Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 29th, 2006

Evidence of meeting #7 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 safe.

On the agenda

Overview of the Immigration Refugee Board of Canada

Overview of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jean-Guy Fleury Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Marilyn Stuart-Major Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Jahanshah Assadi Representative in Canada, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

I'm also new to this committee, so I'm trying to learn your process. I have a couple of questions about the member selection process. I appreciate the fact that interested individuals make an application, and there's a preliminary screening and a test. I'm curious about what percentage of people who make those applications get screened out. Is a ballpark figure half of them or...?

4:15 p.m.

Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Jean-Guy Fleury

I'll give you numbers generally, because I don't have them in front of me. Under the new regime we've instituted, we received roughly 250 applications. Keep in mind that I usually have 20 vacancies a year, but it can go to 40--in some years people reach the 10 years--so I go back to the selection process.

The selection process starts with the individual's completion of an application form. It is quite complete. They must meet the basic requirement, which is university graduation and five years of related work. That's the basic; then they write a test. The test is corrected by specialists I have in the group. They also give us information with respect to community work they do.

The panel of Canadians that I referred to--do you have the graph?

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

Yes.

4:15 p.m.

Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Jean-Guy Fleury

There's the preliminary screening right now, then the advisory panel is number three. They meet, and they've elected themselves a chair. I'm there as an observer in the sense that I don't speak unless I feel that one candidate or the other could be given consideration, in the sense that I may want to interview them. This panel looks at everyone, and at each one's test results, background, and so on. And they refer to me a number of candidates who I can interview and with whom I can continue the process.

Do you feel I'm taking too long, Mr. Chair?

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle

No.

4:15 p.m.

Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Jean-Guy Fleury

We wanted to make sure we knew what we were looking for in a good decision-maker. So we sat down with an outside consultant and decision-makers and we identified the competencies necessary to be a good decision-maker. It's very clear there are nine competencies, and then you have the right tools to evaluate.

At the test, the conceptual thinking analysis and communication are ranked. In other words, we pass a judgment as a result of the test.

If they go to interview, I interview with my managers for the other five of the nine competencies. It's highly structured and done on comportments.

So to answer your question with rough numbers, about 70% didn't go further than the test; that's 70 out of 200 candidates. Out of the interviews, I would say approximately another 30% would have been dropped. I could stand corrected, if the numbers were in front of you. I'm going from memory, but I'm pretty close because I'm directly involved in the process.