Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 29th, 2010

[Neil Yeates]

Chair, that is exactly what we're trying to do, as has probably been referenced. What we refer to as a perfected application is in some ways the bane of our existence. As is being suggested, incomplete applications cause an enormous amount of work in the department, a ping-ponging back and forth that's not very helpful for anyone.

In terms of some of the quality control and advice to clients, some of that happens through the call centre, and so on. No doubt we could be doing more, but that's specifically on citizenship proofs, PR cards.

[Claudette Deschênes]

We'd like to move to an application where people don't apply unless they meet all the requirements--

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

The full requirements.

[Claudette Deschênes]

That's right, because we spend a lot of time resourcing--

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

When would you be able to do that? I've seen the back and forth. You don't need to describe it; it would take an hour.

[Claudette Deschênes]

We're hoping to be able to move on that process fairly quickly. We've had an analysis of where we want to go, which involves the testing and so on, and even trying to move that a little bit further ahead in the process.

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

Six months? A year? You don't know. Okay, I see you're reluctant to give me a timeline.

A few months ago our committee looked at the layoff of workers who process the citizenship files. At that time, we said there was going to be a big backlog. I notice you've now hired back some of those workers.

Without the service standards and a timeline of what you would tolerate, how do you project when you need these workers, when you'll lay them off, and when you bring them back? At that time, your workers were telling you the backlog is going to get worse, the wait is going to get worse, and you need them. They got laid off anyway, and then a few months later they're back on. It doesn't quite make sense.

[Neil Yeates]

Chair, the dilemma we've had has not been not being aware of the impact on processing times. It's really been whether we have the resources within the department to maintain the staff, and that has gone up and down. Over the past few years we've received some temporary funding to provide us some short-term help on the volumes in citizenship, which have grown over time to be quite a bit greater than our basic capacity to process them, so processing times have gone up.

Yes, it's quite true, over the past year we had some additional resources. They ended, and we had to wait until during this year to see if we we would have sufficient funds within the department to reallocate them to this function, which we decided we could manage in July.

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

Now, we're--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Sorry, Ms. Chow, I'm afraid that's it.

Mr. Young.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Yeates, does everyone who applies for a visa to come to Canada want to come here right away?

[Neil Yeates]

Not necessarily. On the temporary side, that tends to be fairly immediate. On the permanent side, we often get lags from one year to the next. So when we're doing visa issuance--as the members will know, we have many different immigration categories--we have to estimate what we call a wastage rate of visas that will not be taken up within that year. It's fairly low, maybe 2% to 3%.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

I'm thinking of those that are not taken up and of those that are not taken up right away.

[Neil Yeates]

Yes.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

For example, people who want to sell property, or finish a job, or finish school, or they change their mind temporarily.... How do you set a service standard for a wait time under those conditions?

[Neil Yeates]

I think in that particular circumstance the key service standard would likely be the issuance of the visa. How that translates into the management of the levels plan is a bit of a different set of circumstances for us, but the service standard for the individual likely would be how long it would take to review and issue a visa, make a visa decision for the individual.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Being that you have limited resources, do you ask people who apply for visas what time period they'd like to come to Canada?

[Neil Yeates]

On permanent immigration, people are applying knowing generally how long it's going to take for their application to be processed. I think the short answer to your question, generally, is no, because the processing time is often fairly lengthy.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Ricard, are you satisfied with the action plan the department has prepared in response to your audit?

[Sylvain Ricard]

It looked reasonable to us. We've had discussions with--

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

How are you satisfied with it? What's good about that plan?

[Sylvain Ricard]

We believe it's a reasonable plan, given the challenge ahead.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

The department seems to have very clear processing times. Why do you feel it's not sufficient processing times, as a way to tell Canadians what to expect?

[Sylvain Ricard]

We believe that an organization not only needs to know where it is in terms of the time it takes to process something, but it should establish what it's aiming for so it can be monitored to see if they are achieving their objective.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Yes. So Mr. Yeates, why do you do it the way you do?