Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 29th, 2010

[Neil Yeates]

I do. Thank you, Chair.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen.

I'd like to thank you again for inviting us here on the annual report to Parliament for 2010. As committee members will know, Canada has one of the most ambitious immigration programs in the world. The 2011 levels plan is broadly consistent with the 2009 and 2010 plans. We're planning to welcome between 240,000 and 265,000 new immigrants, supporting both our long-term economic needs and the shorter needs in our period of economic recovery.

At the same time, we'll be maintaining our commitment to family reunification and refugees, and we have raised the admission ranges for spouses, children, and refugees.

Today I wish to speak to how the department has developed a more responsive and flexible economic immigration program, as well as to how we have improved the overall efficiency and responsiveness of our immigration and refugee programs.

We are committed to finding new ways to meeting our immediate and longer-term labour market needs by attracting and retaining the most qualified and skilled workers that employers require. One of the actions we have introduced is a new avenue of immigration called the Canadian experience class. It was introduced in the fall of 2008. The CEC provides a pathway to permanent residence for certain skilled temporary foreign workers and international students with Canadian degrees and work experience. Because students and temporary foreign workers are spread broadly across Canada, the Canadian experience class is expected to distribute immigration across Canada more evenly.

We've also expanded the provincial nominee programs, which allow provinces and territories to address regional labour market needs by nominating workers for permanent residence. The PNP is intended to share the benefits of immigration across Canada. Twenty-five percent of economic immigrants are now destined for outside Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, compared to only 11% in 1997. Admissions under this program have also more than tripled since 2005, and in 2009 alone, more than 30,000 provincial nominees and their families came to Canada. Currently, the number of provincial nominations is aligned with the request of all jurisdictions, and we anticipate slightly higher PNP admissions in 2011. Building on these achievements, amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act were introduced in November 2008 as part of the action plan for faster immigration. The action plan is a comprehensive series of improvements designed to speed up the processing of applications and make Canada's immigration system more closely aligned with and responsive to labour market needs. It included the first set of ministerial instructions for processing, on a priority basis, new federal skilled worker applicants who have the skills Canada needs.

Mr. Chair, these are just some of the ways we have made our economic immigration program more flexible and responsive to our labour market needs.

The action plan also entails a series of administrative measures to help draw down the backlog and decrease processing time of applications, and it has already reduced the backlog of federal skilled workers.

As of September 2010, the backlog of federal skilled worker applications has been reduced by 47%, and processing times have dramatically improved. l'm pleased to report to the committee that 80% of all final decisions on applications received since November 2008 are being made within 12 months or less. In June 2010, the minister introduced new instructions. As with the first set, the objectives for the new ministerial instructions are to allow CIC to keep the intake of applications in line with our processing capacity, to reduce application backlogs and processing times, and to respond to key national labour market needs.

The new ministerial instructions also introduced a cap on the number of new federal skilled worker applications that will be considered for processing. A cap is a key step towards making our immigration system more modern and responsive, since it allows CIC to better align application intake with our processing capacity and labour market demand. To improve and expedite the processing of applications in all categories, we are currently considering a number of options to move forward with the use of biometrics for immigration purposes. Given the growing prevalence and sophistication in identity theft and identity fraud, the use of biometrics is also necessary to reduce abuse and ensure the safety and security of Canadians.

This past year we also continued to uphold our long-standing and proud humanitarian tradition by offering protection in Canada to more than 22,000 refugees in 2009, including more than 12,000 refugees resettled from abroad. Working with the international community, we resettled close to 1,000 Bhutanese in 2009 as part of our multi-year commitment to bring to Canada up to 5,000 Bhutanese refugees who have been living in UN camps in Nepal. In response to ongoing appeals for additional resettlement support to the displaced Iraqi population, we resettled more than 4,000 Iraqi refugees last year. In addition, we pursued reforms to improve Canada's asylum system, culminating in the introduction in March 2010 and subsequent passage into law in June 2010 of the Balanced Refugee Reform Act. The act's implementation will mean faster protection for those who truly need it and quicker removal of those who do not.

