Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 15th, 2022

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Yes, my understanding is that the 12-month service standard will remain for those applicants.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

How long would it take for the ministry to process all the backlogs?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

It's a difficult question, because there are large numbers of applications that continue to come in. Even if you were processing cases in real time and everything was in the service standard, you're still going to have hundreds of thousands of cases that are pending at any given point in time. It would depend on which stream you're talking about. It would depend on what you would like to reduce a level to.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm talking about the same stream that we've been discussing—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

—applications for outbound spousal sponsorship. Maybe the minister can submit that answer.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'm happy to work with our officials to give whatever information we can after my committee appearance today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Minister.

With this, our first panel comes to an end.

On behalf of all the members of this committee, I would like to thank Minister Fraser for appearing before the committee today to talk about the important work he is doing to make sure that our country remains open to new immigrants.

Thank you, Minister.

The members will be really looking forward to seeing you again on Thursday.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'll be back.

Thanks so much, folks. I really appreciate your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We will suspend the meeting for a few minutes to allow the officials to come back. There will be no opening remarks. We will go into rounds of questions after that.

I will suspend the meeting for two or three minutes, and then we will come back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I call the meeting to order.

For this panel, we are joined by the IRCC officials. I would like to welcome Marian Campbell Jarvis, senior assistant deputy minister, strategic and program policy; and Daniel Mills, senior assistant deputy minister, operations.

We will proceed directly to the round of questioning. We will start with Mr. Seeback.

Mr. Seeback, you have six minutes for your round of questioning. Please begin.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

When we look at the backlogs, there have been a number of reports and others that have listed what these numbers are: for example, 548,000 permanent resident applications, including 112,392 refugee applications; 775,000 temporary resident applications, study permits, work permits, etc.; and 468,000 Canadian citizenship applications.

The minister came before committee today. He suggested that the injection of $85 million is going to resolve this situation and get everything back to normal processing times. When I look at these kinds of numbers, I find that to be an extraordinary statement.

I have a couple of questions. Number one, on what did he base his answer? Number two, what are the metrics being relied upon?

Is there an internal document that was prepared for the minister for his appearance today to say that this $85 million will have this result? If there is such a document, can you please produce it today, in addition to the answer you're going to give me now?

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

Thank you for your question.

As the minister mentioned, the 85 million dollars won't be able to reduce the backlog in all lines of business. The 85 million coming to the department and its partners will help to reduce processing times for study permits, work permits and permanent resident cards. This is what we have committed to by the end of the year. It means coming back to normal processing times, specifically 60 days for study permits and work permits, and 61 days for permanent resident cards.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

You just said that the $85 million is for students, but then you said permanent residency. Is the $85 million being applied to deal with the backlog of half a million permanent resident applications?

[Daniel Mills]

The 85 million dollars announced at the beginning of December will help us reestablish normal processing times for study permits, work permits and permanent resident cards.

As for permanent residents, we have different processing times based on our service standards. As the minister said, for all family member sponsorship applications, we've already come back to a 12 month processing time.

The 85 million dollars will therefore not improve all processing times for permanent residents, but it will allow us to develop other tools so that permanent residents can apply electronically and have different tools to better follow their applications. The 85 million dollars will be used for several lines of business.

Our commitment is to come back to processing times that meet our service standards for students, temporary workers and permanent resident cards.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'm not sure I understand. Is there a plan in place, with dollars attached, that is going to deal with the backlog of 548,000 permanent resident applications, including 112,000 refugee applications, and 468,000 Canadian citizenship applications? Is there a specific plan, and are there dollars earmarked to reduce those backlogs?

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you again for your question.

What is important to know about permanent residents is that we are subject to the annual immigration levels plan. That means I cannot process a higher number of files than that permitted by the plan. Last year, for example, to get to 401 000 permanent residents, we had to process over half a million applicant files. This allowed us to reach our immigration level.

As the minister said, for next year, we've increased the number of permanent residents that Canada can welcome to 432 000. To maintain this annual immigration level, the department will have to make decisions about 550 000 or 560 000 applicant files.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I don't think I'm getting an answer to my question.

I'll go back to the first question about the $85 million in funding that is supposed to improve some aspect of processing times. Has there been an internal document prepared to show where these monies are going to be allocated and the anticipated result of these monies?

The minister has stated, and you've now stated, that this is going to improve things. I can't imagine that this has just been done because you allocated some money and imagined that it would work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Sorry for interrupting, Mr. Seeback. Your time is up. Maybe you can come back in the second round.

We will now proceed to MP El-Khoury.

MP El-Khoury, you will have six minutes for your round of questioning. Please begin.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to welcome our guests.

My first question is for all the witnesses.

How do you see the Canada's commitment, its role, on the ground over there? How do you compare this role to that of other countries? Do they, like Canada, have a sponsorship program? Could you give us more details about it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Ms. Campbell, you are muted.

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

I'm sorry, Madam Chair.

If I correctly understood the question, I would say that Canada is certainly aware of results achieved by other countries, especially England, Australia, the United States and France.

I'm sorry, Madam Chair, but I'm not sure if the question is focused on a specific area.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Okay, I will ask it in English.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

That's not necessary. I did understand what you said. It's just that at the beginning of your question, there was an impression of retroactivity. I'm sorry.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Okay. Is your answer finished? I was asking how you compare Canada's role to that of other countries. Do they have sponsorship programs to help Afghan refugees, like those in Canada? That's what I would like to know.