Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

With some of the past work we've done, the minister has come—I can't speak for every time—at the beginning and he's come at the end. There's nothing to say that at the end he might not come for another hour, but we'll see.

Thank you very much, Mr. Linklater, for your presentation. The committee members will have some statements and questions.

Ms. James has up to seven minutes.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'd like to also thank our witnesses today for delivering their speeches.

I have a couple of questions.

From listening to your speech and from researching it myself, I think we can all agree we have to have practical and realistic limits to how many people we can welcome into Canada. There are many things we have to consider. We need to make sure we have the proper resources for settlement services. We want to make sure people can come to Canada and pick up one of our languages—learn either French or English. And of course there are also the added costs related to health care for new people coming into Canada.

I'm wondering if you could expand on these practical limits—why they are necessary—and also comment on why Canada, for a very long time, has had to have these limits in place.

Thank you.

[Les Linklater]

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, a number of factors are taken into consideration as we develop recommendations for the annual levels plan. Certainly looking at the capacity of communities on the ground to be able to welcome newcomers is one of the key considerations. Canada is quite generous with its model in terms of the funding that is made available for settlement services to help newcomers transition into Canadian society in the labour market. We've had a tripling of settlement funding since 2006 to provide additional services around official language training as well as labour market integration supports and also helping newcomers understand how the Canadian system and society work, in terms of accessing banks or finding affordable housing.

As we look at the levels plan and traditionally bringing in between 240,000 and 265,000 people every year, folks tend to choose known destinations, which means from some perspectives a disproportionate share of newcomers are attracted to our larger cities. That's where they find community supports like ethnic communities and certain things that are familiar to them. We have to be mindful of the settlement patterns of individuals as we develop the levels plan. For example, 100,000 people moving into the GTA every year could place a considerable strain if the infrastructure isn't there.

As we look at the levels plan and understanding the impact on communities, our work with the provinces and territories is very important as we sort through the various pressures we face, whether it's growing supply for the labour force through economic immigration, both federally and provincially selected, or looking at family reunification and ensuring that we're reuniting immediate spouses and partners and children with their Canadian relatives on a priority basis, as well as providing protection to those who need Canada's support, so understanding the strains and opportunities for various communities across the country. One of the key benefits of the provincial nominee program has been that settlement has been dispersed more broadly than has been the case in the past, outside of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, so we're now seeing a growth in immigration levels to Atlantic Canada and western Canada as well.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I also have a question regarding the projected backlog in future years. Information that was handed out indicates that we have one million plus currently in backlog. That's a huge number. I wonder, given the current timelines for that backlog to be processed, what you project the backlog would be, let's say in the year 2020, and how long you think people will be waiting at that point to get into Canada.

[Les Linklater]

It's a very good question. Again, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, with the skilled worker category and with the ministerial instructions authority, we feel we're on track to reduce that backlog in the next six to seven years, all things being equal. I think where we do face some additional pressure, as I also mentioned, is in the family reunification stream, particularly for parents and grandparents. With current application rates we're seeing about 35,000 to 40,000 new individuals joining the queue every year. As we look at traditional levels within the levels plan, admissions of between 15,000 and 18,000, we see that we're quickly becoming further behind in terms of our ability to be timely in processing those applications. Our expectation would be that with current trends parents and grandparents would grow to be somewhere in excess of 350,000 by 2020.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

How long do you think that would take to process at that time?

[Les Linklater]

With current trends around the levels plan, that would probably take us about 15 to 20 years.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay. That's unbelievable. Thank you very much.

You mentioned parents and grandparents and family reunification. The information I have on hand indicates there are about 150,000 parents and grandparents currently. I think you mentioned 165,000 was a seven-year wait. I wonder if you could break that down and tell us the percentage of grandparents in that group versus parents. I want to understand whether we have a larger volume of one or the other.

Thank you.

[Les Linklater]

Grandparents are actually a small number within that overall inventory. Our most recent figure is that about 2% of the parent and grandparent movement is made up of grandparents.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay. Thank you very much.

I also want to touch base on family reunification. There's another category that's been grouped together, which is spouses and children, and I guess others are grouped into that as well. I was wondering if you could kind of break that down as well, to let us know the volume of dependent children that are also waiting to get into Canada.

[Les Linklater]

Within the overall movement, I'd have to get back to the chair with the statistics on what proportion are spouses or partners versus dependent children. We see intake of about 40,000 to 45,000 spouses, partners, and dependent children every year, and those applications are placed directly into process.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

I have one last question. Hopefully I have time to ask and you have time answer this question. This is a very specific question. What proportion of the annual immigration target for federal skilled workers is filled by processing applications in the inventory prior to February 27, 2008?

[Les Linklater]

That will vary year to year. For example, in 2008 almost all of our skilled worker admissions came from the pre-C-50 backlog. If it would be all right with the chair, we can provide the specific breakdown to the committee for distribution.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Please send that to the clerk.

Thank you, Ms. James.

Mr. Davies, go ahead, please.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Linklater. We're having our bi-weekly meeting, it appears.

Mr. Linklater, how many total applications are we receiving, on average, say over the last five years?

[Les Linklater]

Across all categories?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Yes.

[Les Linklater]

I'm not sure if we have that figure available at hand, Mr. Davies. We'll certainly see if we have it.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Can you give me a ballpark estimate, nothing I'll hold you to, but—

[Les Linklater]

Annual intake is probably in the range of 300,000 or more. About 289,000 in—

[Claudette Deschênes]

That was January to June. So it's about 424,000.

[Les Linklater]

In calendar year 2010, it was 424,000.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Okay, 420,000. Thanks.

I want to understand the numbers a little bit. I don't know if you have in front of you a document prepared by the analyst for this committee. It's got the table that totals the categories that lead up to the backlog of over a million applications worldwide. As of December 31, 2010, it says skilled workers—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

For the record, Mr. Davies, that document was prepared only for the MPs, so it's confidential to the members of the committee. You may want to rephrase your question.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Okay.

You may not have seen this, but information prepared for us says that there are 507,000 skilled worker applications in the backlog, with another 32,000 from Quebec, for a total backlog of skilled workers at 539,000 as of December 31, 2010.

In your presentation today, if I'm understanding correctly, you're saying that there is a backlog of 314,000 out of the second quarter of 2011, a more current number, and then there are another 140,000 individuals in the inventory. So am I correct in saying that the current inventory backlog in skilled workers is about 450,000—that is, the 314,000 plus the 140,000?