I am also pleased to report that the Citizenship Study Guide, Discover Canada, has become one of the government of Canada's most in demand publications. Since it was launched in November 2009, almost 300,000 copies were requested from CIC and a special audio version of the guide, made available in April, has received more than 122,000 visits.

Finally, I am pleased that we will soon see the first results from the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications. In December, processes will be in place to assess, within one year of application, credentials for 10 regulated occupations, including registered nurses, engineers and pharmacists.

Chair, those are some of the ways we've developed a more responsive and flexible economic immigration program. The department will continue to explore ways to improve the flexibility, responsiveness, and efficiency of our immigration and refugee systems.

Thank you. I'd be pleased to answer any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Yes, we do, sir.

Mr. Trudeau.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

My first question is around the 47% reduction in the backlog of federal skilled worker applications. Is my understanding correct that a large part of reducing the backlog was linked to this cap on new federal skilled worker applications? That is, a number of the applicants within the backlog were returned before being processed because they weren't going to be successful anyway, or something like that.

Can I get a little more explanation on that, sir?

[Neil Yeates]

Yes, Chair. I can clarify that.

The backlog I'm referring to in terms of the significant reduction involved the cases we had on file prior to the implementation of the first set of ministerial instructions. It did not apply to the more restricted list of occupations, so they were processed. This is one of the characteristics of our system; we have to apply the rules that were in place at the time the applications were made.

That backlog basically was the old system—wide open, no occupational restrictions. That's the big backlog that has been reduced.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

How was it reduced?

[Neil Yeates]

Basically, by processing the cases. Obviously some were accepted and some were not, in terms of whether they met what was required under the points system.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

So the backlog went from 640,000 to 374,000 because all of that backlog was processed? Is that it?

[Neil Yeates]

That's right.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Okay, let me chew on that for a moment.

I'd also like to ask a question about the refugee board and the refugee acceptances. We got the refugee board back up to around 98%, I think. I'm interested in the interactions between the processing of refugee claims and the processing of immigration claims.

How does one stream influence the other?

[Neil Yeates]

Chair, I would say very simply that the streams are actually independent. The size of the refugee class will depend on two key things. One is the number of refugees we settle, what we call government-assisted refugees, from overseas. They were the Nepalese and the Iraqis I referenced. The other key piece is the number of cases that are processed through the Immigration and Refugee Board and the number of people who are successfully granted status.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

That would be about the almost 7,000 individuals who successfully requested asylum and were processed through the refugee system, which you refer to on page 11.

[Neil Yeates]

Yes. In the document—sorry, I'll just make sure I've got the same reference here—in terms of the 2010 plan—

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Sorry, that was 2009.

[Neil Yeates]

In 2009. With regard to the protected persons in Canada, the range of 7,000 to 9,000 is what is coming through the Immigration and Refugee Board.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Okay. And the processing of refugees is entirely independent of the processing of immigration applicants?

[Neil Yeates]

That's correct, yes.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Can you tell me about the queue process for refugees, then?

[Neil Yeates]

Yes.

I should say, Chair, that we don't speak for the Immigration and Refugee Board. We'll tell you what we know in a general way; you may want to ask them directly. But basically, they're processing cases largely on a chronological basis, by way of date of application.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Okay, so the date of arriving in Canada and applying--

[Neil Yeates]

Making a claim.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

--and making a claim.

Regarding the 7,000 individuals who succeeded in requesting asylum on or after their arrival in Canada, how did most of them get to Canada?

[Neil Yeates]

The majority of those would have made a claim when they arrived in Canada at the border. It could have been at an airport or it could have been at a land border. Depending on the country of origin, it tends to vary quite a bit. As an example, we've had historically a lot of claims from Mexico, and they have been from a combination of people who are already here in Canada, perhaps working, and others who simply showed up at the border, land or air.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

It also indicates about 4,000 of their dependants abroad. So for the 7,000 people who were accepted here in Canada, who were evaluated as being legitimate refugees, actual refugees, we then turned around and accepted 4,000 from their families because they were legitimate refugees.

[Neil Yeates]

That's correct.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Regarding the 7,000 accepted, how many people would have applied to be refugees? Is it twice as many or three times as many who weren't assessed to have been legitimate refugees?