I thank my colleague for those questions, Mr. Chairman.
I agree with him. I think there is some degree of urgency to this. As the Prime Minister indicated when he was in Mexico in the summer, when we had to impose these visas, our foreign partners in Mexico and the Czech Republic, and more broadly in the European Union, said to us that we have created a pull factor, as we call it in immigration policy, in Canada. It is the pull factor of an asylum system that is too easily abused. When people know they can come here and get a work permit to find good jobs and/or social benefits, and that it could take years to remove them if ever they're found to have filed false claims, it incents abuse of the system. That's why the Prime Minister said that this is a real problem and that we have to deal with it and do so promptly.
I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, that I'm working very diligently with my officials and cabinet colleagues on this, and I hope that we can, as I indicated, come forward with a very robust package. I'm not going to put a timeline on it, but I'm certainly working at light speed in this regard.
Mr. Chairman, under the current system, it's taking over 18 months for a claimant to get a hearing at the IRB--18 months. Now, if that claimant gets a hearing at the IRB and is found not to be a refugee claimant--the person, for whatever reason, doesn't meet the definition of an asylum claimant--he or she can then seek leave to appeal to the Federal Court. That takes several months. If leave to appeal is not granted, or if it's granted and then denied--if the application for a judicial review is denied--the person would then typically make an application for a pre-removal risk assessment. That takes several months to process. If that's then denied, often the person will then seek leave to appeal to the Federal Court on the negative PRRA decision. That takes several months. If the court refuses to grant leave to appeal or denies a judicial review of the application, then typically someone will make an application for permanent residency in Canada for humanitarian and compassionate reasons, including an assessment of risk, which is, in a certain sense, a second refugee claim. It's a second assessment of the risk they would face if returned. That now is taking.... How long is it at H and C? It's taking 18 months at H and C. If people get a negative H and C decision, they can then seek leave to appeal to the Federal Court, which is several more months. If that is rejected, it just continues.
That track alone--those three, or actually six, decision points, three in the system and three at the Federal Court--takes about three and a half to six years, in range, to process before people can be removed. Then, once they get into the removal queue, we often have very serious problems getting travel documents from various countries from which these people have come to Canada. Consequently, very frequently we end up with false claimants who are able to stay in Canada for four, five, or six years, by which time they are very frequently in a position to demonstrate that they're so integrated into Canada that we make a positive humanitarian and compassionate decision on their application for permanent residency.
This is a broken system, and it needs to be streamlined. Quite frankly, if we now add the RAD into that current system, we're adding another--how much do we estimate?--four or five months to the process. There are already ample opportunities for reviews of a case. No one, in principle, is returned to a country where they face risk, because of the PRRA. They get a risk assessment at the H and C. They get all these points of access to the Federal Court. That's why the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says we have one of the most robust asylum systems in the world.
To add yet more time to that sort of four-year, on average, time span, in my judgment, doesn't do any benefit to the system. That's why we need to streamline the system, make it move faster, get faster first instance decisions so we give protection to real refugee claimants much more quickly, and, I would hope.... I cannot give you a commitment because I'm not in a position to make a presentation to Parliament, but I would hope that a reformed system would include a proper appeal process on the merits of the case at the IRB.