Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 15th, 2011

[Rénald Gilbert]

It's a difficult question. If we had twice as many staff abroad, we would still do 11,200 parents, grandparents. It's not necessarily the question of resources with regard to that. It's partly because in some places, or some years, let's say, there's an increase in volumes of visitors. As David mentioned, in the summer he has six officers doing skilled workers, and in the winter it's thirteen. A few years ago it was going down to zero for certain months of the year. So it does have an impact.

With regard to the cost of staff, it varies. If it's a Canada-based person who is there—

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Somebody who's going to actually make decisions, a decision-maker on the ground.

[Rénald Gilbert]

We have local decision-makers, so the cost is different for the two.

There is a fairly significant overhead because we are located within embassies. It's between $300,000 and $400,000 for the cost of the position. It's not the salary, of course, it's the cost of the position.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Sure; there are many things to consider.

Mr. Manicom, you mentioned that visitor visas spike in April. It's travelling season in Canada, and there's the wedding season for many communities.

When that workload spikes, how do you manage that? What happens to files, maybe on a permanent resident, that are sitting on someone's desk? Do the same people who look at permanent residents look at the spike in visitor visas?

[David Manicom]

Yes. Officers in Delhi have a main duty and a back-up duty. All the officers are cross-trained, so we can move resources on a daily and weekly basis into the temporary resident unit to make sure we are always current on our temporary resident/visiting processing times. It's our conviction that in the end that preserves more resources for the permanent resident processing because it keeps us as efficient as possible. Our efficiencies deteriorate a lot if our visitor visa processing times go beyond three or four days, and your offices would certainly hear about it quite quickly.

So yes, it is the same people, and during the summer we mainly manage with our large skilled worker program. That's where resources go during the summer and the spring to help our temporary resident unit.

Our family class unit stays more or less the same size, because we also have a marriage season in India, and they also get busiest in the spring and summer with the new applications coming in.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

There was a mention about MPs making inquiries. Based sometimes on the demographic of the riding, I know there are some MPs who send many more requests than others.

What does that do to your resources when you get so many requests from an MP on files? What do you have to do when you get one of these requests?

[David Manicom]

In New Delhi, we answer them almost always within 24 to 48 hours. We do in the order of 5,000 to 6,000 a year.

But that number is actually dropping. We hope that our MP newsletter has helped with that, and also the fact that our family class priority processing time has remained quite quick, as well as our visitor visa processing times.

They consume officer resources—I can't say they don't—but we have a very highly efficient, locally engaged staff who respond to many of the routine status inquires under the supervision of a Canada-based officer. But yes, they do consume some resources.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Mr. Uppal.

Mrs. Grewal.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I, too, would like to thank you. I appreciate all your hard work on behalf of Canada and Canadians. Thank you so much.

I have been to the missions in New Delhi as well as Beijing, and it's not an easy job. I've seen first-hand all the work you do, and about the fraud that goes on.

I have very short questions, as my time is limited.

First, how will the implementation of the global case management system impact processing times?

[Rénald Gilbert]

In the short term it will not have a significant impact on processing time. It allows us, however, to shift the workload around much more easily. If we have a spike of applications in one place, or if we want to clear a backlog somewhere for whatever reason, it allows us to redistribute work far more efficiently.

Otherwise, the efficiency...as Micheline has pointed out, we're still at baby steps of discovering what they are.

My colleagues who already have GCMS may want to comment.

David or Micheline.

[David Manicom]

I'd probably focus more on process efficiencies and therefore better use of tax dollars than directly reducing processing times--although it should, of course, over time achieve that as well.

It is early days. We're learning all of its capacities. It has many wonderful capacities that will also help us detect fraud, triage cases better, have better background information on applicants and companies and inviters and schools and so forth that will help us do our work more intelligently. It also has the ability to process applications in a very streamlined way, if you have very similar applications. For example, if you have a group of 37 entertainers going to a big event, it would enable you to put the same file note in each of the 37 files and make an exception to one of them, if you want to, rather than opening 37 separate files and putting in the same note and issuing the visa 37 individual times.

So it has a number of capacities, and I certainly think over time it will enable us to use tax dollars more efficiently and indirectly to reduce processing times, particularly, I hope, on the temporary resident side of things.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Why does the network not redistribute workloads to those nations with shorter wait times?

[Rénald Gilbert]

We do from time to time. I think the last time I talked to the committee we were talking about Haiti, and that's exactly what we did between an Ottawa office and Haiti itself. Delhi transferred workload to Warsaw two or three years ago to try to use resources that may have been underused somewhere else; instead of moving people, moving work to people.

With regard to the processing time itself, it can help where there is no cap--for instance, the spouse caseload. With regard to processing times for skilled workers, the change in policy of limiting the intake has far more impact than GCMS itself.

One thing I should clarify on GCMS is that it has allowed us to, for instance, change some of the processes already. The application for spouse cases is now created in Canada before it goes to the mission. There are a few steps we can save over time so that when it gets to the mission they can concentrate on making the decision and less on clerical functions.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Are there any suggestions for the government to make the system more efficient and workable for Canadians?

[Rénald Gilbert]

Besides adding resources and changing policies, I'm not sure. It's not for me to answer that.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Do I have any more time, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You do.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

How much?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Well, as we're talking, you have about 15 seconds.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I'm going to take those 15 seconds.

It's a question the analysts have asked, Mr. Gilbert. How many of your missions' employees are required to be experts on the region--in other words, experts on the culture? The Americans have this.

Second, what length of time is staff posted to a mission?

[Rénald Gilbert]

On the first question, with regard to specialization, a lot of our specialized knowledge comes from our locally engaged staff, who are essentially at the mission all the time. Otherwise, we have people who develop expertise when they learn the language. Many officers in South America have worked in a few missions in South America--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Excuse me for interrupting, but the reason I ask is that some cultures have different philosophies from others on, for example, marriage. So it's useful to have someone who's an expert in that area.

[Rénald Gilbert]

Maybe we could describe what happens when a new officer gets to New Delhi.