Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 18th, 2010

[Claudette Deschênes]

For Canadians on the ground?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes.

[Claudette Deschênes]

Of course a number of them are getting evacuated out and so on, so there's a rotation because of the situation. But that's really where DFAIT comes in, Foreign Affairs, in terms of what I'm going to call the care and nurturing of our officers overseas. That's what their main concerns are.

Our concern is about making sure that if the people coming to Canada as immigrants have health issues, we can follow them.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes, it's very difficult.

I think that's fine for me. I thank you for your answers.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Ms. Mathyssen.

Mr. Dykstra.

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

Ms. Wong has a couple of questions in whatever time is left. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Wong.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Thank you very much again for doing all the great work, either here or in Haiti.

On the record, I want you to clarify the difference between the number of applications you've processed versus the number of visas issued. If we use the number of visas issued as the divider, that's not a true picture.

You also mentioned the fact that in the beginning, the priority of the immigration department right there was to evacuate the children and the nationals who were in Haiti. So in that case those times cannot be counted as regular processing times that the ministry takes to do the processing of other applications for entry into Canada. Am I right to say that there is a difference between those two numbers?

[Claudette Deschênes]

There is a difference in terms of when we issue a document, because we've made a positive decision. There are cases that we might have dealt with where we refused to issue a document. So they would have been told no and we wouldn't be reporting on that.

Certainly our first priority was Canadian citizens and permanent residents, so we weren't actually processing. We couldn't get access to the files. We had to set up a way to at least have access to the electronic forms and so on.

So yes, cases and positive determination, or visas issued, are not necessarily equivalent. But initially we were really focused on only doing the ones that we wanted to say yes to. For the others, the paperwork wasn't following in the first few weeks for sure.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Is it fair to say that the actual work in starting processing of these applications actually could not be started until almost February? This is March. So there are six weeks in between--

[Claudette Deschênes]

Initially, we weren't running on those cases. That wasn't where our priority was. That's why I think it's clear to say that we think the first few months are not indicative of how many we will be able to do in the next few months.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

I just needed clarification.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Dykstra.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I did want to acknowledge and formally thank Mr. Coderre for his comments about the non-partisan way in which we've moved forward, and obviously for his support for all of the efforts the government has made, regardless of which side of the House it sits on. I think it's a fair point to say that we all need to be focused on whatever we can do as four political parties.

I did have one further question, and I know I don't have a lot of time here, Mr. Chairman.

I found it fascinating that one of the most specific and positive things out of this is that the applicant or sponsor has a responsibility to demonstrate that they or their family members are directly and significantly affected by the earthquake. Applicants filling in new sponsorship applications are asked to identify themselves by simply writing “Haiti” prominently on the mailing envelope.

What inspired that? That seems to be a very simple and very direct way to make sure that we turn all of these cases into a priority, as we should.

[Claudette Deschênes]

Obviously this is something that we've used in the past. Things coming into a mail room have to be sorted and that's one way of doing it. It's easy, but it's distinctive, so that's why we use it.

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

It's very clever.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, sir.

You have the final word, Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

I think the words regarding expediting would be for Haiti, for Iraq, for China, Burma, Pakistan, and India. They go back 10 or 15 years. The only thing that's new now is this operation in Ottawa.

However, what I go back to is that over the years, regardless of which government is in place, we have not learned our lessons. We have not learned that we need to have something in place should a major catastrophe happen in order to be able to deal with this. Again it was evident that we did not have something in place in order to react to the level of the disaster that was there.

In the past, we've had smaller disasters and we had some sort of a reaction. But to not be able to react to the level of disaster that we had, it only goes to show that we have not done our homework. It only goes to show that we need to get back to the drawing board. We need to make sure, should this happen tomorrow, that we are able to get our bureaucrats who are shaken out of there and be able to replace them. We need to be able to have field offices that we set up, be it under tents or something. Certainly the way we reacted—and we only got 160 people up here—is a tragedy. It's a tragedy because we had planes that were going down and they were coming back empty.

To have the relations with somebody...you can have kits on DNA--DNA done in Canada, DNA done there, in portable hospitals--and get these people up here and out of harm's way.

It's a tragedy that time after time this political football is not taken away from the minister and given to the department. Let the department go ahead and do things. I'm just wondering, why is it that we haven't got to that point? Why is it that we don't have something in place to deal with such emergencies, be it for Canadian citizens or the people we're sponsoring? Why is it that you have not taken it away from the minister, or the department does not have a plan in place in order--

[An hon. member]

A point of order.

[An hon. member]

I also have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Just give me a minute. We'll let him finish and then I'll rule him out of order.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Why is it that we have not come up with a plan?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Karygiannis, I'm going to put that question in the same category as I did for Madam Thi Lac and Mr. Dykstra. I think it's a political question and I think it's unfair to ask these witnesses that question.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Chair, I didn't say “the minister”. I'm asking why the department has not come up with--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I heard your question and I'm ruling it out of order.