Evidence of meeting #72 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 irb.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I think it is fair to say that the more cases we get without an increase in our capacity, the longer the wait time is going to be. It is a mathematical calculation. If you have more on your docket—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
If we wanted to reduce the wait times back to where they were last year, let's say, how many resources would you need?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Essentially it is the math of the number of members with support that would allow us to complete. Under our current numbers of members we can complete 2,000 cases a month. If you want to do 3,000 cases a month, you need a percentage more in order to increase by that number. It's a very mathematically based function. You need to figure out how many cases you want to be able to finalize per month and then extrapolate with the—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Can you table for the committee a table to extrapolate exactly that? If you want to process 2,000, here's what it is. If you want to process 3,000, here's what it is, and 4,000, etc. Is that possible?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Yes, it is. We have a formula, so we can do that based on the formula. The formula is our funding formula.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
I want to come back to the Canada-U.S. safe third country agreement. Has the department done a legal analysis with respect to the safe third country agreement?
Director, Asylum Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We are in the process of conducting legal analysis. I think we've contracted one to the Department of Justice. We are in the process of conducting another one with two different international experts, just to confirm that the conditions that existed continue to be met.
We've done a policy review, as Mr. MacKinnon indicated, and that indicated to us that the asylum system since January 2017 has not changed.
NDP
Director, Asylum Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
One contract is completed, and another one I believe will be within the next month. Of course, that contains sensitive information involving review of the U.S. asylum system and the way it meets international obligations.
NDP
Director, Asylum Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That's correct. We do not release the findings of our review of the United States, because it could be damaging to Canada-U.S. relations.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
The department has managed to reduce significantly the processing time at the border for the irregular crossings. Is that for the eastern region only? How does it look for the other parts of the country?
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That question goes back to the overall processing in the asylum system itself. When someone crosses at a port of entry and is processed through admissibility and eligibility by the CBSA, it takes approximately four to six hours. In IRCC across the rest of the country, right now we are processing people in a similar fashion. It's within a day.
NDP
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It's in a day or two; that's correct.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
When it is referred to the IRB, then, and they're just waiting for their claims to be processed....
I guess the individuals who are waiting for their claims to be processed can seek provincial resources for support by way of income assistance and potentially a work permit. The NGOs on the ground, however, who are supporting these individuals to find housing, and so on, before they get income assistance are on their own. IRCC provides zero dollars to those agencies to support those asylum seekers.
Is that correct?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Our support in terms of settlement starts when the person attains protected status. You're correct that we do not fund directly folks who are waiting for that status. The system has been such that it's the provinces who do that.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Right.
CBSA, I know, has been referring people to these agencies that are not funded by the federal government, and these agencies have not been able to get additional resources from the provincial government. The federal government says it's not their problem, yet these cases are being referred by the federal government to them. Has there been any discussion in this ad hoc committee about how to deal with this situation and the challenges that those NGOs are faced with in these particular provinces?
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I have not been privy to all of the conversations. I haven't attended all of the task force meetings, but these types of issues are discussed at the task force meetings.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Can you provide, because we only have three seconds, information related to this to the committee?
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The Privy Council Office has that—
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
This question is for the IRB.
As you are aware, the IRB is receiving an independent review of its operations to determine the possibilities for efficiency and productivity improvement. This was announced by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. This report is not due until June 2018, but has the IRB looked at any operational changes in anticipation of the report?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
That's a great question. It's not a question necessarily of whether we're doing something in anticipation of the report so much as that we are constantly looking for internal efficiencies to make sure that in the meantime it's business as usual. We need to improve our finalization rate so that we can keep up as best we can, given our current levels of funding.
We are also working to support the review by giving them all the data that they require and all the information that might be helpful to them in making recommendations to the minister.
