Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 18th, 2010

[Nigel Thomson]

If I might say, Monsieur St-Cyr, the Government of Quebec is the regulator of immigration consultants in Quebec. CSIC is taking on the role, if you like, of an administrative arm on behalf of the Government of Quebec in terms of registration, testing, and imposition of language standards. Quebec has accepted CSIC's French-language standard and will use it. We are simply the administrative or the registration arm, if you like. Quebec still retains the control.

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

So, you have not held any discussions with the Government of Quebec about taking on the additional requirements set out by that government? You have not discussed this?

[Patrice Brunet]

I can't say that I have participated in all the discussions with the Government of Quebec. I would be glad to get back to this issue later on, if you like.

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

Yes, I would appreciate that.

Complaints were voiced in the past by some consultants who claimed that it was difficult to get services in French when dealing with the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. Among others, tests and their frequency seemed to be problematic.

Have you taken any measures to remedy this?

[Patrice Brunet]

As a member of the French community sitting on the board of directors, I have always taken language-related issues to heart, especially when the society was first established. Whenever documents were translated, I made a point of ensuring that they were not just translated, but translated with the user in mind. The society has come a long way, and I would consider myself satisfied at this point—at least when it comes to most of what's being done. Most of the staff in Toronto are bilingual and can express themselves well in both languages.

The complaints you brought up are probably older, as I have not heard of any recently.

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

That's what I want to know. As things stand today, if someone wants to write a test in French in Montreal, will they be able to do so within the same timeframe as someone writing a test in English in Toronto?

[Patrice Brunet]

Certainly. I have not heard any recent complaints regarding this.

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

As for the organization's mandate, before the break, when the hearings began, we held a discussion about whether CSIC's primary mandate was the protection of the public or the protection of the system's integrity. Competence is an issue here. What's your current take on this?

What mandate will be set out for the organization under Bill C-35?

[Nigel Thomson]

That's an excellent question.

Part of the mandate given by government to CSIC at its creation was the protection of the consumer, the protection of the public, not the protection of the integrity of the immigration system, which is the responsibility of the department.

Our mandate and our focus is the protection of the public through the accreditation, education, and regulation of our members. That has been our sole mandate and remains our sole mandate and focus.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Mr. Thomson.

Ms. Chow.

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

I notice from your annual report that salaries increased by 56% in one year. Is there any specific reason they went from $1.1 million to $1.7 million? Have you hired more people, or were there salary increases for your staff? The $1.7 million is fairly substantial.

[Nigel Thomson]

Ms. Chow, thank you.

Yes, indeed, we have increased our staff, because we have added significant new functions within CSIC. We've added a compliance function, which is providing audits of members, allowing us to review, before there is a complaint or disciplinary action against a member, the practices of members to ensure they're in keeping with the code of professional conduct and the bylaws of the society.

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

Thank you for that, but could I just ask the following, as we don't have a lot of time?

The transfer to the Canadian Migration Institute also jumped dramatically, from $335,000 to $1 million. Is there a specific reason for such a dramatic jump from one year to the next?

[Nigel Thomson]

There certainly is. Obviously, CMI provides services to its fellows.

If I may, I am going to defer to Mr. Qayyum to answer in regard to those services and the activities that CMI was carrying out. A considerable portion of the funds expended by CMI is for direct services to members.

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

Is there a breakdown? Is there an annual report by CMI also?

[Imran Qayyum]

Yes, there is a report to our shareholders. Absolutely.

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

Is that also public?

[Imran Qayyum]

That was part of the last financial statement. It was under “Equity”.

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

Yes, I can see that, but it doesn't have a lot of details.

Anyway, go ahead.

[Imran Qayyum]

Up until recently, CSIC has been investing in CMI. We have provided, without any additional cost to any of our fellows, services that include access to some of the most useful or powerful tools immigration consultants and practitioners can use today, including LexisNexis, Quicklaw, and QuickImmigrant. We have provided our fellows with access to a service called Lexbase, presented by a lawyer in B.C., Richard Kurland, who provides monthly publications and updates on trends in overseas and in-land visa posts.

In fact, when I appeared before the committee previously regarding those levels, I had used some of the information from Lexbase, and you and I had an interesting exchange on the final disposition and FD targets. In addition to that, we provide all of our CSIC member fellows a copy of the annotated Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

All of this requires considerable investment, which CSIC has made in CMI in getting it to where it is now.

As of this year, we are breaking away from CSIC. We are becoming self-sufficient and CSIC will no longer be investing anything in CMI. We are currently undergoing a renewal cycle whereby we will be charging our fellows fees come November 1.

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

You said there were details on this spending on CMI. I am looking at page 34 of the report. I don't see any details as to how the Canadian Migration Institute spent its $1 million. Am I missing the page? Is it somewhere else? I also went into your document, and there are no financial reports in there.

[Imran Qayyum]

The document is just today's presentation as well as the survey we did.

As far as financial information is concerned, I'm not sure which report you are looking at. Are you looking at the most recent one?

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

Yes, whatever was provided to us in the CSIC annual report. I also have your presentation from the Canadian Migration Institute. Then of course there is the chart, but there is no financial record as to how the $1 million is spent.

Would you be able to provide that for us in the future?

[Imran Qayyum]

Absolutely.

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

I note that in 2004 the federal government provided a repayable contribution of $500,000. Have you returned that to the federal government yet?