Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 7th, 2017

[Paul MacKinnon]

A big part of the program is compliance. We provide money through these supplemental estimates to ESDC to go out and do on-site inspections of employers. At IRCC, we also do some audits ourselves of the employers across the country. Through this money, we're also looking at advancing a better information technology connection between us and ESDC so that we can support better information sharing between the two departments.

Those are some of the things we are doing, Mr. Chair, to ensure compliance.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

My next question is on a new program, the electronic travel authorization.

This program has come into place, and by and large, 99.9%, it's a pretty smooth system, but unfortunately certain groups are victims of it, particularly people who have similar last names, and there are a lot of similarities coming in.

I find the way to remedy the system is taking too long. If somebody typically applies only a day or two before, or even sometimes on the day of, and their name matches somebody in the system, depending on the nature of the match—sometimes it's a permanent resident in Canada—it takes four to six weeks sometimes, unfortunately, to remedy that, and they end up missing the event they are trying to attend.

Is there any other advice or any other way we can speed up that process so that we avoid that?

I really wonder about the consequences of that program in terms of business people and those trying to make it to their loved ones' events.

[Marta Morgan]

Mr. Chair, the electronic travel authorization is a new program, and we know that travellers are getting used to this new travel requirement to Canada. Our service standard is three days to get back to travellers should there be any issue with their eTA. We're strongly recommending that travellers apply at least three days in advance so that any problems can be detected and we can communicate with the traveller. We are undertaking continued communications on the eTA program to increase awareness and we continue to work on refining and improving our processes as we continue implementation of this program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you, Deputy.

Go ahead, Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a number of questions to ask as well.

Mr. Chair, in January the Prime Minister told a public town hall that there would be packages and compensation for employees who chose not to relocate to Edmonton when the Department of Immigration and Citizenship shuts the doors on the case processing centre in Vegreville, Alberta, next year, but we now know that the department has no intention of offering packages and compensation. They're giving employees only one choice, and that's to move out of Vegreville, or they'll be laid off.

The department is refusing to offer the package and compensation allowed under the employees' collective agreement. IRCC's harmful actions are completely different from how most departments treat their employees when relocation is involved.

Does the minister agree with his department?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

On Vegreville, we've made it very clear that as we move forward with the implementation of our decision, the impact on families and workers in the community will be top of mind. I'll defer to the officials to respond in detail to your HR question.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I'd say to the minister that they're just being treated differently from the way they are treated in other areas. They're not being given a choice, so is he going to rein in the department and fulfill the Prime Minister's promise of ensuring Vegreville employees are given access to the packages and compensation if they do not wish to relocate to Edmonton? You said that drafts of new citizenship guides had been developed. Can you table them to the committee?

[Marta Morgan]

Mr. Chair, the relocation of the processing centre from Vegreville to Edmonton has been a very difficult decision. However, it is not about job reduction but about sustaining and enabling the growth of our operations. Therefore, there has been considerable work in the community to work on community development with, for example, Western Economic Diversification, to provide relocation assistance to any employee who wishes to follow the operations to Edmonton, which many have taken advantage of.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you, Ms. Morgan.

You said that drafts of the new citizenship guide had been developed, and I wondered if you could table them with the committee.

[Marta Morgan]

The citizenship guide is under consultation. It is being worked on as we speak, but it is the result of a consultative process that is under way—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

So you can't table it?

[Marta Morgan]

No. The—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Could you table a draft for us?

[Marta Morgan]

The citizenship guide will be made public when it is complete, when the consultations with—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

So it's not available.

[Marta Morgan]

—various individuals and organizations have been completed.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

It's now clear 50 employees will not make the move to Edmonton. The department faces a huge hiring challenge for the new case processing centre in Edmonton. There's no way the department's going to be able to staff up quickly enough, and I'm convinced that the backlog of IRCC cases will increase as a result. As of next September, there will be vacant space in Vegreville and willing employees, but the department refuses to consider options such as telework or maintaining a satellite office on a transitional basis.

Once again, is the minister prepared to change the department's misguided approach?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I want to address one point in your question that I don't agree with, which is that the processing times will be lower due to this. This move will ensure an increase in our capacity to process immigration cases by hiring more people, by growing our team in Alberta, so that will lead to faster processing.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Mr. Minister, I'm saying you have a whole lot of employees to hire. I don't know where you're going to get them all that fast. That's the reasoning behind things being backed up, so I'm just wondering if you're prepared to change the department's approach in the meantime.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

The move to Edmonton would actually result in more jobs for the people of Alberta and result in more capacity for us to process—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

The people who are not moving aren't being given the packages to relocate as they were promised, so I'm just wondering if you could visit Vegreville before Christmas to tour the area as the minister and meet with the union and develop a way to have the Prime Minister's promise fulfilled. I just need a yes-or-no answer.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I have met with the mayor, I met with community members, I've met with some of—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

But given this new information that they're not being compensated, would you go there before Christmas again?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I've already had meetings with a lot of the sectors, and I'm open to having more.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.