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.
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thus far we have around 13,000 what you would call “irregular arrivals” at ports of entry.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
In total, there are 13,000 asylum claims from January 1 to today that were made by people entering at illegal or unofficial points of entry.
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It's roughly around 13,000, grand total.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
We know that over 32,000 people have entered Canada, so there is a bit of a difference there. What has happened to those people?
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Essentially, there are three different ways people come into Canada that add up to the grand total. If you take the grand total, around 34,000 right now—it changes every day, as you know—about 14,000 individuals have come through regular ports of entry, as well as airports, marine ports, and so on. We'll call that regular port of entry. Then you have the in-between port of entry arrivals, which is the 13,000—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I understand how the different asylum claims work. I'm just wondering how.... You said that we have about 13,000 people who have come in through illegal points of entry and made asylum claims. What is the total number of people who have just come in through illegal points of entry and been intercepted by the RCMP this year?
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We would know only the individuals who come through and make an asylum claim, the 13,000. There will be a number of individuals who come through and are intercepted by local law enforcement or the RCMP and who never end up making an asylum claim.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Do you know how many people are in that category?
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Go ahead.
Paul MacKinnon Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I can perhaps add to that. Just about 1,600 have actually been sent back to the U.S. through the STCA, the safe third country agreement. I am not exactly sure if all those 1,600 have come in between ports of entry. They would have come through at the land border, because the safe third applies.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
What I am looking for is the total number of people who have entered Canada through an illegal point of entry this year, that we know of, as compared with those who have made asylum claims.
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
They are almost identical. Around 14,000 individuals have gone through regular ports of entry—
Conservative
Director General, Operations Sector, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
IRCC would not know the number of deportation orders.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay. Thank you.
Ms. Miller, a comment was made that your projections for processing have changed. A memorandum drafted by your department this past spring, which was obtained by the press, stated that by the end of 2021, the new system inventory would grow to approximately 192,700 claims, equivalent to 133 months' worth of output from the board, or a wait time of approximately 11 years.
You said that your projections have changed over the summer, given the Lacolle crossings—by how much and why?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
First of all, that 11 years was actually not put out by our department. That's not a calculus based on our numbers. It was based on IRCC departmental numbers. I am not sure how that 11 years was calculated, but it is a question of calculus, if you look at increases of.... I think that one assumed a certain fixed rate of increase, and they just did the mathematical calculation with the number of members that we have.
What I can say is that our calculus is based on our actual numbers, on the number of finalizations we can do. With our normal funding, we can normally do about 20,000 claims per year. We have some additional funding as a result of the cancellation of visas for Mexico, which allows us to increase that to about 24,000 finalizations per year.
The math is not complex. It's really a question of factoring in what your expectation is. We had been expecting 40,000 claims this year, but we are already expecting more than that due to the 8,000 we got in the last month and a half.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
How many are you expecting? What's your projection right now?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
We don't actually have a fixed projection. It's just more than 40,000. We just got 8,000, so, I don't know, 48,000 maybe.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
If people were not able to make asylum claims after entering the country through an illegal point of entry at the U.S.-Canada land border—so, if the safe third country agreement was applied to people crossing through regular, legal means—would that have an impact on your projections? If so, by how much and why?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
That's actually something we have never contemplated. We make all of our projections based on the law as it is. We are a tribunal, so we make no policy assumptions. We just apply the law as it is, and that's how we make all of our projections.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Sure. We have 13,000 cases of people who have entered Canada illegally this year. The argument could be made that if that weren't an avenue that could be used by these people, your backlog would decrease. Is that correct?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
It depends. There may be other factors that come into play. I can't speak to fictitious scenarios.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
How many vacancies currently exist within the IRB that must be filled by an order in council appointment?
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
The order in council appointments are for our appellate members, so they don't really impact our first-level response, which is essentially the decisions that are made about whether somebody is a refugee or not.
Conservative