Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 15th, 2018

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be sharing my time with MP Badawey.

I want to pick up on the “groups of five” privately sponsored individuals. I know that there are varying timelines for regions. Can you indicate what the processing time would be for someone from south Asia? Would you have those numbers, at this point?

[Dawn Edlund]

I'm sorry, I don't have the numbers specifically for the groups of five applications for south Asia, but I can provide the information to the committee that our processing times generally for privately sponsored refugees—those sponsored by sponsorship agreement holders, as well as by groups of five, as well as community sponsors—have fallen. In December 2017, it was 52.7 months. It's now 34.7 months.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

The numbers that are reflected here, then, as indicated by the minister—I believe it's 18,000 for 2018 and so on—reflect the timeline. What kinds of timelines would they have waited under in order to be processed this year?

[Dawn Edlund]

I'm not sure I understand that question. The advantage of increasing the number of spaces available for the privately sponsored refugees is that we can aggressively bring down the inventory of cases we have on hand so that we shorten the processing time.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

What I'm getting at is whether the 2018 number, which is 18,000 roughly for the groups of five, is based on the numbers that are processed this year, or based on the intake that you propose to process over the next 34 or 38 months, or whatever you have indicated?

[Dawn Edlund]

The 18,000 is based on the cases that we have on hand and have already received, not just groups of five but also people sponsored by the sponsorship agreement holders, although the numbers of cases put in by groups of five has increased quite a lot. That's why the numbers here are bigger and growing, because we want to address those inventories and bring the processing times down.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

I guess the numbers reflect when you issue the visa rather than when you get the application. Is that right?

[Marta Morgan]

Yes, the numbers in the levels plan are based on the number we would expect to process and land in Canada, and thus on individuals who were processed. Some of them may have already been processed at the end of last year, but we would expect them to land in Canada this year.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Okay.

Based on this, have you had any instances in which there was a change of circumstance in the original country whereby you have had to, en masse, disqualify particular candidates?

[Dawn Edlund]

Candidates are always assessed in the resettled refugee program under the parameters of the regulations. You look at whether or not someone has experienced persecution on a defined ground. You look at whether or not there's a durable solution where they are, outside their country of origin. You look at the country conditions in their original country. In some instances, country conditions have changed, but someone still may be persecuted nonetheless.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

How do you assess whether a country's situation has changed? On what basis do you assess that?

[Dawn Edlund]

We look at reports such as those of Amnesty International, human rights reports, those kinds of things, to get a sense of whether the situation on the ground in that country has changed. That's factored into the decision-making by the migration officers.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to be passing the rest of my time to MP Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Today we've heard a lot of questions, and I think we all recognize the advantages of the direction that the minister, along with his team, is taking. We've heard from the advisory council on economic growth, from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and from Dan Kelly, the President and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. This is a good thing. It's good for our economy, it's good for our social fabric, and it's also good for those we are going to affect from overseas.

That said, today we heard a lot of questions. Unfortunately, many times the minister and you weren't given the opportunity to answer fully the questions being asked. My question to you is twofold. First, what kind of impact will this plan have on wait times and backlogs in various streams. Second, what will this plan do to improve family reunification?

What I'm most interested in, however, members of staff, is the filling in of the gaps that you weren't allowed to fill in before on account of being interrupted while giving your answers.

[Marta Morgan]

We are actually very excited with the adoption of a multi-year levels plan this year. This is a new thing. I think it's fair to say that our provincial colleagues and also the service provider organizations who work in this area are very happy about it as well. The reason for that is that it allows us a planning horizon in order to be prepared as we increase immigration levels. It allows us to be prepared from a processing perspective, and it allows our service providers to be prepared to welcome and integrate new Canadians into the country.

I think that the multi-year plan, and the fact that the levels are increasing over a period of years, really will help us to plan to address some of the processing time issues that we have seen over many years.

As you know, we end up with backlogs when the intake into a particular stream isn't matched by the levels plan, so that we don't have enough levels to actually bring in the number of people who are coming and getting into the queue.

Over time, the department has made significant progress on that due to important initiatives that have been taken. For example, on spousal sponsorships, with increasing inventory, we have managed to decrease the inventory from 75,000 to 15,000. The processing time for new applications is within 12 months, and because we've built into this multi-year levels plan an increase in levels every year, we anticipate being able to keep it at 12 months.

