Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 19th, 2013

[Col François Bariteau]

If you combine the reserve force and the regular force, there are currently 61 people.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Great.

I have another question about the figures. Do those figures represent an increase or are they more or less stable from year to year?

[Col François Bariteau]

They have been more or less stable for three years. we are talking about 15 to 17 people each year. It depends on the occupations for which we are looking for highly skilled people.

Let me go back to my example of pilots. We need two to two and a half years to train a fighter pilot. That is the kind of permanent resident that we are trying to recruit. At the very least, we will seriously consider people like that if they show up at one of the country's recruiting centres.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

You gave me figures for the last three years, approximately. Do you have figures beyond that time?

[Col François Bariteau]

On average, over the years, we are talking about 15 or so each year.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Do you have any other examples of skills? You mentioned pilots, where a lot of training is required. Are there any others?

[Col François Bariteau]

As I mentioned earlier, we are talking about specific needs. In addition, it must not be detrimental to the national interest.

For enlistment in the Canadian Forces, we consider Canadian citizens first and foremost. The Canadian military is a complex organization, with more than 95 different occupations. When we have a shortage of staff in some of those occupations, one of the ways the Canadian Forces react is to look for those skills among permanent residents, especially England, Australia and New Zealand. If people like that have permanent resident status, they can be considered, depending on their qualifications.

I can give you an example. There was an English individual who had been tasked with repatriating equipment from Afghanistan to England. That is a qualification that was very important for us because we were also about to go through the same process of repatriating equipment. An organization in the Canadian Forces was looking for the expertise of a person like that, but we have not obtained it yet, unfortunately. That is one example.

Social workers are another example. Currently that occupation is at 75% of its authorized strength.

So there are people whom we can consider if ever we are unable to recruit them from Canadians, by which I mean Canadian citizens.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

I am going to stop you there, because I have other questions.

The countries you named are part of the Commonwealth.

[Col François Bariteau]

That need not always be the case.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Are we looking for permanent residents from all over the world?

[Col François Bariteau]

Exactly.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Great.

I have another question about that. How does a permanent resident make known a desire to join the Canadian Forces? On the website, we can read very clearly that you must be a Canadian citizen in order to enlist in the Canadian Forces. How do permanent residents who want to enlist and who have the skills to do so find out that they are able to?

[Col François Bariteau]

The same process applies. In other words, someone interested in joining the Canadian Forces goes to one of the country's recruiting centres and applies. As I told you, if there is a particular need and if it is not prejudicial to the national interest, that individual's file will be considered. If there is a particular need, it is possible for that person to enlist. However, our priority remains always to enlist Canadian citizens.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

I have a final question.

So we are talking about 60 or so permanent residents who, if they are serving with our armed forces, we can imagine that they want to become Canadian citizens. But at the moment, there is a tremendous backlog in citizenship applications.

Do you think that this measure will have a real effect on the people it is targeting, given the backlog that currently exists?

[Col François Bariteau]

That is not really my area of expertise. However, I can tell you that, in my experience, we provide these particular people we are employing, whether in the reserve or the regular forces, with a three-year engagement period. This is an administrative measure that we use as a method of control. In the second year, we confirm with the individuals whether or not they intend to submit an application for Canadian citizenship. If so, it is possible for us, through the Chief of Military Personnel, to extend the engagement period for an additional year, so that the process gets underway and is resolved to the individual's satisfaction. If, for example, it takes more than a year to get it, it is possible for us to continue to employ the individual in the Canadian Forces.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Ms. Freeman.

Mr. Lamoureux.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Chair, thank you.

In terms of some of the numbers, what would be the annual recruitment of individuals into our regular forces?

[Col François Bariteau]

We're talking right now, sir, roughly around 4,000.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Four thousand a year into regular forces? What about reserves?

[Col François Bariteau]

Unfortunately, for the reserves, I do not have visibility for the reserve forces, because the reserve forces are managed by the navy, the army, and the air force. They're independent. From my best recollection, we're talking about roughly 1,500 to 2,000 a year, I would say.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

That's a guesstimate: 1,500 to 2,000 a year.

In regard to what really caught my ear, you said that the first choice is to go to a Canadian citizen. If you take a look at the recruiting office—I was going to point out the website, which I did in second reading—it's very clearly stated at the beginning. If I'm a landed immigrant or a permanent resident and I click in, it says that you have to be a Canadian citizen, and that might be as far as I go. Then, if I go into the details, I find out that I don't necessarily have to be a Canadian citizen.

I'm not necessarily looking for a comment. I just want to make sure you're aware of that fact. I think it's something that should be rectified. When you talk about how a landed immigrant is given a second look-over only if Canadian citizens don't fill the current gap...is that what you were saying?

[Col François Bariteau]

No.

Thank you for the question.

What I was saying is that when there is a special need and the enrolment of that person would not create a prejudice to the national interest.... In other words, we would not prevent a Canadian citizen from being enrolled in the Canadian Forces to the benefit of a permanent resident. That being said, if there is a special qualification we're looking for that we do not find within the Canadian population, with a Canadian citizen, this is where a permanent resident could have the possibility of being enrolled in the forces.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

In order to fill a gap, the recruiting officers will go out and recruit individuals who have certain expertise and are landed immigrants. When you talk about 15 a year, are those the 15 that you're really referring to?

[Col François Bariteau]

That's correct.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

So how many individuals who are just landed permanent residents and would put in a general application might actually get accepted?