Evidence of meeting #22 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
February 16th, 2012 / 4:05 p.m.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Let me repeat back to you what I've heard to see if I have it right. Out of 300,000 requests, 670 were considered worthy of a review, an interception, or a denial based on security concerns.
Executive Director General, Security Screening Branch, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
We had information that meant they could have been inadmissible under IRPA.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Over what timeframe was that?
Executive Director General, Security Screening Branch, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
That was in one year.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
The 300,000 doesn't represent all of the applications, or does it?
Executive Director General, Security Screening Branch, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
That's just the share that are referred to the service. That's just a slice of the overall immigration process.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
So to be a contrarian, there have been criticisms of our country by our friendly neighbour to the south that we're not tough or vigilant enough. How do you respond to those concerns? I'm sure you're more aware of them than I am.
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
Let me provide you with some statistics, if you don't mind.
CIC receives approximately 1.7 million visa applications per year from visa-required countries overseas. The visa officer does the first triage of them. The visa officers in missions overseas decide which ones need to be referred to CBSA for further examination because of suspicions of security concerns. So we get about 75,000 of them and conduct our examinations, together with the two partners at the table here with me.
Last year, out of those 75,000, some 692 resulted in inadmissibility recommendations that went back to the mission. They were drafted by CBSA. As you can see, that's very close to the number Mr. Venner mentioned. That is the number that CSIS provided in recommendations or advice to us. It's a very small percentage, but we believe it's an important percentage.
I'd like to mention some other statistics. Our CBSA liaison officers overseas—there are 60 of them in 46 locations around the world—are involved in denials of boarding of flights to Canada 4,000 times a year. So 4,000 times a year, advice is given to airlines that individuals should not be boarded because they're improperly documented for travel to Canada. There's that as well.
I'd also like to mention one last statistic. Last year, 54,549 people who showed up at the border were turned around—they were “allowed to withdraw”, is the term we use. In 29,900 cases, the reason was non-compliance with IRPA. In other words, they were not properly documented. They didn't meet all the requirements of IRPA for admission to Canada. For lesser criminality there were 17,000, and for serious criminality there were 5,800.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
If I can follow up concerning the biometric study, it's no surprise to me, because two years ago we knew that was coming. It was in the budget. I'm surprised that my colleague Mr. Davies was surprised by that.
Do you have any other things on your wish list that you would like to have to make your tool kit more effective in keeping security-risk people out of our country?
Executive Director General, Security Screening Branch, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The only thing I'll mention is that there is an interdepartmental effort now to review the inadmissibility provisions of IRPA. Although that process hasn't been finalized and recommendations haven't been presented yet, I think that will lead to some improvements.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Thank you.
Was there anything else that you wanted to add to that dream tool kit, since you ran out of time there? Do you want to add anything?
Executive Director General, Security Screening Branch, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
No.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Okay.
I'm going to switch a little bit to the Auditor General's report. In the report on visa issuance they made many recommendations, including service standards for the timeliness of the security screenings that were being processed. There is much casework that comes into my constituency...people who are waiting for their application process, where processing delays rest in the processing of the security clearance. When we call CIC and ask them to provide a timeline as to when things may be processed, they say they don't know, they are waiting for the security clearance.
How many staff does the security screening program actually employ for immigration-related purposes to ensure that these responses are done in a timely way?
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
I'll start.
In the CBSA national security screening division there are approximately 60 employees. Within the last year we have moved to what we call a tiered service standard to ensure that the speed with which we process applications is in line with the priorities of the Government of Canada. So we've moved to a service standard of a turnaround time of 48 hours in the case of urgent and VIP processing, 5 days in the case of China. In tier 1 countries, which are Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Mexico, and Haiti, our service standard is 10 days, and for all other countries in the world it is 20 days. The security assessment part of the visa processing continuum does not take more than 20 days. In fact, I checked just recently and we're averaging for those other countries about 18 days.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Okay. That's very useful to know. If we're being given a longer timeframe than CIC, we know it is not actually in the security screening process. It's somewhere else.
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
It's not all in the security screening.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Okay. That's good to know.
Another recommendation made by the Auditor General was to know if the effectiveness of the security screening is being measured. What efforts have actually been made to follow through with the recommendation the Auditor General made?
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
We have set up a performance measurement system very recently, since the OAG report. It was one of our highest priorities. We've done that together with our partner, CIC, because part of the performance metrics we want to introduce is an assurance that CIC, our client, is satisfied with the service they're getting.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Are there any times, any circumstances, when CIC issues a visa to an individual who has been flagged or for whom CBSA's final recommendation was against actually issuing him a visa?
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
That does happen, and we need to remind ourselves that CBSA recommends that the final decision-maker is CIC, and CIC has the prerogative to factor in other elements such as national interest.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Okay. And is there usually a rationale that is provided back to CBSA that says why your recommendation was overlooked?
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
I think that is a good way to put it. Usually, but not invariably, we do work very closely together.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Then are additional steps put into place afterwards as to moving forward and how we can integrate your recommendations?
Director General, Intelligence and Targeting Operations, Canada Border Services Agency
I think, if I may say so, our recommendations are as fully integrated into the decision-making process as they can be. They are taken very seriously by CIC.
