Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 18th, 2022

[Christiane Fox]

I think there is information sharing about safe ways to seek haven in this country. I think that we continuously demonstrate a record in this country of accepting asylum claimants, and I think we share information around a safe way to do that.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Are you spending any money to share this information with people coming from countries that we have identified are the source of irregular claimants? Is there any money being put into sharing that information so that people will choose not to come in the first place?

[Christiane Fox]

I think there's always capacity building that we do in terms of sharing information about the proper channels to be followed.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

How much money?

[Christiane Fox]

In terms of investment, it's part of our international protection systems, our information flows, that could have some of this but would have other types of—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

How much is the government spending to educate people to try to deter them from coming to this country irregularly?

[Christiane Fox]

I don't have that dollar figure. I think it would be part of the broader—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Is it anything? Is it zero dollars?

[Christiane Fox]

There is work done in terms of information and capacity building in other countries, absolutely. It's not zero dollars.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Okay, it's not zero dollars.

How much of the $1.3 billion in new funding that's been announced is dedicated to reducing the Immigration and Refugee Board wait times that you admit take over two years?

[Christiane Fox]

I'd have to get the exact breakdown of how much the IRB is getting. I'm sure they can—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Can you please provide this committee with that information?

[Christiane Fox]

Yes, I can.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Do you agree that, if we were to cut down this two-years-plus claims process to a process that took a matter of weeks or possibly months at most, this would prove to be an effective deterrent to bogus claimants who come to this country?

[Christiane Fox]

I think it's hard to answer that question. I would say that we want to have an asylum system that is efficient, nimble, flexible and responsive to the demands we get. I think right now we don't have that, so we have to work with our CBSA and IRB colleagues to improve this system and the processing so that we don't have these delays.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

What efforts are being undertaken to reduce those wait times right now?

[Christiane Fox]

I would say that a good example of it is that, given the fact that it was 18 months to get a work permit, the department has just put in place a public policy to reduce that time to one month—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

That's for the work permit. I understand, but what is being done to reduce the two-years-plus wait time for hearing these asylum claims?

[Christiane Fox]

I think that would be better placed with the IRB. I can't speak to what their efforts are specifically on—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Do you know if any money is being put forward to reduce these wait times?

[Christiane Fox]

Yes, there is. Absolutely.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Can you please provide this committee with information on additional resources that are put towards reducing asylum claim wait times, as well as the number of full-time equivalents that have been hired to reduce this backlog?

[Christiane Fox]

Absolutely. I can say that budget 2022 has $1.3 billion. The fall economic statement of 2020 had $780 million. Budget 2019—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

But you don't know how much of those big numbers is being spent on these specific measures that I've asked about. Is that correct?

[Christiane Fox]

Do you mean the breakdown of the processing specifically?