Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 5th, 2016

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Both of those contentions as to risks are true. I have not been told, myself, that Bulgaria and Romania would not sign CETA, but I have heard from others, including you, who have heard that. It is also a possibility that the European Union could impose visa restrictions not only on Canadians but also on Americans travelling to Europe.

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

I understand that, Minister, and I realize that this issue has been going on for some time. Obviously, Bulgaria and Romania have to do something. It's not just Canada. I understand that, too. The question is, what is the department doing—perhaps it is not your office—to resolve these issues?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

What we are doing, what I have been doing, is engaging in discussions with Romanian officials and European Union officials in order to work very hard to resolve this issue and find a pathway that will lead at some point to visa-free travel from Romania and Bulgaria. We have not made any commitments, but we are in the middle of ongoing discussions with Romania, in particular, and the European Union on this issue. I believe there are discussions by other ministers, as well.

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

You have 10 seconds, Minister. Have a good morning.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you very much, and you too, except it's afternoon now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Tilson.

Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes, please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you to the minister and his officials for coming before the committee again today. I would like to ask some specific questions, if I may.

The minister announced that in early April he would be sending staff back to the Middle East—Lebanon and possibly Jordan and Turkey—to process privately sponsored refugee applications that were received prior to March 31, 2016. I am wondering whether this has been done, what budget has been allocated to it, how many staff are being sent back, how long they will be there, and how many families have been processed with this additional resource.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

You're absolutely right in terms of the commitment. I've said before that I'm probably the only immigration minister in the world who's major challenge is that I can't provide refugees quickly enough to satisfy the demand from enormously generous Canadian families. It's a good problem, but it's a problem.

Due to this challenge, we are sending back to the region officials from our department, and possibly from others, in order to accelerate the processing of these refugee applicants so we can meet the commitment I made for all of those who had applied before March 31. We're still working on this, but it's going to happen very soon. We don't yet have the precise numbers of staff, or the precise time periods, but we will have those soon. I can tell you this operation will begin in a matter of days.

We are on it, but we haven't yet nailed down the precise numbers of people.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

If I may then ask the Minister to commit to the committee to provide that information to us as soon as it's available with precisely how many staff will be sent back, the budget allocation for it, how long they will be there, how many families will be processed with these additional resources, and how many will still be waiting.

I ask this because there are numerous families who have come forward sponsoring families and who are anxious. The level of frustration is beyond measure. They are frustrated because they've rented spaces and he apartments sit empty. They have no idea when those families are coming. Some of the sponsoring families have asked me to ask the minister for compensation. They felt the monies they've raised have being wasted, and when the families come they may not have the resources to accommodate them. You can imagine the level of frustration.

In relation to that, I need to ask the minister about this. We met and discussed this, and the minister indicated that work is under way with respect to it.

Specifically, there are some applications, and some refugee families, that are in locations where we don't even have a processing centre, particularly in northern Iraq. For example, I have in my riding the Or Shalom along with 100 other sponsoring groups who are waiting for Kurdish families in the northern Iraq area. They've been told there are no processing centres there to process the applications even though the UNHCR has approved them. They are literally at wits end with respect to this. Some of them, I think, met with the minister when he was in Vancouver.

The suggestion that I presented to the minister was to have the UNHCR, the IOM, and other international agencies help with processing the applications, especially in those locations where there are no processing centres, such as northern Iraq.

The minister indicated that was a good suggestion, so I wonder whether that has been undertaken, and if so when we can see families processed so they can arrive here in Canada.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

There were a number of questions there.

First of all, I do agree we will transmit to you the information on the numbers of people going back to the region.

I am acutely aware there are many people across the country waiting anxiously to receive the refugees, which is one of the consequences of what we are doing. I think we will be able to give more advance notice than had been the case in the past as to when particular refugees will be arriving.

In terms of your question about norther Iraq, we are working on that. One example is that I've had conversations in a synagogue in Winnipeg with people who are anxious to sponsor Yazidi refugees, and my staff along with the department are working on those cases. They haven't yet arrived, but we are working on them.

In those and other cases from that part of the world, we are working hard to make them able to come, but I wonder if anyone else among the officials would like to add a comment to that.

[Dawn Edlund, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Yes, Minister.

I would add that we have been able to put forward processing of people in difficult locations. For example, we've continued to process Iraqi refugees out of Syria, and we've done that through partnership with the International Organization for Migration and video-conference interviewing. Canada, I believe, is the only country still settling Iraqis out of Damascus.

We have been able to do that even without a processing centre on the site, but then we have to work to build those partnerships to make that happen.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

I've written the minister a letter around the Or Shalom group and their 100 organizations that are trying to bring these refugees over. I wonder if I could get a commitment from the minister to have his official look at specifically those cases to see where they are so I can go back to my constituents and let them know what the process is, particularly with authorizing the UNHCR and other international agencies to go into these sites to process families, and the progress with respect to that. I would like to know the specific numbers of how many families have been processed accordingly, and how many are still waiting. It's really good information to have so we can lay some of the concerns to rest, hopefully.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Twenty seconds.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you.

I think my own political staff have already been working on this, but I will check with them to ensure that's true and also make sure we work with officials on that issue.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Sarai, seven minutes, please.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to give my last minute to Mr. Chen, so perhaps you can remind me when I'm at six minutes.

Thank you, Minister, for coming once again and helping this committee out, and answering a lot of questions specifically today for our main estimates.

The main estimates for 2016-17 indicate that IRCC anticipates transferring roughly $6 million to Global Affairs to support their staff on missions abroad.

I'm wondering if you might be able to tell this committee about some of the specific activities that will be funded by this requested allocation of funding.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you very much for that question. It's generous of you to give one minute to Mr. Chen.

In terms of your question, however, we are transferring $9 million to Global Affairs to provide support to departmental staff located abroad for the following: property growth and visa office openings, $2.5 million; and the eTA initiative implementation and other adjustments, $6.5 million. That's $9 million from us to them. There's also $2.7 million from Global Affairs to us which reflects visa office closures, workload redistribution, and return of previous charges related to chancery costs.

Those are fairly technical issues, but that is the answer to your question.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Are you able to share with us how many staff IRCC currently has on missions abroad as well as the average staff per mission?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

No. Does anybody have an answer to that? I don't know the precise numbers.

[Robert Orr]

Mr. Chair, I don't have the precise numbers with me, but we have approximately 300 Canadian base officers abroad. Then we would be supported by about 1,100 locally engaged staff who are actually employees of Global Affairs Canada but work on IRCC issues.

The number of staff at missions varies considerably depending on the demand from that particular location and a variety of other factors, the complexity of the work in the area, and so on.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

You don't have an average size per se.

[Robert Orr]

There is no average size. They vary considerably. Some of them, I suppose, such as offices in Beijing and New Delhi would be our largest and very considerable with well over 100 individuals, and some of them are very small indeed.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

How have IRCC staffing and missions abroad changed in recent years, if at all? Do you anticipate future changes at those missions?

[Robert Orr]

Mr. Chair, there is no dramatic change. There is a change year by year. Sometimes we'll open certain offices. We've opened Guangzhou. We've opened Dar es Salaam this year, for instance, to respond to demands. The staffing levels may vary somewhat as well according to the demand and the need in that particular area.

There is always some adjustment each year, but it's not a dramatic amount year by year.