Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 10th, 2016

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Could you give that to the clerk soon?

Thank you.

[Anita Biguzs]

Yes, Mr. Chair.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

If we could get the number as well as the cost of the staff who have come back, that would be great.

On March 10, I asked a question on how much was spent on the renovations for the military base. I received some answers to my set of questions from March 10, but I did not get a response to that question. I wonder if I could get that as well.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Is the answer to that, yes, Ms. Biguzs?

[Anita Biguzs]

Yes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Then moving on to new questions, I wonder if the officials could give me the breakdown of the resources allocated to local embassies to process sponsorship applications, and to have that breakdown by categories that are currently on the website so we actually have a basis to look at.

Could I have information on what the targets are for each embassy as well? That would be for the different categories, parents and grandparents as well as spousal, family reunification applications.

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, we'll be happy to look into that. It may be that we don't normally break down our costing by mission according to business line to that degree. I can certainly make the commitment that we will go back and assess the question from the member, and respond to the clerk of the committee appropriately in terms of how we do actually account for our costing, but some of it may not be costing we would normally have.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I've stopped the clock, Ms. Kwan.

As you may or may not know, the committee is embarking on a study of the Syrian settlement issue. That information would be useful before we start that, if that's possible.

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, if the member could clarify the question, my understanding is that this is not just looking at refugees. Perhaps the member could clarify precisely what kind of costing. It sounded as if it was more than for Syrian refugees. It would be helpful if you could clarify that, and I take your point, Mr. Chair, in terms of your interest in having information on the Syrian refugee initiative.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for that intervention.

Yes, it's not only for Syrian refugees; it's for all the different categories. I think it's important to know, so perhaps I could get the breakdown by cost as well as by staff, so on both counts.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I've started the clock again, thank you.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

With respect to the wait times for the different categories, for parents and grandparents reunification and other family sponsorships, spousal sponsorships are done differently. On the website it actually shows the processing time in Mississauga as well as the local embassies for the spousal and dependent children sponsorship category, but for the parents and grandparents it doesn't. It only gives the one timeline.

I'm wondering why it does not show the different timelines as it used to. Would the department commit to actually providing that additional information?

[Robert Orr]

Mr. Chair, we're trying to give as much information as we can on the spousal information and we have broken that down. Recently we changed how we presented it so there is more fulsome information on the spousal processing times.

For the parents and grandparents, it's rather complicated at the moment because we are going through a phase where we are making significant inroads into the backlog, but there was a pause period. What we are doing is trying to indicate the timing of which applications we're dealing with, so people can see that, because once the application is in the process, it's fairly rapid to get a response. What we're trying to do is give an indication of what sort of applications we're dealing with.

We have sufficient levels space this year, but because there was a pause for a couple of years on parents' and grandparents' applications, we're now into the new applications that were received after that pause. We should see a rapid decline in processing times for parents and grandparents as a result of that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

It would be very useful to find out exactly the processing time. I understand that there was a pause, but even with that, right now it's really hard to find out exactly what the wait is, so that the families can plan accordingly. The website only says—and I checked just this morning—40 months or 41 months and it doesn't give you any other information.

If you go back, it used to list the embassy wait times as well, so you could differentiate the wait times in the processing here in Canada as well as the wait times in the local embassies.

[Robert Orr]

If I may, on that particular point, the reason we're not doing it by embassies is that many of the parents' and grandparents' applications are processed entirely in Canada and never go to one of our missions overseas. Therefore, if you have an applicant from a given country, the application may be processed entirely in an office in Mississauga and never go to the mission abroad.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Are you suggesting that the 40- or 41-month wait time is the entire time in terms of the wait time?

[Robert Orr]

That is correct.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thanks for that clarification.

With respect to contacting local embassies, this is again an issue that's come up for MPs. They're not able to contact local embassies, in some instances, to get information for their constituents. This was again a change from previous practice. I believe it's been raised and has been brought to the minister's attention. At our last session with officials, it was brought to the officials' attention. There was supposed to be work under way to fix the issues there.

Has that been addressed, and what can we expect?

[Robert Orr]

We've recently instituted, Mr. Chair, a single point of contact for MPs. This is to simplify matters for members of Parliament. Because of our integrated network, to which the deputy made reference, it's often difficult to know where an application is actually being processed. It may start off in a particular country. It may be processed in Canada. It may be at one of our centralized processing centres abroad.

What we have tried to do, therefore, is to say that you can come with a particular inquiry, and we will determine where the application is being processed and ensure you get a response within the specified service standards.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm sorry, but with all due respect, the specified—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Kwan, I'm sorry, but the time has expired.

Mr. Chen.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a question with respect to the main estimates and the $6.3 million in transfer funds to Global Affairs. This represents a net decrease of $3.7 million from the previous financial year. What is the rationale for the decrease, and how will this impact service delivery at our Canadian missions abroad?

[Anita Biguzs]

Mr. Chair, our department has many staff who are located in and of course work out of our missions abroad. I think we have the second-largest footprint, after Global Affairs, in terms of the number of Canadian-based staff working on immigration processing abroad, including locally engaged staff as well. We have a memorandum of understanding with Global Affairs in terms of funding that we actually provide on a regular basis to cover those costs, whether it's property growth, opening of new visa offices, or as well, the electronic travel authorization. These are increased costs to support the work we do.

At the same time as well, Global Affairs actually then transfers back to us changes in terms of funding levels where we've had visa office closures, for example, or where there's been a workload redistribution, so it's kind of a net effect. There have been funds that we have provided to Global Affairs, and Global Affairs has transferred money back to us. What you see is basically the net amount that's reflected in terms of this particular transfer. Essentially, it's just reflecting the amount of support services required to support Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship staff in our missions abroad.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

In terms of the net change, one of the issues that I've heard about from constituents in my riding is their concern around the process for visitor visa applications. Some constituents have expressed to me that they have relatives and other people abroad who have received visitor visas in the past, yet they apply for a third or fourth time and get denied.

In terms of the budget, is there sufficient staff at the missions? What type of work are they doing in terms of coordinating between different missions to understand the history, for example, of a visitor visa applicant?