Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 28th, 2014

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We will suspend.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We're going to reconvene.

We have the staff from the ministry with us. I gave their names earlier.

We're going to take the position that we're starting round one again, so Mr. Opitz, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you all for being here. It was good to see the minister here as well.

This has a lot of meaning for me, especially on the Canadian Forces' side, having served before, because anybody who is a Canadian citizen and commits an act of war against our Canadian Forces personnel, like those gentlemen in uniform back there, should definitely not be tolerated in this country.

I think the standards of citizenship should be high. The bar should demonstrate the integrity of what citizenship is. Our friends in the Liberal Party had most of the last century to put that in place, and they didn't do that. Our friends from the NDP, although very nice people, are somewhat unrealistic about some things regarding citizenship. Certainly when my parents arrived here after the Second World War they took it all very seriously.

What are some of the factors that lead to longer processing times? I'm not sure who would answer this right away. Would that be you, Mr. Orr?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Nobody listens to me anymore.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

It's a fair question, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Stop the clock.

You are the third government member I've commented on. This isn't the place to take shots at other—

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, it's not your place to edit my comments.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

It is my place to make sure there's order, and I don't think it's appropriate to attack other members of this committee.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

I was asking my question, Mr. Chair. It's true. I'll challenge you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

All right, you go ahead, but you heard my objection.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

I heard it, but again it's not your place to edit my comments, if we're fair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

It is my position. You have the floor.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

I disagree.

What are some of the factors that lead to longer processing times?

[Robert Orr]

A number of factors have influenced processing times over the last few years.

First is the increased levels of immigration over a sustained period. Inevitably that leads to greater numbers of citizenship applications a few years down the road. There has been a direct correlation between those two things. In the last few years as well we have put greater emphasis on integrity in the program, and that has also meant that sometimes processing has been slowed. Sometimes there have also been issues of citizenship judges' positions being vacant, which has slowed some processing as well.

I think we have taken a very large number of measures to try to increase the speed of processing in recent years. A considerable amount of money, $44 million from economic action plan 2013, was given to the department to look at processing. Some other things we have done is that applicants must supply evidence of their language ability up front. In other words, one step of the process is already done before we get the applications now.

Second, since June 2013 we have allowed those who do not pass the knowledge test on the first go-round to take it a second time. That's been very successful with over 50% of those people who have taken it a second time succeeding on the second occasion.

The third way we have tried to increase processing is that sometimes family members were held back because we used to process a family all at once. Now they have the choice, if certain members of the family wish to go ahead because one individual is not ready for citizenship for one reason or another—nothing to do with program integrity—the rest of the family can proceed.

We have taken a number of measures to try to improve processing times.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

All right, sir.

You mentioned integrity a couple of times. How do the changes in Bill C-24 affect the integrity of the citizenship program and the fraud that has been seen in the citizenship application process?

[Nicole Girard]

Thank you for your question.

A number of proposals in this bill will significantly help reinforce our efforts under way to improve the integrity of the citizenship program.

You heard the minister speak earlier about changes to the requirements. For example, residence is one of the main areas where we have fraud. Now we're moving to a more objective test backed by objective evidence. When the government has the entry-exit tool starting next year, that will help the decision-making process to be much more clear-cut and to identify those cases right up front in the process when someone is saying that they meet the residence requirement, whereas we may have objective evidence that may not be the case. Those cases will be identified much earlier on now, which will be to the good.

The bill itself proposes a range of other measures to reinforce integrity. One of the ones the minister mentioned had to do with new authority to designate a body to regulate citizenship consultants, similar to what exists under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, to hold these consultants to similar ethical and professional standards of conduct, and at the same time bring the offences and penalties for citizenship fraud up to date to provide some additional deterrents, as well as some of those measures around the revocation process which the minister spoke of earlier.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Staying along that line, at the present time approximately what percentage of the CIC caseload is related to residence fraud? Do you have an approximate number?

[Robert Orr]

I believe about 85% of the revocation cases at the moment are related to residency fraud. That gives you some indication in that particular area, but it is one of the key areas where we would go to hearings over residency questions with judges as well.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Getting to the Canadian Forces for a second, if a person has committed an act of war somewhere in the world, or even here, against Canadian Forces and their citizenship gets revoked, can they reapply for citizenship at any time?

[Nicole Girard]

A person who is subject to a decision by the Federal Court, an individual whose citizenship is being revoked on the grounds of being a member of a foreign armed force that is engaged with the Canadian Forces in armed combat, if the Federal Court makes a decision to revoke citizenship on that basis, such a person would be barred permanently from applying for Canadian citizenship on the basis of the seriousness of the circumstances that gave rise to the revocation in the first instance.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Ms. Blanchette-Lamothe, please.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Girard, I have a few questions about citizenship judges.

They currently hold hearings and make decisions. Those judges are independent from the department. Is that correct?

[Nicole Girard]

Yes.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Who will make those decisions instead of the judges under Bill C-24?