Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to take a moment to address this issue. I get it that we have guests here. I get it that there is important work done, and it is being done. We have set aside 10 meetings for this study. There are other pressing issues as well.
Mr. Chair, I know the committee members don't want to acknowledge this, but the fact is that if the IRB is not functioning properly, it undermines our entire system. It undermines the integrity of our immigration system, and right now, in my view, we have a major problem. The IRB has 1,000 new backlogged cases in their processing time—1,000 cases a month—so we're wanting people to get to the Atlantic provinces to support the economy, and we want to do all of that work.
I don't know how we can actually facilitate that if the IRB is stuck in this situation. We just heard Mr. McKenna talking about the value of the refugee community going to the Atlantic provinces and refugees are welcome there. If we want to make sure that this process is well in place, we need to make sure that the IRB is able to manage these issues effectively and efficiently, and right now it is not. There is urgency to this motion and we need to deal with it, otherwise everything else falls apart. That's why I'm doing this, Mr. Chair.
I want to get back to my point about the situation the IRB is faced with. They actually are dealing with legacy claims. The minister told the IRB to say, “deal with the legacy claims”, and then they didn't give them many resources to do it. There are approximately 5,500 legacy claims left, and that means there are roughly 5,500 claimants who have been waiting in limbo since 2012, not knowing what their life is going to be like, where they're supposed to go, where they're supposed to fit. They do not know right now and they have been stuck in the situation since 2012.
I think we can all agree in no way is this somehow acceptable, but that is the reality right now for these individuals, and the government has chosen not to give any resources to the IRB to process these claims. A lack of political will has led to these individuals' claims for asylum here to be treated, at best, as a second-class request. Mr. Dion was clear in the 2016-17 report on plans and priorities when he stated:
The IRB has reallocated available internal funding to reduce the backlog of legacy cases from 32,000 to 6,500 since the coming into force of the new refugee determination system. In 2016-17 the board's ability to reallocate funding internally will be severely limited, particularly, if the board is faced with sustained increases in intake at the RPD. As a result, commitments made by the board in relation to refugee protection claims that are not subject to statutory time frames, such as the remaining 6,500 legacy claims will have to be revisited unless additional temporary funding is made available.
Unfortunately, Mr. Chair, that request was ignored. Instead, the IRB has once again been forced to reallocate money internally, further straining their budget. Recently, the IRB announced the creation of the legacy task force for claims. By dedicating $3 million per year for two years and 25 FTE board members, the IRB hopes to finally eliminate this ongoing injustice. That means $3 million is taken out of the area that the IRB is trying to deal with, because there were no new moneys allocated to them under budget 2017.
Mr. Dion explained that the 25 board members would be some of the most experienced members he had. While it would be great to eliminate the legacy cases, this will also undoubtedly impact the operations of the IRB moving forward—