Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 17th, 2011

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

It would balloon to about half a million.

I don't want to guess; I'm going to ask. How many more years will people have to wait if it is half a million?

[Les Linklater]

I'd have to ask the experts to run the calculations, Mr. Chair, but probably more than 15 years.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

In some cases, with elderly parents, 15 years are just not available, potentially.

Again, the action plan for faster family reunification.... If we included only an increase in admissions and no temporary pause, how would that back up the system?

[Les Linklater]

If admissions were to be raised to the level of intake, which has been around 35,000, 40,000 per year, that would mean the backlog wouldn't get any worse; it would just be in a steady state, and we'd have to work through those cases over the next number of years. But it would also mean, within the levels planned, that we would have to take the space from other categories, whether it was federal economic or provincial economic, to find that balance within the 240,000 to 265,000 range.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

So with this action plan the projections are that the backlog would be what in, say, five to ten years?

[Les Linklater]

With the action plan we would expect, as Madame Deschênes said, that we would have the backlog of parents and grandparents reduced by 50% in two years' time. And then as we look at new policy parameters for a new parents and grandparents category, there is a balance between those who are still remaining in the backlog of about 80,000 to 85,000 with beginning to take in new intake.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

That seems to me to be a step in the right direction, for sure, in dealing with my constituents. That's an answer when somebody comes in and says, “I've been waiting eight years. What's going on? What are you doing about it?” Something is being done.

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Three and a half minutes.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I'm going to be really generous and pass them on to my colleague, Mr. Weston.

Thank you.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Oh, fantastic! Thank you.

Mr. Linklater, Ms. Deschênes, thank you for joining us again today. I remember that, last time, you had just lost your employee, Daniel Naçu. Once again, if I may, please give the family our condolences.

Ms. Deschênes, you had started to answer Mr. Davies about the first series of ministerial directives. Can you finish your answer?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I would simply like to say that the ministerial directives enable us to provide answers more quickly, in my opinion. We have received more applications than we would have wanted under the first directives. That is why we made changes as we went along. We are clearly managing to finalize cases much more quickly, meaning that applicants are getting the decision much faster.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you.

I think that comparing us to other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, is very worthwhile.

Can you describe the situation of parents and grandparents in other countries? Does Canada offer the best reception to parents and grandparents?

[Les Linklater]

Of the five competing countries—Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom—Canada is the only one that welcomes grandparents.

As for parents, I am not completely familiar with the current situation in Australia. I know that there are two streams of sponsorship for parents and grandparents, that the conditions relating to maximums are very strict and that there are also waiting lists. In one stream, the application processing time frame is several years, and in the other processing stream, sponsors pay a type of guarantee at the start of the process related to the costs of settling parents or seniors in Australia. There are a larger number of people there who are willing to pay these fees, which lengthens the waiting list.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

To critics of our government, we could say that, if we consider the population alone, the proportion of immigrants that we welcome is the highest in the developed world.

Also, if we look at just parents and grandparents, to your knowledge, we are the most generous in the world.

[Les Linklater]

Actually, New Zealand is a little more generous than Canada, but we are still up there.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Sorry, we're out of time. That concludes the seven-minute round.

Madame Groghué.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here.

In this committee, we learned that few people ask for regular visas for multiple stays for their parents or grandparents. Sometimes, they don't even know they exist.

What do you think we can do to overcome all the obstacles and encourage people to apply for the super visa? What things could we put in place to publish this information and ensure that people are informed?

[Claudette Deschênes]

The communications work we are doing with the communities will help us make people aware that this visa exists and to inform them that they can apply for it. One of the recurring problems is that people are going to pay for one entry rather than multiple entries. This limits what we can do when it comes to issuing a document.

If a person applies abroad and pays for a single-entry visa, we issue a letter with the visa that states that an application for a multiple-entry visa can be approved just as easily.

So, we are in the process of evaluating how we can encourage people to understand that multiple-entry visas exist, if they are willing to pay a different fee.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

My next question is about application processing and speeding up the processing. The use of technology to boost processing efficiency was mentioned.

Could you give me your opinion on human resources? Do you have an idea of the targets? What is the number or percentage of human resources that are essential to be able to process these applications?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I don't have that information with me. But I can tell you that we have done a study of what we need to be able to manage. These resources are currently being allocated to the program.

For example, at the application processing centre in Mississauga, where we process sponsorship applications, we are in the process of hiring students to work six hours a day to help us move through these files. There is also the Global Case Management System that we want to modify. We intend to start processing all the files in Canada, both sponsorship applications and applications from people abroad. If the decision can be made in Canada, that is what we will do, without having to send the file abroad.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Would it be possible for the committee to have that information?

[Claudette Deschênes]

We can give you the information.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

We learned that the visa office in Hong Kong processes half of all investor visa applications and has an inventory of 16,000 investor files. It takes approximately 33 months to process these applications, while in Manila, it takes 48 months. The waiting times are also rather long for the parent and grandparent categories. We were led to believe that there is a lack of resources and staff to process applications and reduce delays.

We would like your opinion on that.

[Claudette Deschênes]

As we have said in the past, it isn't a matter of resources or staff. It's the range of levels and the choices we have to make between the various categories that can prolong the processing time. The time it takes to process a case is about the same in most countries. It involves knowing how much time will pass before active processing of the application can start. The time frame for processing applications relates in part to the number of applications received by the country, but even more to the plan relating to the category levels.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Ms. Groguhé.

Mr. Leung.