Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 2nd, 2018

[The Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.)), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm going to call this meeting to order, which is our 123rd meeting in the 42nd Parliament.

Pursuant to Standing Orders 110 and 111, we are considering the order in council appointment of Richard Wex to the position of chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board. It was referred to our committee on September 21 for consideration.

We thank Mr. Wex for attending the meeting today. He is given a chance to make an opening statement, and then we will consider this appointment for the first hour in committee.

Welcome, Mr. Wex, and thank you for agreeing to come.

[Richard Wex, Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I am pleased to be here with you this afternoon to talk about my appointment as chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board, the IRB.

As I have told my new team from the start, I am truly proud to have been named chairperson of the IRB, especially at this time.

I joined the public service over 25 years ago in part because I was socialized by my family about the importance of public service and the opportunity public servants have to contribute to Canada and to Canadians. I can think of few public policy issues that are currently more pressing or of greater importance than our country's response to global migration.

The IRB, as the independent administrative tribunal entrusted by Parliament with resolving immigration and refugee cases fairly and efficiently, plays a key role in Canada's approach to the challenges and opportunities presented by such migration.

It's part of a broader ecosystem of departments and agencies that influences the public's overall confidence in Canada's approach to our asylum determination system and immigration more broadly. In short, it is clear, as I believe the members of this committee know very well, that the IRB matters to one of the most important public policy issues of our day.

The IRB enjoys a global reputation in terms of its model for refugee determination and is known for having a dedicated, highly skilled and professional workforce, a workforce that frequently carries a heavy responsibility, a heavy workload, and often adjudicates or assists in the adjudication of the most complex and at times the most sensitive of cases one can be asked to decide.

Many of the decisions that IRB members take on a daily basis affect the lives and/or the safety of the people appearing before them, some of whom have experienced unimaginable pain and suffering. Decisions often have life-altering consequences, and there are important program integrity considerations to be carefully weighed. Few organizations have responsibilities that so directly touch the lives, the liberty or the well-being of those who come before them. It's an institution, committee members, with a very serious mandate.

Leading an organization that is so important to the smooth operation of our asylum granting system, which has a considerable impact on public trust in our immigration system as a whole and has a direct influence on people's daily lives is a privilege and, frankly, a heavy responsibility. That is why I am so proud of my appointment.

I would like to say a few words about my professional background.

After graduating from law school, I chose to join the Department of Justice to work on social issues and began my career practising aboriginal law. At the time, it was a relatively new area of practice providing incredible opportunities for young counsel like myself.

Over the course of the next seven years, I served as lead counsel on the Indian residential schools file; various complex land and self-government negotiation claims, including the sensitive and politically charged Ipperwash land claim; and regularly appeared before federal commissions of inquiry to address historical claims. It was very meaningful work and, frankly, I loved it. From there I took on senior leadership positions in four other large departments.

I understand you have a copy of my biography so in the interest of time, I will only make two points.

Over the last 25 years, I have successfully taken on increasing levels of executive responsibility in legal, policy and operational roles across a range of social, economic, environmental, security and immigration portfolios. I have served in senior executive positions with the departments of Fisheries and Oceans, Public Safety, the Canada Border Services Agency, and most recently as the associate deputy minister at the Department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. I don't want to take up more time about the results that my team and I were able to achieve in these positions, but I do hope in the hour we have ahead of us that perhaps there will be an opportunity to discuss some of those.

I believe that my experience in leading organizations, coupled with my background in law, as well as my knowledge of the immigration and border security portfolios provide me with the necessary skill set to help manage the challenges currently facing our asylum system and to effectively manage the IRB more broadly going forward. The IRB, and particularly the refugee determination system, is currently under strain, in part because of events beyond our borders, resulting in an unprecedented increase in the volume of cases. As a result, and building on the work that has already begun, it will be important for the IRB to identify innovative practices and advance a disciplined and results-oriented agenda.

I took on my new role roughly two months ago. I intend to meet the staff and stakeholders in the coming weeks to get a better overview, but I would like to share three initial priorities.

First, capacity issues clearly need to be addressed. We're working on options for government consideration of how best to address both the existing backlog and growth in intake going forward. This work is now under way and will be a priority for us over the coming months.

Second, I am working with the IRB deputy chairs and the broader leadership team to identify strategies that can better support our adjudicators and help accelerate decision-making while maintaining fairness and quality. Good work has already been done and progress is being made, but more will be required.

Third, there are opportunities for improved systems-wide management. This will involve strengthening collaboration with both IRCC and CBSA to identify operational inefficiencies across the system, and to collectively address them. In addition to systems-wide improvements to the asylum system, areas of concern in our immigration division have also been identified, and these too form part of our early set of management priorities.

As I said at the beginning of my speech, Mr. Chair, I am proud and pleased to assume this new role. I was and remain impressed by the degree of commitment and talent of the IRB staff, as well as the very difficult work that IRB members and their support staff are tasked with.

I am committed to working with this committee to contribute to the success of the IRB and I believe that working on the areas that I just talked about is a good start.

Mr. Chair, I want to thank you for inviting me to appear here today, for the first time in my capacity as chairperson of the IRB. I look forward to a productive relationship with the committee over the years to come. I will be pleased to answer any questions that members may have for me.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you.

We'll begin our questioning with Ms. Zahid.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Wex, for coming today. Congratulations on your recent appointment. We look forward to working with you.

