Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 17th, 2006

[Daniel Jean]

You're correct that there was a private bill, Bill S-2, adopted by Parliament last year that allowed these people to resume citizenship. According to the best information I have, we've a few hundred applications that are in process. We're making tremendous efforts on the citizenship front, shown in facts such as that last year we made 40,000 more citizenship grants to new Canadians than the year before. For this year, I was looking at our data for the first three—

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

Specifically, I just want to refer to the lost Canadians; that's a very narrow issue.

[Daniel Jean]

Okay. As we are making tremendous efforts to process these citizenship applications, these people are being processed as well.

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

In that stream?

[Daniel Jean]

In the same stream, yes.

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

Is the application something I could find readily available, say, on the website?

[Janet Siddall, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Yes, and we actually have the link on the home page of the website. There's a link right there, even making reference to lost Canadians and war brides, that takes them right to the application process, which is specifically tailored for resumption of citizenship for people in that situation. It's an application just for them.

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

Is some of that pursuant to regulation, or is it simply an application that's designed by the department? In terms of its contents, is that application something the department put together, or is it something that was mandated by regulation anywhere?

[Daniel Jean]

No. It is something that was put down by the department. We didn't need regulations, simply Bill S-2. We turned it into instructions and made the necessary forms Janet referred to once Bill S-2 was adopted.

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

More specifically, when we look at the adoption bill, we're trying to move it along fairly quickly without the necessity for essentially more than the adoption being completed; assuming some things have happened, you get your citizenship. In this case, would the lost Canadians require anything more than a birth certificate to show that they fall into that category?

[Daniel Jean]

What they will require is the evidence that they were Canadian when they were a child, because they lost their citizenship in that time zone between, I think, 1947 and 1977, when their parents took another country's citizenship when they moved somewhere else.

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

So what you're telling me is that there's no prohibition for any of those people in that category applying as we speak?

[Daniel Jean]

That's right.

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

And approval would simply be contingent upon their proving they're within those guidelines? Is the form itself a complex one, a long form or a short form? Could you give us some idea?

[Daniel Jean]

It's always dangerous when a government person says there's a simple form, right?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

If it's more than two pages, I think I would call it a long form.

[Daniel Jean]

We've tried to make it simple.

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

Is the form still under review?

[A witness]

No.

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

It's existing, okay.

[Daniel Jean]

I visited our operation in Sydney, Cape Breton, a few weeks ago, and they are processing a few dozen of these cases right now.

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

If I were to put one in process today, when might I expect to get confirmation of citizenship?

[Daniel Jean]

It's 12 months right now for citizenship processing, but we've not started to see the benefits of all the production that's going on. In the first three months of this year, we made 70,000 grants in three months; we normally do 170,000 grants a year, so we're probably going to do well over 250,000. So I think the processing times are going to start to come down, but it takes a bit of time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We'll now go to Albina Guarnieri.