Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 24th, 2018

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.

On the agenda

Immigration and Refugee Board's Appointment, Training and Complaint Processes

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Crystal Warner National Executive Vice-President, Canada Employment and Immigration Union

Laverne Jacobs Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, As an Individual

Paul Aterman Acting Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board

Greg Kipling Director General, Policy, Planning and Corporate Affairs Branch, Immigration and Refugee Board

12:55 p.m.

Acting Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board

Paul Aterman

You're correct. The complaints process doesn't do that. In my view it shouldn't do that. Those are issues that have to do with how well the person is doing the job, not how they behave toward other people. It's training. It's the evaluation process. Those are the tools we use to address them. We have a good process for recruiting people. It's extremely rigorous. Whether it's on the public service side or the GIC side, only one in 10 will ever qualify to even be considered. That said, it's not perfect. Sometimes we appoint people who turn out not to be able to do the job. On the GIC side you have term limits. It's dealt with that way. On the public service side there are the disciplinary mechanisms associated with that. They are used. It's a slower process.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

This is probably my last question at this point. I know you don't want to try to make the decisions, but we need to come up with recommendations on this very issue. As you're the chair of the IRB, we look to you for your view on what would be more optimal for your organization.

Would it be better to have clerks operating in a clerical function as professional civil servants? Should the adjudicators be independent GIC appointments so the process by which they can be removed for issues related to consistency, competence in the law, and efficiency, would be addressed at the reappointment stage?

Do you have any views on which would be better for those lower two divisions?

1 p.m.

Acting Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board

Paul Aterman

No.

There are advantages and disadvantages with respect to both employment regimes. Fundamentally that's the choice the government is going to make.

1 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm afraid I need to end there.

I want to remind the committee that we will be meeting on Thursday. We will have a panel. Only one witness is appearing. I'm going to be proposing—you'll get a notice—that we shorten that panel slightly. Then we'll have drafting instructions for slightly over an hour on Thursday so we can do this.

Thank you very much, witnesses, for coming and for your involvement in our study.

The meeting is adjourned.