You have been in a senior executive leadership role for the operation Syrian refugees program, a national project that welcomed over 25,000 Syrian refugees. A lot of different approaches were taken in that program. What have you learned from that and what how can you implement that? You mentioned that one of your priorities is creating operational efficiencies. What have you learned from that program that you think will help you to increase the efficiency at the IRB?

[Richard Wex]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the member's question.

I had mentioned three things. First of all, I was privileged to be part of that when I first started at IRCC. The week I started was two weeks after the body of Alan Kurdi washed up on the beach in Turkey, having drowned in the Mediterranean. It was a very difficult time and there were a lot of issues being discussed about how best Canada could contribute to the humanitarian crisis that was taking place. I was there from the get-go in terms of how this started and in terms of the Syrian operation.

I'll share three things. First, government, with the support of civic society, can do tremendous things when there is the political will to do it. We saw that with this initiative.

Second is communications. We, and the minister of the day, the government of the day and members of this committee, had access to information and we were able to be very transparent with how things were going—the good, the bad and the ugly. I think that generated the confidence of the public in terms of what we were doing and how we were going about doing it. I think that was a very important lesson learned. We were publishing stats daily, and we were talking about the challenges we were facing, about capacity issues, and about integration issues. I think it's important to learn that communication and being open and transparent is necessary to generate the confidence of Canadians.

Third is the importance of managing relationships with stakeholders. It's quite interesting. This operation would not have succeeded without the support of civic society, but also not without the support of key stakeholders such as the International Organization for Migration and the UNHCR, and of course all the settlement and integration groups throughout the country. The point I'm making is that at a time of need, we need the IOM and the UNHCR to be helpful to us. Having those relationships developed in advance. and maintaining those relationships even when we don't necessarily need to, is an important lesson learned.

Applied to the IRB, I would simply say that we're facing significant challenges right now. If and when there is the will, I believe the conditions for success will materialize and we can get things done.

Also, I intend to work very closely with stakeholders to help inform the way forward. They are often the canaries in the coal mine. Sometimes they know of things before the organization does. I intend, as I have in the past, to maintain strong relationships with our stakeholders to better inform our go-forward agenda.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

While working at IRCC and while you were working with CBSA, you had the opportunity to work with the IRB. How do you think these three organizations can interact with each other? What lessons have you learned while working with the IRB will you be implementing now at the IRB?

[Richard Wex]

Mr. Chair, I do believe, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, that my experience at IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency will help me position the IRB for success, with my leadership team and staff.

I say that because, in particular, but not exclusively, the asylum determination system is very complex. We all have vertical accountabilities, but it's a continuum and it's quite horizontal. Without getting into too many details, the reality is that from intake to first-level decision-making, to recourse, to pre-removal and removal, there are a lot of hand-offs between CBSA, IRCC, IRB and then back to IRCC and then over to CBSA. That's exactly how it works.

The experience of having worked in those other organizations gives me a broader perspective. It does us no good if the IRB is able to secure funds and move down a backlog if, at the end of the day, either IRCC or CBSA isn't also well positioned for success, because the asylum determination system is informed by all three federal players. I believe that my relationships and my understanding of their operational contexts will help position me and the board to be able to work more effectively with those organizations in the context of the broader management of the system, while not doing anything to undermine the independence of the IRB in the context of discharging our adjudicative responsibilities.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

You have one minute.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

No, that's fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Okay.

Ms. Rempel.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

Good luck. What a big, important job.

My questions relate to your planned approach to current challenges that are facing the IRB.

I'll start by trying to set the context. Can you give us a sense of the current inventory of cases at the IRB?

[Richard Wex]

Yes, I can. It's currently at about 65,000 cases at the RPD, the refugee protection division.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

If there were no more cases, let's say none for the rest of the year, that it just stopped, how long do you anticipate it would take to clear that inventory?

[Richard Wex]

We're processing approximately 30,000 claims a year, so two years.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Great.

Obviously, we're seeing an increased volume of inventory coming into the IRB, and year over year we have seen an increase. If the current volumes that we're seeing continue at the rate that they are, given current resourcing, do you project that backlog growing or decreasing?

[Richard Wex]

The backlog will be growing, because the intake is currently greater than our capacity.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay.

You've identified this challenge, and frankly, I think it is one of the biggest challenges that we have in Canada right now.

I have a few questions on your approach.

Have you gone to the government yet with any recommendations on how to reduce that backlog? What were they? Maybe you can give us a sense of your approach both on how to decrease the intake and how to deal with the backlog of the current inventory.

[Richard Wex]

I have not yet provided any recommendations to the government. I hope to be briefing the minister shortly.

I can say that you have diagnosed it correctly. The capacity is smaller than the intake at the moment, which means the backlog will grow going forward. That said, the good news is that, with monies received through budget 2018, the backlog in terms of what it otherwise would have been is less, to the tune of about 20,000 over the next two years. The backlog is still growing, but it's growing at a slower pace than it otherwise would have without budget 2018 money.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

In terms of assumptions on that, what assumption are you using in terms of the intake numbers, for that model?

[Richard Wex]

Going forward?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Yes.

[Richard Wex]

Well, if you look at last year's numbers, we received about 55,000 claims over the course of the year.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

So, you're using about 55,000.

[Richard Wex]

I'm just going on what last year's projection was.