Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 9th, 2010

[John Butt]

Any representation that the member of Parliament wants to make will have to be made through the person or through the person's counsel. Today, I understand that members of Parliament will be in touch with the PRRA office, but they do not speak directly with the individual decision-makers on cases. So certainly any information that a member of Parliament has can be put before the decision-maker, but it will be done in accordance with the rules of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

So we'll have a capacity to do that?

[John Butt]

There won't be anything specific in the legislation with respect to that, but certainly any information that's pertinent to the decision to be made can be put before the decision-maker. However, it has to be done in a way that does not unduly influence the quasi-judicial nature of the member's decision.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Okay. Representation means also that we'll have kind of a receipt.

We'll have an acknowledgement of receipt. That means that we don't give information. We'll have assurances that the information has been transmitted, won't we?

[John Butt]

I think for that level of detail you'd have to ask the Immigration and Refugee Board about how their procedures will work. There will be rules governing the applications for protection, the pre-removal risk assessment applications.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

So that will be under regulations.

[John Butt]

There will be rules governing the procedures in more detail, and I'm sure you can raise questions with the board about how those issues can be resolved in the rules of the board.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Thanks.

(Amendment agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

(Clauses 28 to 32 inclusive agreed to)

(On clause 33)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We have some amendments here for clause 33 and clause 34.

Ms. Chow.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

NDP-14 is no longer relevant because of the timeline. We dealt with the timeline earlier.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Yes.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

The timeline is going to be presented, whether 60 days or 120 days, actually 60 days or 90 days. That's going to come forward in regulations. So I don't need to move NDP-14.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

And NDP-15?

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

So clause 33, I assume, is okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I was going to try to go through them all, but if you can tell me about—

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

I will do NDP-15 also, which is clause 34.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're going to move that, Ms. Chow?

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

No, I will move clause 33 as is, not the amendment.

(Clause 33 agreed to)

(On clause 34)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Clause 34, NDP-15. Ms. Chow.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

This is the interview, which we dealt with earlier on, so no need to deal with this one.

(Clauses 34 and 35 agreed to)

(On clause 36)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We're on clause 36 and we have government amendment G-9.

Mr. Dykstra.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

So moved. It's just a technical change.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay.

(Amendment agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

(Clause 36 as amended agreed to)

Shall clause 37 carry?

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

No, there's G-10.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I'm sorry, Ms. Chow, we keep throwing you off on these.

That's going to be a new clause; it's going to be clause 37.1.