Evidence of meeting #100 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:25 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The acceptance rate of Mexicans is 27% in the year 2017. That's the acceptance rate via the IRB.
1:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It would be the remainder.
I guess there is some abandonment, too.
1:25 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
With a percentage of abandonment....
1:25 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
All right.
How many refugee claims have originated from Romanian nationals since their visa lift in 2017?
1:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
There have been 604, as of March 15.
1:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
For Bulgarians, it is 15.
1:25 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Do we have claim rejection numbers for those groups yet?
1:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I don't have those. This is fairly recent, as you know. The lift just happened in December, so my sense is that we don't have those figures. They wouldn't even have been heard at this point.
1:25 p.m.
Liberal
1:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
For sure.
1:25 p.m.
Liberal
1:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Just on the IRB funding, I do want to acknowledge the increase. I think it is important, but that said, let's just be clear. Currently the backlog is increasing by about 2,100 cases per month. The total backlog, roughly, as of 2017, was at 43,000.
Given the funding that is being provided, we would process about 18,000 cases. That is not even half of the backlog, so this means that all those new cases that are coming in are just going to be legacy cases 2.0. That is the reality. I'm just going to park that.
I know staff can't answer these questions because you don't determine funding.
I would urge the government to seriously look at these numbers. No amount of dollars will be saved from the efficiencies that the government is currently undergoing if we seriously want to address this issue.
I want to see whether or not staff can give the committee a quick answer on the timeline. Can we expect an action from the government with respect to the crooked consultants recommendations—yes or no—and if yes, what is the timeline?
1:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
A number of months is the best timeline I can give you. This is a priority for the minister. We're briefing him on a continual basis, so months.
1:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
All right. I guess I'll hold my breath.
I'd like to ask about information that I hope the committee can receive with respect to the funding applications under budget 2018 for IRCC.
What is available in terms of dollar amounts for program applications from the community? Can you provide that information, and under what program and when would there be a call for proposal for these programs? If there are programs that will not be going out to tender, and there is reallocation of dollars to existing groups, can you tell us what those programs are and how much is being allocated where for those existing, ongoing, programming dollars? That way the community groups that are looking to see if they can apply for government funding for various programs will know what programs to apply for and what the timeline is.
Can we get that information from staff for the committee?
1:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I just want to manage expectations, Mr. Chair.
It's a very broad question and I'm not sure if you're speaking about a specific program area, for example, in settlement or about program applications writ large across the department?
1:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
IRCC, in your budget 2018, provides for a number of different streams. Resettlement is one stream but it is not the only stream. Often people come and ask about what government funding is available. Could they could apply for it? I would like to get that list of areas where people can apply for funding. This is the program area responsible...for the timelines. For those funding programs, when will there be an open call for tender?
1:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We could provide a list of the programs that we have at IRCC that you can apply for. That I can commit to. In terms of what got money in the budget and when the deadlines are, that might take us a considerable amount of time to get, but we'll certainly look into it.
1:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I would appreciate getting that. I think all MPs would appreciate getting that information as well.
Now, it's been brought to my attention that there's a group called Refugee Centre, in Montreal. They have some very innovative ways of processing, or at least screening of applicants, refugees, asylum seekers, and so on.
Would staff be interested in meeting with this group to see whether the program that they have in place would be useful for IRCC and/or the IRB? Would staff be interested in engaging with this group?
1:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We're happy to meet with them if the committee feels it's worth it. We would do that if that's something you would like.
1:30 p.m.
NDP
1:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
For sure.
1:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Then I will refer it back and you can make that assessment yourself. It seemed to me when I met with them that it's a useful tool and it's something that would be worthwhile looking into.
Another concept that has been brought to my attention is setting up a primary health care facility for immigrants, and particularly refugees with language challenges and so on. You would basically have a one-stop shop for people who need these health care services. This work is being undertaken by a group of doctors on their own trying to set up a non-profit in that regard.
Is there any funding within the budget that can provide for infrastructure or programming dollars with respect to this kind of concept? If you can't answer that question, would staff be interested in meeting with them to explore this option? At this committee we've talked about resettlement services, access to health care, language difficulties, and so on. Imagine if we can have primary care facilities that are available to provide that kind of service. It would be cost-efficient, and most importantly, it would provide efficient services to the people who need it.
1:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Settlement and Integration, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes.
My colleague Ms. Edlund may wish to add to this.
I'm not sure if there was a question there, Ms. Kwan, but certainly we would be happy to meet with anyone who has innovative ideas. Of course, the government doesn't provide primary health care; it's a provincial responsibility. We do have a number of programs where we work closely to train our staff on how to do referrals, to work with organizations to ensure that we are accurately and precisely directing people toward provincial health care services and mental health care services.
