Evidence of meeting #11 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was claim.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Mario Simard Bloc Jonquière, QC
So we agree on that. We're not going to disagree on the math.
Do you have any information about the pressure that an asylum seeker may put on public services?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
I would suggest that you ask IRCC that question.
Bloc
Mario Simard Bloc Jonquière, QC
That's a very good suggestion.
Would you please tell us more about processing efficiency and speed?
As you know, many MPs' offices have become points of contact for IRCC because IRCC's response time can be quite long, unfortunately.
Bloc
Mario Simard Bloc Jonquière, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Brassard, as I was saying, IRCC's response time is quite long. Many of the cases are asylum claims.
I agree that you have a specific process for handling applications, but there are horror stories. Consider someone who's been here for more than five years. They've integrated well and they've built a life. Unfortunately, because of the process they went through as asylum seekers, we know that these people will inevitably get rejected.
I would like to know how long asylum seekers have been settling here. Do you have any statistics on that?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
That's another question for IRCC.
The figures we have are the ones I already gave you.
Anyone who wants to know the status of an asylum seeker's file can consult the “My Account” portal, which will be gradually made accessible to everyone.
For the time being, the portal can be accessed by lawyers, so they are able to find out the status of a particular file. The next step will be to make it accessible to asylum seekers, whether or not they're represented by a lawyer. At that point, everyone will have access.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you, Ms. Brassard and Mr. Simard.
Our second round is five minutes.
We will go back to Mr. Redekopp, please.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Brassard, you said at the beginning, and I want to make sure my numbers are right, that right now a new case referred to you will take 44 months to get through the system and that there are about 290,000 cases in your system. We've never seen numbers like this before.
I have two questions. First, is that correct, and second, does that keep you up at night?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
It's correct. A third of the 290,000—so 103,000—are incomplete cases in the sense that we're missing documents in the file to be able to process them. That is number one.
Yes, 44 months is something that I am concerned with. That's why we work so hard to reduce our times, to have My Case and to try to give training and videos to claimants so that they know how to proceed and facilitate their case. We do everything we can to shorten that time.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Thank you.
In the levels plan that was released yesterday, there were 115,000 additional spots for protected persons in Canada. Is it your understanding that they will go to asylum seekers? Are you familiar with that? Have you talked to the department about that?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
I have not been talking to the department about that. My understanding, although this has to be checked with the IRCC, is that it is for those who are found to be persons in need of protection. Those are not the people with us but the people who got the positive decision from us.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Okay.
I want to go back to what we were talking about before, which is abandoned claims.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
I believe you told me that if somebody is not in the country when their hearing happens, that's essentially an automatic ending of their file. Their file is closed.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
There are many reasons for a claim to be abandoned. What we primarily look at is this: We're calling them for a hearing. They're not here. We're going to call them for a special hearing to explain why they weren't here. Unless they have a good reason, their claim will be declared abandoned.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
I'll go back to the example of somebody who actually did leave the country to go back to their home country. They're now back in Canada. They are available for their hearing. Does that automatically disqualify them as well?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
Well, I would expect the minister representative to say that this person re-availed themselves of the protection of their country and challenge the claim, at the very least.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
So they would likely have their claim abandoned. Is that something that needs to be strengthened in law?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
I'm not sure I follow, exactly.
Maybe my colleague can help.
Roula Eatrides Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
I think the issue is that if they left the country and tried to come back, they'd be ineligible because they'd previously made a claim in Canada.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
Right. It's less a question of abandoning it than of being ineligible.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
I see.
When the minister was here, she talked about using the mass cancellation authority for fraudulent purposes. One of the reasons I believe that would happen is if a whole bunch of people had the exact same reason for claiming asylum, which is an indication of gaming the system, of fraudulence. Do you have any numbers of claims where you've seen the exact same pattern of descriptions and it ends up being a fraudulent situation?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
We don't have numbers per se. What I can tell you, though, about similar basis of claim forms, BOCs, is that it's often more complex than it appears. If the minister's representative has a number of cases and sees that the BOCs are similar, if they tell us, we will make sure that, in the hearings, the claimant is exposed to that and has to provide a valid reason.