Similarly, for parents and grandparents, we have limited the intake, but we have increased the number of parents and grandparents that will be admitted over a number of years. That also will allow us to make progress on the processing times on the parents and grandparents front.

Finally, on the program for private sponsors of refugees, I think one thing that is built into the levels plan is a very significant increase in the number of privately sponsored refugees that will be brought in every year. Again, the purpose of that is expressly to reduce the processing time and to bring in those people who are waiting and who have been waiting for quite a while to come.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you, Mr. Badawey. Welcome, I didn't get a chance to welcome you to the meeting. It's wonderful to have you.

We have time for one more round of five minutes from Mr. Maguire. That is provided we have a short discussion about Tuesday's meeting.

If anybody is anticipating that we need a long discussion about it, put your hand up.

All right, I'm sensing we'll have a short discussion.

Mr. Maguire.

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

Thank you, and thanks to all the staff for being here today from this department.

I was most interested in the numbers that you just indicated, Ms. Morgan. About 70% of the case files that come through my constituency office end up dealing with immigration. Some of those people say the process is broken. All I'm saying today is, if this were passports, collecting EI, or OAS differences, there would be a front page story somewhere.

Can you just give me an update as to.... The minister has indicated in his comments—I believe I made a note here—that the private system is much better and much easier to work with than the government system, in regard to settlement. I'm looking at your thoughts on how...and you just indicated that more private settlement was very valuable in this whole process. Is that because of the hands-on nature of the people who are bringing these persons in?

I'm wondering how your department helps those private settlements in selecting the people who come.

[Marta Morgan]

Both the privately sponsored and the government assisted refugee programs play an important part for Canada in meeting our humanitarian responsibilities.

What we have seen over the last few years is that, because of the great enthusiasm of the public that was brought forward because of the Syrian refugee initiative, we had a very large increase in the number of applications for privately sponsored refugees. That is why we have increased, on a go-forward basis, the numbers under the privately sponsored refugee category, in order to respond to that enthusiasm from private sponsors.

In terms of settlement, they are eligible for the same settlement services as government sponsored refugees, and they're eligible for those services for a number of years.

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

Thanks. The provincial nominee program has worked very well in Manitoba. I was in the provincial government there for about 14 years, and I know the minister touched on it. It's a good program. Can that be adopted and used in the whole country, and are you looking at expanding the opportunities under that program?

I know you are, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be wise to expand the number of people provinces are allowed to bring in under these programs.

[Marta Morgan]

The multi-year levels plan that has been tabled in Parliament expands the PNP by 33%, which is the largest single increase across any category of immigration, and it recognizes the importance of that program.

Also, I would just note that Manitoba has really been a model in this regard. It's seen as a model in terms of not just attracting but also retaining and putting those supports around immigrants to stay in Manitoba.

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

Yes, thank you.

We just did a study, and you've referred to it, the Atlantic immigration program. The biggest problem there is getting people to be permanent residents in the Atlantic region. Can you comment on how the PNP can be used to bring more success, particularly to the Atlantic region?

[Marta Morgan]

When we were developing the Atlantic immigration program, I heard that Manitoba was really sort of a beacon for that and that people were looking to the Manitoba experience. One of the things that was built into the Atlantic immigration program was the responsibility of employers to develop a plan to retain those employees in the region, and that seems to be a key aspect, that the employers take responsibility not only for the job but also to work with the local service providers and to have a plan for retention and be very mindful of it. Above and beyond the normal PNP program, it's key to put extra effort into making those community connections and those sorts of things that help people to stay.

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

I think the amount of economic activity in the Maritimes may be a limiting factor in regard to the amount of PNP usage. If there were more businesses, obviously there could be more use of it, and of course, that's beyond the scope of your department in regard to the economic activity in that region. Has your department suggested anything in that area that would stimulate activity in that region?

While I'm at it, I'll just ask. IRCC was not meeting the targets in some of the most up-to-date numbers and getting economic permanent residents to settle outside of...not just to get them into the Maritimes, but outside of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm afraid I need to stop you there, Mr. Maguire. Sorry about that.

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

I think we need more in urban areas. That's all I'm saying.