Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 10th, 2011

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

In French, please.

[Kathleen Sigurdson]

Very well. Why are there no local decision makers in Moscow? Mr. Gilbert would perhaps be better placed than myself to answer that question.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I meant to ask him. I ask him this question almost every time I see him.

[Kathleen Sigurdson]

Yes.

[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?

[Kathleen Sigurdson]

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.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Gilbert, why are there no local decision makers in Russia?

[Rénald Gilbert]

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.

[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?

[Rénald Gilbert]

This issue is related to cost. It's more expensive to send a Canadian abroad than to have a local decision maker.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

That must be the reason.

[Rénald Gilbert]

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.

[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?

[Rénald Gilbert]

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.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Are there any missions where most of the decision makers are local?

[Rénald Gilbert]

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.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Okay. Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Two minutes.

[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?

[Kathleen Sigurdson]

Is your question about processing time?

[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.

[Kathleen Sigurdson]

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.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Gilbert, do you know the answer to this question?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I'm sorry. We'll have to wait for the next round, sir.

Mr. Dykstra.

[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.