I would too—
Evidence of meeting #101 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 irb.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #101 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 irb.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
We do everything—
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
To be very frank with the committee, when we started the new process, we had a lot of work to do. We had to set up a whole new system across the government. We're two years in and I like to think that we've hit our stride. We have a good relationship with departments. Organizations like the IRB, which had a system in place before the system that we now have, are actually some of our best partners. We've learned a lot from them in terms of how to institute rigorous processes, undertake complicated exams, and do interviews for high, high volumes of candidates.
I think that we've improved our processes. Could we do better? Absolutely. Will we do better? Absolutely, and we'll continue to work with the IRB to help them. I'm quite seized by the fact that they just received $70-some-odd million.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
What efforts are being made to speed up the hiring through the appointment process by the Privy Council Office?
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
One of the things I would point to specifically for the IRB is that we're looking at where their acute needs are and we're going through applicants with a view to trying to triage and focus on certain needs. For example, bilingual candidates—
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
Absolutely.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
That's what the needs are. What are you doing to solve that?
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
As I mentioned, we're working very closely with them to try to figure out where we should target out of the hundreds and hundreds of applicants, what regions have the greatest need, and what types of candidates they're looking for.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Why are the chair and members of the two appeal divisions appointed by the Governor in Council, whereas all other members are appointed in accordance with the Public Service Employment Act?
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
There's a division in the legislation in terms of which organizations or which mechanisms are used to appoint, and that's how it's set out in the legislation.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
I don't believe so. I wouldn't really be in a position to comment on a policy decision.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Except one has no vacancies and one has, I don't know, 70? It has a bunch of vacancies.
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much.
I'm just looking at the website to which you referred, and I see that the posting lists the deadline for applications for the IRB as June 29, 2018. Can you tell me when this was posted?
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
Honestly, I couldn't say the date off the top of my head. As I said, it's a constant intake model. We could check and get back to you with the exact date we posted it. We do often put a date in there. There's nothing like a deadline to focus the mind, so we often put a deadline in there, but we don't actually close it out. We constantly review applicants.
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay. If you could check the date on which that was posted, and the date of the posting prior to that, that would be great.
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
Certainly.
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In some ways, if you say that this is a rolling posting, but you have a deadline there, after the deadline, people are not going to apply. So it's strange, because it would make no sense to people that you're still taking applications. That has to be figured out. Otherwise, you can't say that this is a rolling posting.
12:30 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
Fair enough.
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
The other issue is this. I see that on the vacancies for the IRB for Calgary, the vacancy date is 2,929 days; that's over eight years. How is it that that position is not filled after eight years, under whichever government at any point in time?
12:35 p.m.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel Secretariat, Privy Council Office
I understand your question.
Mr. Chair, I'll go back to my earlier comments about the vacancies on our website. This is something we work on constantly with our colleagues at the IRB to determine where their needs are. There is no set number of positions or positions listed across the country. It is according to the needs of the organization at the time to fill the obligations of the board. We really look to the IRB to help us determine what the needs are in the various regions.
It is a good question and it is something we will look at addressing going forward, but we depend entirely on them to identify what their needs are.
