Evidence of meeting #27 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 system.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Outside the skilled workers category, which is something we've heard a lot of evidence on, is it correct to say that wait times have lengthened in every type of immigration file that we receive?
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
The question, I guess, would be from what date, from when?
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
I think it really depends; there are so many inventories. For example, in various programs, some would be longer and some would be shorter. That's the tightest answer I can give you.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Okay.
In that same case, the Aitchison case, the woman, of course, famously was reported to have had to have her child in a hotel because she could not get a letter from CIC that simply confirmed that she had a permanent resident application filed. She made multiple phone calls, had difficulty getting someone on the line, and was finally told that CIC could not even give her a letter simply confirming that her application had been received.
Is that acceptable conduct by your department, Mr. Minister?
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
I don't know the individual case. I always avoid commenting on details of an individual case, especially when I don't have a privacy waiver.
Obviously our department strives to provide good service to applicants and to clients but is often overwhelmed by demand. I feel people's frustration, including the frustration of that individual, if indeed those facts are the case.
When I became minister, I would say that technologically the department was stuck in the 1970s. It was a huge paper-run system with hundreds of thousands of applications on filing shelves all around the world, with people literally pushing trolleys loaded with hundreds of dockets around overcrowded hallways, with an early 1980s-based computer system. Quite frankly, this department was in urgent need of modernization.
We've made those technological investments, and I think you're going to see that between those and the policy changes we have made to control incoming applications, within a couple of years we're going to move beyond this era of unacceptably long wait times.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Here we are, four years later, and someone who asks for a simple letter confirming receipt of an application can't seem to get one. I think I could speak for all Canadians when I say that they expect more from a government department. It should be able to provide a letter to someone that simply confirms an application.
I'm not trying to get into the specific situation, but that was the holdup. We hear this quite frequently: it's hard to get someone on the phone in your department; it's hard to get someone to speak to. I think you should know that as minister.
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
I do, believe me, loud and clear.
Do you have a comment on that issue?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes. I guess I would comment that in daily operations sometimes cases fall into cracks. One of the key things we want to do through modernization is create the file as soon as they arrive. Of course, we want to go to an e-application, which would make it instantaneous, and then acknowledge right away that we have the application. We have been working on that. We've started with some of the things that are in global case management.
In that case, if it had arrived once we had global case management in Vegreville, it would have been created fairly quickly and they would have received a letter. We are moving there; we're just not there, and sometimes errors happen.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think I'll start off by complimenting the staff, and particularly those individuals who are assisting MPs' offices, who do a phenomenal job—I know first hand—in terms of the number of calls we have to make. We're very dependent on the immigration staff people, and we appreciate the work they do overseas.
Having said that, I want to get right to the point and ask the minister to keep his answers short, because I have a very limited amount of time.
The super visa, in my opinion, was a super disappointment. Will the minister change the health requirements so that people will be able to afford the opportunity to get a super visa?
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
No, because they can afford to get a super visa. The vast majority of people who would meet the income requirement are getting the visa. I believe it's important that we protect Canadian taxpayers if elderly visitors who are staying on extended stays get sick in Canada. I don't think the bill should be paid by taxpayers; it should be borne by the family members.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Minister, what about those individuals who are 70-plus who come from countries from which visas are not required? You don't have any health requirements for those individuals, correct? Yes or no, please.
Obviously it's no.
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
Yes, because people who are.... If the question is whether there is a requirement to obtain insurance, if they're coming for the 10-year multiple-entry visas with the two-year stay permits, yes, they are required, because it's an extended stay.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Is someone who is coming from Hong Kong, where a visa is not required, who is 70 years old required to get health care coverage if they want to come for six months?
Conservative
Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB
Visa exemptions are for periods of six months. People who want to stay for longer than six months are required to obtain visas, so whether you're coming from the United States or Hong Kong, if you want to stay for two years on a 10-year multiple entry—
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Stop the clock for a minute.
Mr. Lamoureux, you have to let him finish his answer.
Liberal
Conservative