Evidence of meeting #14 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was irb.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
What I'm looking for is, would you be able to tell our committee how long it took to deal with a spousal appeal in 2004?
9:45 a.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
We wouldn't have that level of detail of information. We have the average times. In 2006 it was about 10 months and it's gone up to 14 months.
9:45 a.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Well, at the time....
Sorry, let me just get the reference.
I'll read from paragraph 2.104:
The percentage of claims outstanding for more than one year increased from 21 percent to 31 percent between 31 March 2006 and 31 March 2008. During the same period, the average and median processing times went respectively from about 12 and 10 months to about 14 months for each.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Sorry. There was a 22% to 25% increase in processing times from before until now?
9:45 a.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
From 2006 to 2008. But I would expect that 2004 would have been even lower, because at that point there were over 200 board members.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Would you care to guesstimate how much lower it would have been?
9:45 a.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
I don't have that information.
I don't know if Mr. Coakeley has that information.
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I'm afraid I don't have that information with me, no.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
As we head into more uncharted territory now--you have something like 60,000 backlogged, and you can only deal with 25,000 per year--would it be safe to say that next year we could see that number double in terms of the length of time it takes? You know, if it takes 14 months now, maybe it will take 20 months, 26 months, 28 months.
What number would you consider safe to say, Mr. Coakeley?
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I couldn't project what it would be. The number will increase, there's no doubt about that. The average time depends very much on the composition of the cases that are heard, and that changes significantly from year to year.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Right now you have a backlog of, what, 45,000 to 50,000?
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
As of March 31, we have 58,000 RPD files on hand.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
If you're dealing with 25,000 per year, then I would expect that would be a two-year wait for somebody.
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
In some instances, that could be, but in other instances.... We don't actually process files on a first-in, first-out basis. For example, cases involving unaccompanied minors will be moved through the system much quicker than other cases.
The average, depending on the cases that go through in a year, could be--
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Simple math: at 25,000 cases per year, with 58,000 cases you're looking at a two-year wait. Am I correct?
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Getting close to it.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Now, is your backlog going to be able to be dealt with, or do you see the backlog increasing?
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
As I was indicating earlier, we expect to take in about 45,000 cases this year. In our report on plans and priorities, we project that we will be able to clear 21,000 cases this year.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
So you're going to have another increase of about another 24,000.
9:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Something like that.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Next year, then, we could see a three-year wait, roughly speaking.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Roughly speaking.
I'm not sure if you're in a position to do so, Ms. Fraser, but what do you recommend we do? Do we hire more IRB appointments? Do we call some people back who were there?
Is there any recommendation that you would make?
9:50 a.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Well, obviously, Chair, the situation is serious.
I don't have the exact numbers, but I believe in the late eighties or early nineties the number of claims was around 80,000 or so. In fact, at that time the government declared an amnesty. It might be worthwhile for the committee to go back and look at that history. At that point, the board was not able to cope.
I think we're fast approaching a similar situation. If we see that the number of cases coming in is double what the board can deal with in a year, not even considering the backlog--