Evidence of meeting #30 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 class.
A video is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm sure we could establish that. We don't have that—
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
My point is that I'm worried about procedural fairness. With the courier process, naturally a courier in Mississauga will be able to deliver it, boom, right at 9 o'clock in the morning or whatever time you're starting, while somebody from British Columbia might not have that same efficiency.
Would it be possible to look at other options? For example, if they all had to come in on one day, and there was a lottery for let's say 10,000 out of 16,000, there would be no strategic advantage to anyone—i.e., my colleagues to the left of me—versus those from the west.
I would just ask if you could look into that. I'm not saying it happens. I don't know. I'm just hoping that this bias doesn't happen because of proximity.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Mr. Chair, we're not aware of any regional disparity. We're certainly very conscious of ensuring fairness and transparency as we do this. As I mentioned, we are trying to look at whether there are better ways to do this. We certainly welcome ideas.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Second, in our briefing we have numbers for overall wait times for all the different classes, but they seem to go from 2002 to 2012. Is there data from 2013 to 2015? If so, can you get it to the clerk?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That should be available. Yes, we can supply that to the clerk.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
On that same notion, what is your targeted wait time for spouses, children, parents, siblings going forward, with all the new funding and new hires? Is there a targeted number, an internal number or an external number, that we can anticipate in terms of wait times for spousal sponsorships and parental sponsorships? Our constituents naturally will be asking that.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That's well understood, and we will try to provide that. I don't think I'm in a position to do that right now. We are in a phase of trying to revamp, particularly the spousal program, to find efficiencies, to find better ways to deal with it. We're trying to revamp our forms and our kits, to make them clearer and these sorts of things.
Once we are in a position to do that and to come up with something, we'll come up with an appropriate service standard as well, which reflects the reality and ensures that we're able to deliver on it. We want to be very ambitious, though, in this area.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Finally, I wish I could have asked the minister this, but perhaps you can answer it. The super visa works in a great way in terms of getting parents or grandparents here, those who are waiting. One of the problems I've noticed is that parents and grandparents, parents specifically, come in their early or late fifties, or maybe early sixties, and they find it a burden when they're staying with their children. Their children have to pay for their private medical bills. They're not allowed to work, but they're anticipating staying for up to two years.
Is there a possibility that the department could look into perhaps allowing them to work on a part-time basis, similar to students, for a 20-hour week, just so that they're not a burden on their children? They wouldn't be taking high-paid jobs away from others. It would be a buffer situation similar to what students do when they work 10 to 20 hours a week while continuing with their studies.
Is that something that has been explored? Or could it be explored?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I'm not aware that that has been explored. It certainly was not the intent of the super visa, the way it was set up. Certainly we're open to looking at other possibilities.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much.
I wonder if the committee could also get the information Ms. Zahid asked for on spousal sponsorship, but applied to the parent and grandparent application.
On the question of misinformation or missing information in the application process, there have been situations brought to my attention whereby the application was sent back to someone, rejected, because something was missing, but actually the information was provided, and it was missed by the official who was processing it. The person was then thrown out of the quota system, because the application was rejected. That, of course, is of great concern, because people have nowhere to appeal in that situation.
I'm wondering what kinds of assurances we can have for those who've actually worked really hard to get an application in and it has been rejected, even through errors made by ministry officials. How can that be addressed?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That is very much of concern to us, as well. I'll turn to Mr. Armstrong.
Director General, Centralized Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
In a case like that, the applicant can apply for reconsideration. Without talking about a specific case, if there was an error made by officials, the matter would be corrected.
Director General, Centralized Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Well, the individual would write to us, and that's not an unusual occurrence. If somebody has a matter that requires reconsideration, the person requests reconsideration.
Director General, Centralized Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I couldn't provide you with statistics on how often that happens, but it does occur.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Do people know that they can actually make such an appeal? I'm not sure people do.
Director General, Centralized Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I wouldn't call it an appeal. It's called reconsideration. Many people are represented, either by an authorized representative or by lawyers, and they're certainly aware of that process. I'm not just speaking about family class.
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In terms of the spousal application, is it the case also that the processing time for the spousal application, which I believe goes country by country—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Have all the ones who applied prior to the time listed on the website been processed, or are they in the process of being processed?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
They would be in process. Now, there are some cases that take a considerable length of time, and that's always the case, so I can't say that they've all been finalized, but they would all be in process.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
I'd like to thank the department officials for appearing before committee.
At this point, the committee shall adjourn.