Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 7th, 2020

[Marian Campbell Jarvis, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and members of the committee.

As officials at IRCC, we have responded, adapted and transformed our work since the beginning of the pandemic in order to serve our clients better while protecting the health and safety of our communities and of our staff.

We had to quickly equip our workforce at home so that they could continue their important work remotely. The processing of files never stopped. For many of our employees, especially in the area of operations, this adjustment was complex. For our employees who work with settlement agencies—

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

On a point of order, Madam Chair, I'm hearing sound doubling up, and I'm not getting anything.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Okay, we'll have a look.

Mr. Clerk, can you check on the interpretation?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Leif-Erik Aune]

Ms. Campbell Jarvis, sorry to interrupt, but when you're speaking in English, could you please make sure that the language of interpretation is set to English, and when you speak in French, make sure that the language of interpretation is set to French, if possible. This should improve the sound at our end, if you could.

Thank you so much.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I apologize, Madam Chair and Clerk. I had actually pressed the button to French when I spoke French. I will press it again and hope for the best.

I'm really sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I pressed the button for the French channel. I want to continue my presentation. Is that okay?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Yes, please.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Perfect.

For our employees who work with settlement agencies, we quickly innovated to create an electronic signature tool. This made it possible to finalize funding negotiations and ensure continuity of service for newcomers.

Our call centre agents needed to use new software or new hardware at home in order to continue to do their work effectively.

Our work included prioritizing the applications to help Canadians who needed to return to the country; the applications from vulnerable populations; and the applications from essential workers, including agricultural workers, who are crucial to maintaining Canada's food supply.

I won't describe in detail the work accomplished. However, I can say that we simplified the application process, took facilitative measures and sped up the processing system.

It should be noted, from a client service perspective, that no applications in progress were closed or refused because of missing documents or because the application process wasn't completed on time. This also means that processing may take longer and that the files may be reviewed more times than under normal circumstances.

The minister and deputy minister have had the opportunity at this committee to share some of the facilitative measures we have put in place. Today, I would just quickly highlight a few that have helped us move the yardsticks ahead while keeping our staff and our clients safe.

Among them is the creation of a public policy to allow in-Canada asylum claims via email, which removes the need to apply in person. Second is exempting key essential populations from biometric collection, given the closure of the VACs. Another is creating a temporary public policy that allows visitors to apply for work permits without having to leave Canada.

We've also had in-Canada virtual landing, meaning those already in Canada and ready to become permanent residents could be landed without an interview. We have provided extra flexibility and funding stability to ensure that settlement organizations could deliver services remotely. Many settlement providers shifted to online or remote delivery, which we all agree will become a permanent feature of the settlement program going forward.

We have also helped to procure personal protection equipment for settlement agencies.

We talked a little bit about our virtual citizenship ceremonies for over 43,000 candidates for citizenship between April and November of this year. Just a couple of weeks ago we moved to offering online citizenship testing to accommodate those who have been waiting to take the knowledge test to become Canadian citizens.

These initiatives, along with a number of facilitative measures for international students and the designated learning institutions in Canada that rely on them, exemptions from travel restrictions that allow family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to enter Canada for non-discretionary reasons—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Jarvis. Your time is up. You will get an opportunity during the round of questioning to touch further on these.

We will start our first round of questioning with Ms. Dancho.

Ms. Dancho, you have six minutes.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all the officials for all of your hard work over the last number of weeks and months. I really appreciate you being here again for the third time in the last number of weeks.

I have a number of questions today for you about the parents and grandparents program. The committee has heard several expert witnesses and their feedback on this lottery. There are a lot of different opinions of how it could be changed.

I'm wondering if the department has the technological capacity to create a weighted grandparents and parents lottery system or otherwise—we'll use the lottery as an example—that can consider if people have applied three, four or five times.

Right now we're seeing that new applicants are being treated the same as those who have been hoping to get their parents into the country for years. I'm just wondering if you have the capacity to do that.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question.

There is always a lot of interest in the parents and grandparents program.

That's a very interesting suggestion by the member about weighting and taking into account past applications. I actually don't know the answer to the question, but I think it's a really interesting one that I will look into further.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think it would be great news for grandparents and parents if that could be considered.

I am just switching gears here a little bit. Regarding the extended family reunification scheme that was brought forward a few months ago to service those separated by Canada-U.S. closures in particular, can you tell me how many applicants applied during those October 8 and 9 dates? Of those, how many are awaiting processing?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

That's another good question. I know that the government was very pleased to be able to offer that possibility of extended members. As for the exact number, I'm going to turn to my colleague, Mr. Mills, who will have the processing figures for you.

Mr. Mills.

[Daniel Mills, Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you.

I do not have the figures for October 8 and 9. However, I can tell you that, up to now, we have received more than 60,000 applications in connection with the travel restriction exemptions for members of the immediate or extended family, depending on the definition. In 80% of those cases, we have processed the application in 14 days, as we committed to do.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

You said that 60,000 applied. Was that 60,000 individual applications? I know that at times people were panicking a little and weren't hearing back, so they would reapply every day. They're probably still doing it. Do you know if that's 60,000 specific people or just 60,000 applications that went through and could be duplicates.

[Daniel Mills]

Yes, there were 60,000 applications, or actually, we received 60,000 emails. Some of those applications are duplicates or triplicates. Some others came from those who have already submitted an application but are providing information that was missing from their files. On average, we estimate that about 40,000 individuals have submitted applications to us for travel authorizations.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay, I wasn't able to do the math, but if you processed 80% of the 60,000 who applied, then exactly how many are remaining? Who will be the 20% of that 60,000? Maybe someone on the committee is better at quicker math than me. What would that be?

[Daniel Mills]

I do not have the number of outstanding applications at hand, but I can confirm that we have received 60,000 requests. We estimate that this means about 40,000 individual applications. To date, we have approved 28,000 applications.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay, so 40,000 applied and then 80% were approved. A little less than 10,000 are outstanding. It's more like 6,000 or 7,000. Is that about correct?

[Daniel Mills]

I would say we have between 8,000 and 10,000 applications still to process.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay. That's about 8,000. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

I wanted to ask about adoption with the remaining minute and a bit that I have here. I brought the Muth family to your attention a few times, and there were other complicated adoption cases. The Muths specifically weren't able to get on that repatriation flight back to Canada in May and were stranded.

Then their daughter had terrible medical needs and was dying, and they had to go to Barbados. Thankfully, Barbados took them in. They were stuck there until last week. That was about eight or nine months.

I have concerns about that and if that's how Canadians are going to be treated when they go abroad to adopt children. This child was sick. I would like confirmation from you about how we can improve that process, and that you are looking to ensure that this never happens again.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I will turn to my colleague Mr. Mills on the adoption question, but it's certainly a process that we do care about, and we are looking into these situations and learning from them.

Mr. Mills, would you wish to add anything?

[Daniel Mills]

All I can do is repeat my colleague's comments. We care very much about adoption. We learn lessons from each case we process. To answer your question, unfortunately—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Mills, but your time is up.

We will now move to Mr. Dhaliwal. You have six minutes for your round of questioning. Please proceed.