Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 10th, 2008

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

I take it that the 75%.... Actually, it's 85%. You have failed refugee claimants, and then you have the other 11%, so I take it that 86% of the folks are not criminals as such. That's not why they're being removed. So many of those would be undocumented workers, would they not?

[Susan Kramer]

The bulk of the removals, the 75%, are failed refugee claimants.

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

Right. You're familiar with the undocumented worker story that we have in the country. So what I'm saying is that many of the failed refugee claimants and other violations could also fall into the undocumented worker category.

[Susan Kramer]

The remaining 11% would be removed for other inadmissibilities, so it could be that they're working illegally.

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

Yes, but that could apply to the failed claimants as well, because when you have failed refugee claimants, they could be out working, so they're part of the....

[Susan Kramer]

That's true, but they're written up mostly as failed refugee claimants. They're inadmissible because they're immigrants without a visa. They've come to live, and they have not applied for prior permission.

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

I'm trying to underline the point that we have in that category undocumented workers. We're going to be studying undocumented workers, so I'm trying to get some numbers on that.

I'm having a bit of a problem, Mr. Stewart. The process to get approval in principle takes what, six months?

[Rick Stewart]

The process for approval in principle of this class, in general, takes five to six months.

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

It is five to six months.

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, would Mr. Stewart be referring to spousal applications that are sent to Vegreville?

[Rick Stewart]

They are inland spousal and common-law applications, yes.

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

That's six months.

[Rick Stewart]

It is five to six months for the process.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You're cutting into Mr. Telegdi's time.

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

You'll get your round.

We're talking about six months. What's the longest time? Let's get to the 25% that take the longest. What would that be?

[Rick Stewart]

I'm not in a position to comment on what the longest time is, because as you can appreciate, each application has to be assessed on its own merits. So it's a question of--

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

I appreciate that, but if you're dealing with 100 cases, and the average is six months, it means that some of them will be done in three months and some will be done in nine months. Surely if you're dealing with these numbers, you should have some numbers for us, and if you don't have them today, I would like to get them at your earliest convenience.

[Rick Stewart]

We'll follow up with that number for you.

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

This whole thing is a function of the capacity to deal with applications in a timely fashion. I don't understand why we would have Canada Border Services.... You have to go on the assumption that somebody makes an application that's legitimate. If it's not legitimate, you can deal with it very quickly. But one would make the assumption that most of them are legitimate, I understand. Are they not?

[Rick Stewart]

That is my understanding, yes.

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

What percentage would be legitimate?

[Rick Stewart]

The approval rate for the spousal and in-Canada applications is about 90%.

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

Ninety percent.

[Rick Stewart]

It varies a little bit from year to year, but it's about a 90% approval rate.

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

How many of those 90% who get approved are shipped out of the country?