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.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
If they claim and they leave, when they come back and claim again, they're ineligible.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I wanted to get that on the record, because it wasn't clear from what you said to my colleague earlier. Just to be clear, if somebody makes a claim, leaves the country and comes back in, they are ineligible to continue their claim and that claim has been abandoned. Is that correct?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
How many did you cancel last year, or in the last several years, due to that?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
I have the total, which was 11,000. I don't have it disaggregated.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
You said that 11,000 was just because of incomplete applications. Is that right?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
Yes, but if they start and they leave and it's incomplete, we'll cancel it.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
There's a bit of a lack of clarity there about how you're abandoning applications, but I think we might make some amendments to that effect to put some clarity there.
Deputy Chairperson, Refugee Protection Division, Immigration and Refugee Board
If you give me two seconds, there are different things. There's abandonment when a claimant doesn't file their appropriate documents; if they don't fulfill their claim with all the information, we can abandon the claim.
There's a claim that's incomplete where front-end security is there, and then there's also the ability for the minister to revoke eligibility. That's different from an abandonment.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
My understanding is that the entire time somebody has an incomplete claim—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
—let's say, not for security reasons, they would be eligible to get benefits like accommodations, health care and supplementary benefits. Would that be correct?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
Yes, as long as they're claimants, but that's why we go through our system and we call them—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Do you think perhaps there would be a cost saving on benefits if there was a time limit for incomplete applications?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
There are, right now, some timelines.
Conservative
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
We wait six to eight months on average to get the security screening.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
This seems a little like office space to me. I'll just leave it at that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Ms. Rempel Garner, please allow her to answer the question.
I just want to hear the answer, please.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I think I have enough of what I need to put some amendments on the record for this bill.
Liberal
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
There are sometimes six to eight months given, and we won't abandon until then. The claimants have, when they arrive, 45 days, and it's been prolonged to 90 days.
Six to eight months after we get the FESS, if the claim is not complete and there's no valid reason, we will proceed to abandonment.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you, Ms. Brassard.
Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.
Last for this round, we have Ms. Zahid for five minutes.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses.
Our government has invested more resources in the Immigration and Refugee Board, and you have been increasing your capacity to help cases, as you mentioned in your opening remarks, but the system is still overwhelmed, leading to significant wait times for people waiting to start their new lives here in Canada.
I have heard these stories in my constituency many times. They have left their loved ones.
Could you please share how the measures in Bill C-12 would help ensure more timely access to a fair hearing for asylum claimants?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
Bill C-12 would impact the board in six ways...the grounds for ineligibility and forcing to people claim within a year, otherwise they go to the PRRA. We would see if more people claimed within the year, and that would change behaviour.
If the claims are completed sooner with a single online application, we hope that will be able to arrive at decisions faster, because there would less time spent waiting for complete files.
The minister would have a chance to do their due diligence. If they tell us sooner, we can intervene. It would be a step that we would not have to do, so that would shorten the process entirely.
There are ways. The goal of the legislation is to try to reduce some of the timelines.