Evidence of meeting #6 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 backlog.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
CanPars Immigration Services Inc., As an Individual
Sure. I have it with me. There's no problem.
12:55 p.m.
CanPars Immigration Services Inc., As an Individual
But to respond to your point about—
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
If I could interrupt at that point, sir, if you could provide that information to the clerk, she will distribute it to the members.
12:55 p.m.
CanPars Immigration Services Inc., As an Individual
As to the point he mentioned, it is not required for Immigration Canada to make sure that.... If a physician is from Iran or South Africa, the qualifications of the degree are not a part of the job of Immigration Canada.
12:55 p.m.
CanPars Immigration Services Inc., As an Individual
I'm talking about the processing. They didn't even touch these people--about 500 cases and 144 physicians. They never opened their cases to see if they are physicians or not.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
We can't get into specifics about cases, and I caution you about waving those around, because if they end up on camera--
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Mokhtari is not getting into specific examples. He raised a number of 140 physicians. For Mr. Dykstra to say that we're not getting into specifics.... The witness is not getting into specifics. He's trying to testify about his experience on a statistical basis.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Mr. Davies, to be fair, I think Mr. Dykstra is concerned that he's holding up a document and that the camera might be able to pick up names. That's all.
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Mr. Atkinson, you laid out very well the position and the difficulties that your industry is going to be facing over the next number of years. Are you satisfied at least with respect to the changes we made in February, 2008? I mean, this whole study that we're doing here is specifically about reduction of backlogs and trying to work through them. Processing time is an issue unto itself. We're trying to deal with the backlog, and in regard to one of things that I think we did in February 2008, we've reduced that number by a little over 50% since that time. In getting specific with the areas where we're trying to bring professionals over here, are we on the right track?
I understand that we need to do more, I understand that we need to do it more quickly, and I understand that we need to respond to the needs of the industry. The previous action certainly didn't indicate a reduction in the backlog, but I would like to think that we're on the right track and moving forward.
1 p.m.
President, Canadian Construction Association
To the extent that you are identifying occupations under demand or under pressure that require immediate and urgent action, yes. To a great degree, that's what's being done in other areas of immigration as well, with expedited LMOs under the temporary foreign worker program to try to ensure that we are addressing our labour market needs.
But again, I want to stress the fact that you can only do that if you have accurate and dependable labour market information that looks at it over a five-year to ten-year period, and if you aren't doing it, sir, in a reactive way or a knee-jerk way, or doing it based on a snapshot of where we sit today. I think that's very important. No matter how we massage these programs, we have to make sure that industry and government are working together, that governments are working together, to ensure we are relying on the best information we can get in that area.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Mr. Dykstra, I'm afraid the time has expired.
Mr. Atkinson, thank you.
I'd like to thank all of you.
Mr. Creates, I think you were here for Bill C-35 before and I thank you for once again attending.
Ms. Parker--
1 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Oh, my.
I'm not going to get into that, Mr. Creates. It's a lovely tie, by the way.
Ms. Parker, Mr. Mokhtari, and Mr. Atkinson, thank you very much for coming in and making your presentation to us. We appreciate it very much.
Before I adjourn the meeting, I want to remind members of the subcommittee that we will be meeting in camera as soon as this meeting has been adjourned.
This meeting is adjourned.