Evidence of meeting #106 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 decision-makers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Warner, you mentioned, when you were talking to my colleagues on this side of the committee, that the IRB was underfunded and understaffed. With the $74 million added to the IRB, do you think that will make a difference in processing asylum claims, etc.?
I'll get into another question right after that.
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
I absolutely do, but as I mentioned, because it's only two-year funding, it's too short-term.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
It's hard for you to plan, so you'd need more funding.
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
We also don't know what's coming. With things that are occurring south of the border, it's hard to predict the necessary resources we are going to require.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I'm probably one of the last people who will be asking a question and I want to ask this to both of the witnesses. Just to wrap up, because this is the last meeting, I'd like your suggestions to the committee in terms of complaints, training, and appointments. On those three streams, we've heard a lot of suggestions. I just want you to come together and give us suggestions on those three areas, so that we can wrap up this study.
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
I would have a lot to say on all of those areas. Is it possible for me to provide written submissions to the committee?
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Yes. You can provide written submissions. If you have something quick that you want to say, you're more than welcome.
I'll refer this question to Ms. Jacobs.
Prof. Laverne Jacobs
With respect to complaints, I think the process that has been put in place is an improvement over the one that was there before. An ideal process would have a final decision as to who's independent. It's possible to phase that in over time, so it doesn't have to be changed right away, but that's my main recommendation, to perhaps look at that.
With respect to training, I think it's important to emphasize training around credibility assessment as that has arisen quite a bit in news stories, etc. Training around implicit bias and so on is also important. I think that anonymizing conduct complaints, so that they can be used as training tools in a collective manner for the board would be useful as well.
In terms of appointments, they are fundamental and really the starting point. It's important to have merit-based appointments and to really examine the appointees who are coming through in terms of both their ability to handle adjudication hearings and their knowledge of the law or their potential to learn the law if they are not at that stage.
As I mentioned earlier, I think it's important to keep in mind that sometimes the nature of the appointments might vary, so sometimes you'll need people who have more expertise at a certain point in time, such as now with the backlogs. Perhaps at other points in time you will have a need for people with an ability to manage hearings.
The IRB is generally doing a good job—I've heard others say this is well, and I agree—and it is really the behaviour of a few particular individuals that's challenging. The discrepancy rates in approvals are also somewhat concerning.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I would agree with you that more resources need to be put in place, so there's more ability to manage hearings, to be specialized, and to not get bogged down by various other requirements.
Ms. Warner, do you want to elaborate on how that extra work is hindering employees in the work they're trying to do?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
It's hindering the board's ability to retain its employees, because the funding is sporadic and never long-term. We're not able to attract. We're not able to post our permanent positions, and then we're not able to retain staff, because we don't know if the funding will be there the following year. The need for ongoing A-based funding is vital.
Liberal
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you.
Ms. Warner, has the workload of your members significantly increased in the last year?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
Absolutely.
Conservative
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
I couldn't give you that information.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay. There are two ways to look at increases in workload. One is to put more resources in place, and the other is to look at demand for services.
How many cases are you anticipating reviewing over the next year with regard to claims that have been filed by people who have entered Canada illegally from the United States, and then, subsequently, made an asylum claim?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
You'd have to ask the employer about irregular border crossings.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Has that particular issue put a significant demand on processing?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
Yes, of course.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Would you say that the increase in resources that you're requesting can correlate to the fact that there has been a significant increase in asylum claims coming through that particular channel?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
Yes, but I would also argue that we've been under-resourced for years. We saw pressure being put on the decision-makers to increase their numbers of completed decisions even prior to last year.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Would you agree this has exacerbated the situation?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
I don't know if I would say exacerbated the situation, but the bottom line is that there was a need for additional funding, and the funding needs to be long-term.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Just to clarify the point I'm trying to make, last year, we had over 20,000 people cross the border illegally from the United States into Canada. Many of them made asylum claims. I know that your staff have admirably been working really hard to clear a lot of backlogs, but just to clarify, you don't know if that has exacerbated it.
Do you think it's fair to say that an additional 20,000 cases coming via this channel has perhaps led to an increase in workload?
National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union
I would have liked to see funding come in before this last year. I think the IRB is going to be able to do the job. It's being better funded now, and hopefully this government will make a decision to make that funding longer term, but it's going to be able to deliver now.
