Evidence of meeting #19 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
Yes. The focus is very important as part of the governance, and the things you've identified I would say are the core mandate. But when I looked on the website yesterday before I came, there were no suspended members. I don't understand that. We have so much fraud and incompetence that we know about from working in the industry.
Where is the focus? What we see is that there is enormous focus on education and a new organization.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
There's no question, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, that if there's misrepresentation or an attempted misrepresentation of fraud, those can be charged separately. Would you agree with that?
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
So there's an issue of how you might best proceed within the organization to achieve what we're talking about, and maybe there need to be some fixes made to make it work better, but fundamentally would you agree that a vehicle like it is necessary?
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
Yes. I'm not challenging the basic vehicle.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Komarnicki.
Mr. Carrier, did I already go to you for a question?
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you.
Good day to you. Of course, this raises a number of questions, and this is the objective of our tour, to understand the problems in immigration, especially regarding temporary workers.
The mandate of the Canadian immigration consultants society, the functioning of which you are denouncing.... Do immigration consultants necessarily have to be members of the society?
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
[Inaudible--Editor]...the public for advice and who are not lawyers have to be members of CSIC. That's the general answer.
Bloc
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
So it would be illegal for someone who isn't a lawyer to provide immigration services.
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
The act actually says that a person shall not consult with, advise, or represent a person who has an application before the minister or the board, so that's a different stage. It would be possible to have an office where you simply gave advice to the public and did not deal with the department. That is not captured by IRPA. I've always maintained that this should be captured by legal profession legislation that says that no person in the province can give advice to the public for a fee unless they're a member of a law society. So I think that would, in theory, be able to be captured by legal profession legislation.
Bloc
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
In your understanding, for someone who wants to become a member of the society, is it the society that establishes membership criteria if bylaws have already been voted on?
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
[Inaudible--Editor]...unilaterally by the board.
Bloc
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
[Inaudible--Editor]...acceptable to the immigration department of the day, because they were overseeing operations for three years. But it's very interesting--the denial of the special meeting provision, for example. We've had various discussions with Industry Canada about that, and the fact is that Industry Canada has a policy. They want to see that special meeting right in the bylaws of non-profits, and that is in the public interest.
In this case, when we went to them and said, “It's not in our bylaws; it's in your template, but they took it out of our bylaws”, all they could say was, “Well, it's a done deal now. That's registered.” Yes, it is registered, so we're stuck with these bylaws. We have to bring motions to amend them that require a two-thirds vote at the annual general meeting, but we haven't been able to do that. We put forward a motion last time, signed by numerous members, to bring back the right to requisition a special meeting, but the board would not put that on the agenda.
Bloc
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
When you addressed the minister you said it was her responsibility to put some order into that society. I would like to ask the persons responsible on the committee to provide us with the document that authorized the creation of the society. It would be interesting to read it.
Conservative
Bloc
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
I just have a brief question. I would like to know if the society has to submit an annual report to the immigration minister.
Immigration Consultant, As an Individual
[Inaudible--Editor]...has now been changed after the first three years. I don't know that they have to submit that annual report, but for three years, during the startup period, the department had a designated person. In fact, that person was on the board for the first couple of years. There was a relationship so that the department could get the organization started, but that's over now. I assume they give an annual report. I think there's an annual report on our website. They do an annual report.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
This is to the parliamentary secretary. Is there a monthly report that has to go to the minister on this?