In French, please.
Evidence of meeting #48 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cases.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #48 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cases.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:10 a.m.
Immigration Program Manager, Moscow, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Very well. Why are there no local decision makers in Moscow? Mr. Gilbert would perhaps be better placed than myself to answer that question.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I meant to ask him. I ask him this question almost every time I see him.
9:10 a.m.
Immigration Program Manager, Moscow, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I want to know how this situation affects the operation of your mission. Are you still able to do your work and to take into account local considerations? What is the impact of this lack of local decision makers?
9:10 a.m.
Immigration Program Manager, Moscow, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We do have many locally-recruited employees, some of whom occupy higher-level positions. Local employees do not make any final decision. They are well-trained and they process cases at a fairly high level. They can provide very practical suggestions, especially because they are themselves Russian. Therefore, they have a solid knowledge of their country, which is very helpful in our decision-making process. We are talking about well-trained people who are very familiar with the country.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Mr. Gilbert, why are there no local decision makers in Russia?
9:10 a.m.
Director General, International Region, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Moscow is not the only mission without a local decision maker. The fact of the matter is that many missions do not have a local decision maker. That does not necessarily have a huge impact. What is important is having the number of decision makers needed to be able to make the required number of decisions annually.
A person applying for the position of local decision maker must have a certain amount of experience. For instance, that person must attend a six-week course in Canada and, ideally, be under supervision for a period of time before being allowed to make immigration-related decisions. In Moscow's case, no one with those credentials was available. In some of the other countries, we simply do not have enough confidence that local decision makers will be able to withstand pressures from their surroundings.
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
So why do other missions have local decision makers? We have had employees in the past who provided us with local input and guidance. Why do we need local decision makers at all? Why can't we have the same structure everywhere?
9:15 a.m.
Director General, International Region, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
This issue is related to cost. It's more expensive to send a Canadian abroad than to have a local decision maker.
9:15 a.m.
Director General, International Region, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
This is obviously taken into consideration, but I wouldn't say that it is the key reason. A very important reason is the fact that local decision makers can occupy a position for several years, so there is no loss of knowledge. Canadian employees may hold the position for two, three or four years. Once they are replaced, there is a loss of knowledge from the outset. Regarding long-term productivity, local officers are more productive than Canadian officers who must, first, get settled in with their family and, second, take two or three months to become familiar with local customs after settling in a new area.
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
What do you see as the ideal formula? We have some extreme cases where there are no local decision makers. What approximate ratio are you aiming for?
9:15 a.m.
Director General, International Region, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We are not aiming for any particular ratio. In some locations, such as the Buffalo consulate, in the United States, whose representatives appeared before the committee earlier this week, there are as many local decision makers as Canadian officers.
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Are there any missions where most of the decision makers are local?
March 10th, 2011 / 9:15 a.m.
Director General, International Region, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I do think there are any missions where local employees make up the majority. There are a few places where the numbers are evenly split. In most of our missions in Europe and in the United States, the numbers of local and Canadian officers are roughly even.
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I will ask another question then.
Some of my colleagues and I were talking about the approval rate of Russian applications for Quebec. It is very high. I assume that this is because they are pre-selected by Quebec. All that remains to be checked, in Russia's case, are safety and health considerations.
Out of the 4% of cases refused at the federal level, what are the percentages of applications that have been refused for health reasons and for safety reasons?
9:15 a.m.
Immigration Program Manager, Moscow, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Is your question about processing time?
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
No, I am talking about refused applications, about the 4% of Quebec selection certificates refused when being processed at the federal level. If I'm not mistaken, they are refused not because of case specifics, but because of either health or safety issues. I want to know what percentage is refused owing to health and what percentage is refused owing to safety.
9:15 a.m.
Immigration Program Manager, Moscow, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
You are completely right. The selection has already been done by Quebec, and the percentage of refusal is low. However, I cannot tell you what percentage of applications are refused for medical or safety reasons. I don't have the figures with me. Both reasons may come into play, to some extent, but I don't have that information on hand.
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
I'm sorry. We'll have to wait for the next round, sir.
Mr. Dykstra.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Through you to our representatives this morning, one of the questions I had was just an overall question. Perhaps this is to Mr. Gilbert versus our two presenters this morning—or this afternoon, depending on where we are.
I appreciate the amount of detail that both of you have put forward with respect to numbers, and I just wondered how these averages compare to the rest of our missions overall.