Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 19th, 2018

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Illegal, sir.

[Mike MacDonald]

All of the illegal crossings are in the IRB's queue and will be seen with—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

How many of those are there?

[Mike MacDonald]

There will be over 16,000.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

So 16,000 have yet to be heard. What's the rejection rate for those claims?

[Mike MacDonald]

Do you mean the ones under the special task force?

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I mean the matters that are being heard by the IRB. What's the rejection rate for those claims?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

It depends on the nationality of the claimant.

[Mike MacDonald]

I can give you two examples.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

All right.

Can you give us a breakdown country by country?

[Mike MacDonald]

There are some breakdowns I can provide right now.

For example, for the task force looking at the 2,552 cases, the acceptance rate for Haitians was 8%; the rejection number was 278 cases; and there were 131 cases of abandonment. In contrast, the acceptance rate for Nigerians is 44% and the abandonment rate was 6%.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

There's a piece in the Toronto Star that said that new data shows that 69% of illegal border crossers are being granted asylum. Does that contradict what you just said?

[Mike MacDonald]

No, it doesn't. You have to look at them all, not by nationalities. I was providing you only some of the nationalities. Each nationality varies depending on the conditions.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

So you would agree that 69% of illegal border crossers are being granted asylum?

[Mike MacDonald]

I can't comment on the IRB's statistics overall, sir.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

All right.

How long will it take to clear the backlog of the IRB?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

This is why budget 2018 provides additional funding to the IRB to do exactly that, to plow through the backlog and make sure that processing is done faster so that asylum seekers know whether they can move on with their lives in Canada or they can be asked to leave.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Well, your own department said it could go to 133 months by 2021. Is that right? Your own department says that.

Budget 2017 did not provide new funding for the IRB. Wait times for cases in the backlog increased to be anywhere from 53 to 133 months by 2021 using those scenarios. Do you agree with that?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I don't agree with that, because it doesn't take into account the money—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Well, I have a letter here, sir, from your department saying just that.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

No. If I can just answer the question, this is precisely why budget 2018 has provided money to be able to have the IRB do faster processing and get through the backlog. In addition to that, they already had efficiencies prior to the budget, which they put in place. We're also waiting for the independent review to make sure that we find further efficiencies to enable the IRB to do faster processing.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Well, don't you have a problem, Mr. Minister? Because of the volume of cases of the IRB, you're ignoring the law that calls for hearings within 60 days. What do you intend to do to rectify that?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I am not ignoring any law, sir. What is happening—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Well, it's going beyond 60 days.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

The Immigration and Refugee Board is a quasi-judicial independent board. They do what they can to process cases. Our job is to support them administratively and in terms of funding, and to make sure they meet their commitments and clear the backlog.