Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 13th, 2010

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

So you're saying there's not really any flexibility in Mississauga. Financial standards are set, but, on the spot, there couldn't be any more flexibility and potential income from the other spouse who has stayed home for the children cannot be taken into account, for example.

[Claudette Deschênes]

That's correct.

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

Consequently, if cases are presented to us in our constituencies, we can tell people that. We can tell them that the case will be referred to the country of origin. They can talk to officials there because they know it's an official policy.

[Claudette Deschênes]

That's correct.

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

I have perhaps a final question. How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You have less than a minute.

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

In that case, never mind, because my question is too long.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Go ahead, Ms. Chow.

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

Thank you.

Could you give me a ballpark figure for how many full-time staff you have, including both regional staff and staff who are working abroad?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I suppose I should know that, but I really don't.

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

We are talking about staffing levels.

[Claudette Deschênes]

I thought we were talking about--

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

Staffing levels.

[Claudette Deschênes]

--processing times. Sorry, I may not have--

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

Are we not talking about staffing levels? I think we are.

[Claudette Deschênes]

Well, we can talk about Sydney in terms of staffing levels, but I don't have it in total--

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

You don't have the total.

[Claudette Deschênes]

I think that--

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

Am I not correct? I just did a--

[Claudette Deschênes]

I hope you have it.

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

I do, actually.

If you compare the full-time staffing numbers for 1997 for regional staff and staff abroad with the numbers for 2009, there seems to be a drop. Now, I could be wrong; I don't know. We'll research this later on, but my impression is that there hasn't been a total recovery from the cuts that were inflicted in the mid-1990s, and that's one of the reasons there is a lot of backlog.

If we can't get into that area, then we can just focus on the number of staff in Sydney. When they started doing the initial assessment of federal skilled workers, was the number of people increased in that area, or was it just an add-on?

[Claudette Deschênes]

No, we added resources to do that.

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

Okay. How many were there, as a ballpark figure? You can provide that number later if you don't have it.

[Claudette Deschênes]

Okay.

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

As well, a 10- or 15-year tracking of the staffing levels to see whether they have gone up or down or stayed flat would be helpful. It's hard to talk about wait times, whether it's in Sydney, whether it's PR cards or citizenship or landed immigrant sponsorship....