going to help relieve some of the pressure there. And on some of the more skilled labour market needs, we're trying to work with HRSD to try to see how we can make our system more responsive. So if I take a practical example, the oilsands in Alberta, we've signed a tripartite agreement between HRSD, CIC, and the Province of Alberta, where we're trying to help the industry or large employers in Fort McMurray to bring in about 11,000 workers over a year in a streamlined way.

So we are taking some small steps, but HRSD has a major role to play there and we need to work very closely with them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Maybe we'll go to our five-minute round now and begin with Don. He wants some time, I'm sure.

[Don Bell, Liberal, North Vancouver, BC]

Thank you. I'll try to give these to you rapid-fire. For the first question, concerning adoption of children....

I was trying to find the reference. There was a reference to a tribunal. What page is that on? Family class, dependent children....

[Daniel Jean]

Are you referring to the amendment to the Citizenship Act that we want to do?

[Don Bell, Liberal, North Vancouver, BC]

Yes.

[Daniel Jean]

I don't think we're covering that in there, but I can try to answer your question.

[Don Bell, Liberal, North Vancouver, BC]

I made a note somewhere. You were talking about some reference to tribunals, and I didn't know what the tribunals meant. Maybe I'll skip that and come to it later, then, because I saw it and I don't know where it was.

What page was the one on children? Here we go. It's page 4, under citizenship, in the third paragraph.

You say here: “In order to respond to tribunal decisions, children adopted by Canadian citizens...”. What tribunal decisions are these?

[Daniel Jean]

It was the Human Rights Commission.

[Don Bell, Liberal, North Vancouver, BC]

I see. Of the eight countries you have, is Iran one of those countries right now?

[Daniel Jean]

Are you talking about suspension of removals? You asked about Iran?