Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 23rd, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Good morning, everyone. This is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, meeting no. 79, Tuesday, May 29, 2013. This meeting is televised.

The committee was asked on May 7 by the Standing Committee on Finance to consider the subject matter of clauses 167 to 168 of Bill C-60, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures which amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Mr. Rajotte, the chairman of the finance committee, has invited this committee to provide recommendations, including any amendments, no later than nine o'clock on May 27. That's next Monday.

Please note that other clauses in division 9 of Bill C-60 will amend the IRPA, but these will be considered by the Standing Committee on Human Resources. Clauses 170 to 172 in division 10 of Bill C-60, which amend the Citizenship Act, are also before this committee.

We have before us members of the department to answer any questions or comments made by members of the committee.

Good morning to all of you.

Ms. Melis, good morning to you. I believe you are going to introduce your colleagues.

You have the floor.

[Caroline Melis, Director General, Operational Management and Coordination, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

It's our pleasure to be here this morning to answer your questions related to these particular clauses of the budget implementation bill.

My name is Caroline Melis and I am the director general of operational management and coordination at CIC in the operations sector. I am accompanied today by Alexandra Hiles, the acting director of the citizenship program delivery and promotion division within my branch; Karine Paré, director of cost management within the finance branch at CIC; and, André Baril, director of asylum policy and programs within the refugee affairs branch in the policy sector at CIC.

It is our pleasure to answer your questions, and we can begin.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. James, you have the floor.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome to our officials. I am likely going to split some of my time with my colleague Mr. Menegakis.

I'll start by asking a couple of questions on user fees, specifically on costs associated with processing citizenship applications. Do you have on hand what it costs someone to apply to have it processed and go from start to finish?

[Karine Paré, Director, Cost Management, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you for your question.

Right now, the fee for a citizenship application is $200 for an adult and $100 for a child. The actual cost to the Government of Canada to process the application for a grant of citizenship is based on our 2010-11 data of costing, which was $555 for the total cost.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Is that the same cost regardless of whether it's an adult or a child? I should imagine it is.

[Karine Paré]

It's an average cost. I have to say that our costing model takes the totality of the cost for processing an application, and it's the average cost of all applications that we process for citizenship.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

What you're saying is that someone, an adult, who is not a Canadian citizen today but is applying for citizenship is paying only $200, and for dependants or children, $100 per child, but you just said the actual average cost is $555. Where is the rest of that money coming from? Who covers that cost?

[Karine Paré]

The money is in our budget that Citizenship and Immigration has to process applications. The revenues generated from the fees go to the consolidated revenue fund of Canada. The CIC does not have access to these funds. They go to the consolidated revenue fund.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Essentially what you are saying is that average Canadian taxpayers, Canadian citizens, are footing the bulk of the bill for processing applications.

[Karine Paré]

Yes.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I know I can't ask you whether that's fair because that would be your opinion, but I'm sitting here thinking that's not really fair. In my riding of Scarborough Centre, a very modest-income area of Toronto, hard-working individuals are trying to make ends meet. Asking them to foot the bulk of the bill for someone who wants to become a citizen….

Has this changed recently? Have these fees been standard? Has it always been $200? When was the last time this was addressed?

[Karine Paré]

The last time we increased the citizenship application fee was in 1995.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay, so it's more or less time for a change. Thank you.

I'm going to pass the remainder of my time to Mr. Menegakis.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you for appearing before us today.

I have one question today. In 2012 we issued a record one million visitor visas, which was a 40% increase since 2004. We also issued 100,000 international student visas. That's a 60% increase since 2004.

Can you tell us a bit about the consequences of wait-time increases? The fees remain static while the cost of processing rises.

[Caroline Melis]

Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Menegakis.

I think we're here today to discuss the issues of citizenship and the refugee appeal division, so I'm not able to answer your particular question. I'm not the right official.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

I'll pass it over to Mr. Opitz.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

All right. I wasn't expecting that pass, but that's good.

In following through, you're here to speak specifically to the refugee issues and things like that. That has been significantly streamlined.

Can you tell us how that's operating right now, in terms of the number of refugees coming in and the statistics for the new system of refugee reform compared to the year before?

[André Baril, Director, Asylum Policy and Programs, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Yes. In terms of volume under the new system as opposed to the past system, as of April 2013, under the new system we've referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board approximately 3,000 claims. This represents a 60% decrease over the average of the last three years—

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Decrease?

[André Baril]

Yes.

—which was at this time of the year about 7,600 claims.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's significant. Thank you.

I'm going to pass the next question to Mr. Weston.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you.

Again, my thanks for being here this morning.

The summary of the bill states that division 9 of part 3 of Bill C-60 authorizes “the revocation of temporary foreign worker permits, the revocation and suspension of opinions provided by the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development...”.

I'm wondering if any of you can comment on how that relates to the government's express priorities on promoting jobs and stimulating the economy.

[Caroline Melis]

We didn't come prepared to discuss those particular issues today. We were focusing on the RAD effects and the citizenship issues.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Which effects?