Evidence of meeting #90 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 chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
Thank you.
I'll share the rest of my time with Mr. Whalen.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Ms. Zahid.
In respect of the IRB and filling the backlog, Mr. Kipling, I'm wondering whether your agency is using the government's appointments website, and if you are, whether you are seeing good application numbers coming in. What do you think might be the cause of the backlog or holdup?
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Policy, Planning and Corporate Affairs Branch, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
We're undertaking ongoing recruitment. The appointment process is led by PCO. I understand there's ongoing recruitment and that the individuals being appointed to the IRB are highly qualified. We're seeing a high calibre of candidates being appointed.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Are you seeing a ramp-up, and how would you compare the candidates who are coming forward versus the candidates who were previously appointed?
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Policy, Planning and Corporate Affairs Branch, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I think the quality of the candidates who go through the process, who succeed in the process, is high. That has been a trend since I have been privy to the types of candidates who are coming forward. We're certainly seeing good candidates. We have been seeing good candidates for several years.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Oh, wonderful.
For MPs like me, who represent a mixed urban-rural riding in a small centre, federal government jobs are extremely important to the diversity of opportunities for young people and in keeping communities together and keeping them strong. With respect to Vegreville, I find that move odd in the digital age, when we're trying to assure people that they have the opportunity to live and contribute and work in a distributed work environment. Can Ms. Morgan please explain some of the other factors that may have gone into this decision?
9:45 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The lease on the facility in Vegreville is set to expire on February 28, 2019. As part of the lease renewal process, the department identified the business requirements going forward to Public Services and Procurement Canada, which included the feasibility of recruiting and retaining staff, accommodation of increases in immigration levels and reducing processing times, a workforce with bilingual capacity to process workloads from across the global departmental network, access to post-secondary educational institutions for recruitment of staff—
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I'm afraid I need to cut you off there. I'm sorry.
Would you like to have a written answer?
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Immigration and Refugee Board recently told our committee it is operating with only 65 out of 102 order in council appointments filled. I'm wondering if the department can table with the committee the status of each vacancy in terms of what phase of recruitment it's in and when it is expected to be filled.
9:45 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Mr. Chair, we've already agreed to table information on the vacancies at the IRB.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Great. Would that be by the status of each vacancy?
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you.
Earlier this year, on November 7, a department official said the following with regard to funding that was set out in budget 2017 for the Yazidi resettlement initiative:
Budget 2017 set out $27.7 million. We later did an evaluation of the amount of money we thought we would actually need and refined our costing, so we've asked for $21.7 million. I think about two-thirds of that is related to ongoing income support, interim federal health, and the settlement supports that will be available over the next three-year period.
Can you table with the committee details around the decision to reduce that amount of funding, and what particular areas have been reduced?
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you.
One consistently recurring problem that we've heard with the GAR program is the isolation that occurs when people arrive. We heard on Tuesday from a Yazidi woman who did not have anyone to greet her at the airport. She was stuck at a hotel. I'm wondering if these sorts of specialized needs for the Yazidi community were considered by the department in the decision, as Ms. Edlund said, on November 7, to cut the funding to the initiative.
9:50 a.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, Mr. Chair, these kinds of services were planned for and were put in place and were ready. One of the cases was discussed at committee and another case was reported in Chatelaine magazine, and we've looked in depth in relation to those cases. We believe the narrative around those cases doesn't actually completely cover all of the services that were provided and were in place and were available. For privacy reasons, I can't get into individualized statements about that, but we do have set-ups for people to be greeted at the airport and to be greeted at the hotels where they're initially housed, and wraparound supports for them post-arrival in Canada.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Can the department table with the committee a list of stakeholders consulted since the tabling of the government's response to the report entitled “Starting Again: Improving Government Oversight of Immigration Consultants” in relation to responding to recommendations found in the report?
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you.
Since the tabling of the government's response to the report entitled “Starting Again: Improving Government Oversight of Immigration Consultants”, how many complaints of unauthorized practitioners have been referred to the Canada Border Services Agency?
9:50 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I don't believe we have that information available here.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative