Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 11th, 2010

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

The Citizenship Commission has a pre-selection process. All candidates whom we nominated were approved as the result of a test, interviews, and so on. These individuals were recognized as qualified to carry out those duties. The vast majority of individuals appointed as citizenship judges, to my knowledge, have no ties to a political party. Even Conservatives, if they are qualified, are not barred from being appointed to such a position.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Why only Conservatives?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Under the new IRB pre-selection process, 90% of applicants for an IRB position are rejected and are not referred to me by the selection committee. This means that only 10% of the applicants are referred to me. Since becoming minister, I have recommended to Cabinet the appointment or the renewal of 70 IRB members.

According to the opposition's research, I know that 4 or 5 of these 90 IRB members had ties to my political party. This means that over 90% of IRB appointments had no ties to my party.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You know what? I'm going to let Mr. Calandra ask a question. We've given you.... We're stretched for time.

Mr. Calandra or Ms. Grewal. There is not very much time.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for your time and your presentation. As you know, my time is limited, but I'll ask you very short questions.

First, what has the government done to improve economic outcomes for immigrants? Next, what are we doing to promote integration?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you.

As I mentioned in response to Mr. Bevilacqua, really my focus and our preoccupation is better outcomes and faster economic integration so that immigration works better for newcomers and for Canada. That is why, after years of stagnation in terms of federal investments in settlement services, our government has more than tripled the federal investment in settlement services, free language classes, and the like.

Ms. Grewal, you're from British Columbia. I'm pleased to say I've met with Dr. Stilwell, my provincial counterpart there. We're working on improving, for example, the services delivered through our devolution agreement with B.C. for settlement services.

Also, I think the changes we've made in immigrant selection for federal skilled workers under the ministerial categories and the action plan for faster immigration will help to better align the skills of newcomers with the jobs that are available in Canada. I should also mention that today we're announcing consultations on those ministerial instructions to make sure they're working for newcomers and for Canada.

I want to reiterate--I say this every time I'm here--that I think one study this committee could do to really substantively help newcomers would be a review of what works and what doesn't in settlement funding. Why is it that only one-quarter of new permanent residents are enrolling in our free language classes? What could we be doing better? We're constantly trying to do that self-assessment internally to determine what kinds of programs work better.

I want to flag another issue for the committee. Mr. Bevilacqua mentioned COIA--that's the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement--through which we agree to fund settlement services in Ontario. I should mention that we're funding far more than the province is even though immigration is a shared jurisdiction.

I also want to say, Mr. Chairman--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Be quick.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

--that the committee could look at the issue of devolution. Should the federal government or the provinces be doing settlement work? That's an issue on which we need your advice as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

I'm afraid that's it, Ms. Grewal.

I'm going to ask whether votes 1c and 5c carry.

CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Vote 1c--Operating expenditures..........$4,766,440

Vote 5c--The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$1

(Votes 1c and 5c agreed to)

Mr. Minister and your colleagues, thank you very much for spending this time with us today.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We look forward to the next time. Thank you very much.

This meeting is adjourned.