Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 17th, 2011

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to both witnesses.

My questions have to do with a little bit of clarification on the family reunification category. I understand that it currently involves only parents and grandparents.

What about the spouses and children of people who come here on a temporary worker permit but then convert that to being a permanent resident and apply for their spouses and children for reunification? Does that fall under the same family reunification category? Would they also be allowed that opportunity in the super visa category?

[Les Linklater]

Mr. Chair, what we have within the family class are two broad subcategories. The first would be spouses, partners, and dependent children under the age of 22. Those cases are processed on demand. That's reflected in the levels plan every year. The second broad stream within the family class is comprised of parents and grandparents sponsored by Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are established here in Canada.

We have a public policy in place that allows spouses and dependent children who are in Canada with their Canadian spouses to apply, through our processing centre in Vegreville, to stay in Canada while their cases are processed if a departure overseas would cause them undue hardship. For example, within the levels plan, there is the public policy H and C line, and that would include spouses and children who are processed in Canada.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

We are addressing right now, or have in the past, most of the backlog with respect to parents and grandparents. Are there any circumstances whereby the backlog would appear in the spousal and children family class? Would that backlog appear?

[Claudette Deschênes]

Well, they're treated on demand, so basically as soon as we get an application for a sponsorship we put them in active processing. So at this moment...we've never seen it in the past, and I don't see it creating a backlog in the future.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

No.

[Claudette Deschênes]

We deal with them.

But of course every year, the decision, then.... If we were to get a lot more applications, we would have to readjust the levels plan to do more of those cases, which could have an impact on the other categories.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

Rick, would you...?

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Share...?

How much time is left?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Dykstra, you have two minutes.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you.

We've had a pretty broad number of witnesses based on their perspectives--professional, personal, and otherwise. I don't know whether you've had a chance to view any of it or at least review some of the transcripts. Are there things that stood out for you that are potential...I don't want to say recommendations, but thoughts you would advise or at least state that we should consider when we're putting together the report?

We're at the stage now where we're going to be asking the analysts to move forward in the very near future on providing us with a report. I wondered if there was anything that stood out. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but if there's anything that stands out, where you think, “you know what, there's an opportunity here”, where perhaps with more research, a more in-depth look at a particular area, you would advise us to make sure we pay attention to....

[Les Linklater]

Mr. Chair, I think when we look back at the process of developing the ministerial instructions authority, what has been clear to the department is that intake controls have an immediate and definite effect on how to manage workflow and to deal with backlogs.

As my colleague alluded to, and as we've stated at committee previously, having the tool is important. Once the tool is available, refining the tool is what's most helpful in being able to achieve faster results.

With MI-1, using an occupational filter alone, we received more applications than what we had foreseen. So with MI-2, we maintained the occupational filter but also added hard numerical caps, which has allowed us to draw down the backlog that much more quickly.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Dykstra, we're in the third round. You have up to five minutes.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you.

You had a number of questions related to the skilled worker program, and you've identified, both in your first and second appearances here, the benefits that have come out of Bill C-50 in terms of the reduction of the backlog. But we've also made some changes in a couple of other areas. We've heard from witnesses on a number of these as well.

For example, you commented this morning in your opening statements on the grandparent/parent/family reunification changes that were made about eleven days ago. But we also have a couple of others that have gone through some significant changes. I wonder if you could comment on them.

The first is the provincial nominee program. We've given much more authority to the provinces to work through this process. That has obviously assisted them in their intake capacity and in delivering on areas of need that they've identified. It looks like the scope is going to expand a little on that again for 2012. I wonder if you could comment on that.

[Les Linklater]

I think it's been helpful to see the provinces develop their capacity to work with us on immigration programming generally in the last five to ten years. We've now seen settlement patterns shift quite considerably away from Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver to additional destinations across the country, and in particular added weight to arrivals in Atlantic Canada and to the western provinces, which may not otherwise have materialized through federal programming alone.

As has been stated, I think the PN program really does allow provinces and their employer communities to be able to address some of their unique skill needs, regardless of skill level, and in certain critical sectors, like in the oil sands in Alberta, for example.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

The other area we've put a pause on is the entrepreneurial program. I wonder if you could expand a little on the status of that and how things are proceeding.

[Les Linklater]

We did put a pause on the receipt of new applications under that program with MI-3. We're looking at policy options now that will help us move beyond the traditional approach we had to the entrepreneurial category, which was very hands-on and required post-arrival monitoring to ensure the fulfillment of terms and conditions.

We would like to be able to put in place parameters that will allow us to capture a broader scope of entrepreneurial types; those who would bring start-ups to Canada and those who would be able to, with support from the private sector, for example, take a germ of an idea and build it into a going concern here in Canada. We're looking at policy options and we want to bring those to the minister for his consideration.

We also see the provinces, through their PN programs, expanding their entrepreneur streams as well. I think there is an interest in perhaps looking at a more pan-Canadian approach in moving forward there as well.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

A number of witnesses who were here did speak specifically about the entrepreneurial program. Would it be helpful for us to ensure that there is some comment in the report? There were a number of recommendations that came froward.

I'm not asking you to speak specifically to which recommendations you like or don't like. The chair has asked us not to do that, so I won't, but I do want to get your overall thoughts on ensuring that we include within the report a recommendation or recommendations with respect to the entrepreneurial program.

[Les Linklater]

As most competitor countries do have fairly robust business streams, it would be helpful for Canada to ensure that we remain competitive in that regard. I would leave it to the committee to bring forward any potential recommendations they may have.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

One of the issues that's come up a number of times, and we didn't necessarily deal with it specifically through testimony via witnesses, but Mr. Davies brought it up again this morning, is the whole aspect around the live-in caregiver program. It's one area, more than many of the others, that we are challenged with in the ministry. There's a bit more of a supply and demand issue there. I wonder if you could comment on that, because, yes, there has been--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Your time has expired. Unless it's a yes or no answer, we'll have to move on.

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We have averaged about 254,000 immigrants over the last five years, but in 2010 we let into the country 282,000 visa holders--a significant spike. Why?

[Claudette Deschênes]

It's always better to front-end applications, because sometimes things take a little longer. We were rolling out global case management, so we really didn't want the rolling out of global case management, the training of staff, and so on, to cause a delay. So we front-ended a lot more, which meant that at the end we could finalize a few more cases, and people ended up coming to Canada.

When we looked at the trend, more people were coming to Canada more quickly. It used to be that they would travel to Canada two or three months after receiving their visa. It became one or two months, so that also sort of skewed our projection of our work. That's why more people came.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

So was it deliberate or kind of accidental that we let in 30,000 more than projected?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I don't know what the right answer would be, but as the head of operations I wanted to demonstrate that our problem wasn't about more resources. It was about using them in a more--

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I'm not asking about resources. When you missed your target by 30,000, was that deliberately done, or was it an unintended consequence of the situation?