Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 10th, 2016

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Excellent. Thank you so much for that.

Let me now move on to another issue, which is the additional funding that your department is attributing; specifically I'm talking about the $2.5 million that is being provided to implement the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act.

Specifically, how much funding is for the implementation of the changes being contemplated to the Citizenship Act?

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

Since we are just repealing a good part of that act, one of my staff members raised the issue why we would be putting more funding into it. The answer to that question is that those funds are going to reduce the processing times for citizenship applicants. We have always argued that processing times are too high just about everywhere, not least for citizens. That funding has gone in to supplement the new processes that have been implemented to reduce citizenship processing time. As I said earlier, there is progress being made on that front.

As for funding for new initiatives contained in our new act.... Is that your question?

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Yes, it is specifically focused on changes to the Citizenship Act.

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

Okay. I think one area that might involve funding is our changing the number of years required from four out of six to three out of five. I don't think that's in these estimates, but there could be funding implications in the future.

I'd ask one of the officials to comment on that.

[Anita Biguzs]

As the minister said, the costs are entirely for processing capacity in terms of citizenship.

Changes were made, for example, to the decision-maker model, which actually allowed us to bring in significant efficiencies in terms of decision-making and also some changes to our IT systems, and also training for staff. Really, the investments made here helped us to actually improve our processing times. New applications for citizenship are being processed in less than 12 months. At this point in time we have not sought and have not identified any incremental funding required in terms of the changes that have just been introduced in the bill in the House.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Biguzs.

I'd like to move to Mr. Tilson for five minutes.

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

Yes, thank you.

I have a further issue of people trying to get to Canada. One of the issues I raised in my last question to you, Mr. Minister, was a private sponsor. This is a constituency matter, which I appreciate you may not be aware of, but it involves the matter that I wrote a letter to you about, and it has to do with the Holy Family Catholic Church in Bolton and three other Bolton churches that arranged for a house, raised funding, and are all set to receive a family—this has been going on for months—and so no comment from the government.

The Syrian family was waiting for an interview—I just received this from my office a few minutes ago—with Canada and was approached by the Americans, and the Americans offered them immediate access to the United States. I don't know whether you've had any discussions with the Americans, but if that's true—and I believe it's true because my constituents say it's true—that tells me that the system the Americans have is much better than the Canadian system.

Could you comment?

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

Well, since you just heard the news a few minutes ago, I don't have it either.

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

I understand. I'm just asking a general question.

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

I'm sure my staff is working on this situation, because we do that with all MPs. I will get back to you on that specific case as soon as I possibly can, and if you have more information, give it to me.

On the question of the Americans being more welcoming to Syrian refugees than we are, I must say I find that a little bit hard to believe, as a general proposition, even though it may be true in the case you mention. I think we took 25,000 in four months. They've committed to 10,000—is it?—over one year, and if you apply the usual ten to one rule, they're ten times bigger than us, so if we take 25,000 they should take 250,000. They're taking 10,000, and I think only a small trickle have entered the U.S.—my officials might know the number—but not very many.

I think, overall, Canada has certainly been more welcoming than the United States to Syrian refugees.

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

I'd like to move on again, Mr. Minister, to the issue of private sponsors.

As I understand it, and this is typical, the Holy Family Catholic Church in Bolton has arranged for a house. They've arranged for money to assist these people. There's another group in Orangeville who have got a house; they're trying to get the children educated; it goes on and on. It's my understanding that the commitment of the private sponsors, generally speaking, lasts a year. I think maybe you could confirm that's true.

My question is this. If families are still having trouble getting their children educated, still trying to get jobs, perhaps still having problems with housing, what happens after that? What happens to refugees after that, particularly the Syrian refugees after that year has expired? Does the government take over and help? What happens?

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

Okay, you have to distinguish between privately sponsored and government-assisted.

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

No, I'm talking about private sponsors. Their commitment, as I understand it, expires after one year.

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

That is correct.

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

You have 25,000 Syrians who have come to this country. Hopefully they'll all have jobs and all the children will be educated. But my question is, what happens if there are still problems in finding jobs for these people, if there are still problems getting the children educated, and if housing may have expired? What happens after a year?

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

Well you just mentioned 25,000, so that clearly includes government-assisted refugees.

In terms of government-assisted refugees, they get income support for one year. The privately sponsored get income support for one year from the private sponsors. After that, government-assisted refugees still, for 39 more months, have access to other settlement services, but not to the income.

You ask what happens. The hope is that after one year they will be sufficiently on their feet to support themselves. From experience with waves of refugees, whether from Vietnam, from Uganda, from Hungary, or from other places, generally speaking those individuals do well in Canada, have found jobs, and have made contributions back to the economy.

It won't be 100%, and if there are some who are still struggling, they'll be in the same situation as other Canadians. They would have recourse to social assistance, as do other Canadians, if they are not in good shape. I think, however, that our historical experience on refugees settling in and doing well has been positive, so I'm confident that a similar pattern will apply in this case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Minister.

The hour has gone by awfully quickly. I'd like to use the chair's prerogative just before you depart to ask a question relating to biometrics. It's a question in three parts. I understand the legislation was brought in in 2012 and that the main purpose of biometrics is to confirm identity. As you mentioned earlier, it brings us in line with a number of our allies and their standards.

My question is, first, is the biometric information kept in individual files, or is there a separate and secure database in which all the biometrics are kept?

If it is a separate database, what are the protocols that would allow other departments access to that database?

The third part of the question is, given that this is just a measure that was brought in for collecting information to confirm identity, when permanent residents become citizens, what are the procedures in place to remove those individuals from that database or the information from their personal files?

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

Those are very good questions, which I will largely refer to officials. My understanding is that the data received is not stored by the department but goes into a general storage under the auspices of the RCMP.

I'd like to ask the deputy to answer your questions further.

[Anita Biguzs]

As the minister said—and I'll ask Mr. Orr as well to go into this in further detail—it is a query-based system. We do not retain the information in our global case management system, but it is basically retained by the RCMP. There are certainly protocols in place, both with the United States government, in terms of managing the information-sharing.... As I said, it's query based; they do not retain any of the information. It's also anonymized, so there is no identifier in terms of the names of individuals when we do the information-sharing with the United States.

I will ask Mr. Orr to explain a little more about the protocols we have in place for access.

[Robert Orr]

As of the end of February we've taken approximately 580,000 enrollments under the biometrics protocols. These are managed and held by the RCMP, so they are very serious protocols. The RCMP is probably in a better position to explain in detail exactly how the information is handled.

Any department wanting to access it would have to go through protocols that have been very clearly vetted by the Privacy Commissioner and have met the privacy requirements.

Just out of interest, perhaps, out of that number the vast majority obviously are cleared easily. Some have an identified immigration history, but we've also been able to identify about 332 enrollments in which people have had a criminal background, and only about half of those applicants had actually indicated that to us in advance, so it has had some significant, important results for us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

In regard to the third part of my question, once they become Canadian citizens how is this biometric information disposed of? The act wasn't intended to allow for the collection of biometric information on Canadian citizens. What are the protocols to dispose of this information?

[Robert Orr]

Mr. Chair, I'll have to get back to you on the specifics of how it is managed at that stage.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

I'd like to thank the minister for coming to our committee. We always look forward to the minister's presence here.

I'd like to suspend—

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

Can I just say one thing?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Yes, please.