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.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
But every year you're getting more.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
Well, it depends on how many we're going to get every year. If the intake is actually reduced, we'll be able to catch up on the accumulated inventory.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
It seems to me like an endless process. There's no end to this thing.
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
It's a difficult situation and it's a new one, considering that we have accumulated that over the past two years.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
It's a situation that this government has created, quite frankly, because asylum seekers get to jump the queue. They get in front of all the other immigration streams. This is an easy way for them to get in.
How many self-abandon?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
There were 4,000 withdrawals last year.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Those 4,000 people came, took the benefits and stayed here—
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
I don't know how long they stayed. What I can tell you is that last year, 4,000 abandoned their claim.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
You made a point there. They do leave the country and they go back to their country and come back.
Shouldn't that be an automatic...? There's no meeting to be had there. They came here fleeing persecution. Why wouldn't they be immediately...? The ruling should be immediate, should it not?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
They are ineligible when they come back.
Conservative
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. Then the CBSA does the deportation order, or do they have the right to make that decision?
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Wow.
It's quite astonishing. How long does your average hearing—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you, Mr. Menegakis. That's your three and a half minutes.
Thank you, Madam Brassard.
We have Ms. Sodhi for three and a half minutes, please.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses.
I guess there are differences between the IRB process and the PRRA process. If passed, part 1 of Bill C-12, strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act, would make asylum claimants who arrived in Canada irregularly and did not make a claim within 14 days ineligible to be referred to the IRB. They would still be eligible to apply to the IRCC for pre-removal risk assessment, also known as the PRRA.
Could you please explain how a pre-removal risk assessment conducted by the IRCC differs from a refugee protection determination made by an IRB decision-maker?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
We provide a full hearing; they provide an interview.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Okay, thank you for your answer.
In budget 2025, we're allocating around $66 million. Are you able to give us a brief overview of what you'd like to do with that money or see be done?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
That brings us to our current level of budget, so it is not more money than we have. It keeps us at the same level, because it continues sunset money that we would have otherwise lost in March 2026. It keeps us whole, if you want, and we're going to continue to do what we've been doing, which is finding improvements in our system and processes, automation of systems, automation of scheduling as much as we can, and finding more time for refugee hearings, so it will free up time for that. We will be more effective and efficient in the back office, which is the registry, and continue to streamline the overall management of the IRB.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Do you personally believe that this investment will help the IRB process claims more efficiently?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
We're working every day to that end.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
That's good, I'm glad.
Are you able to tell me the current size of the IRB's asylum claim backlog? How is the board working to reduce it?
Chairperson, Immigration and Refugee Board
We have 200,090 in the inventory right now and about a third are incomplete. We're using, I would say, almost aggressive case management strategies to make sure that we put as many cases as we can on the schedule. Right now, every day, we put over 300 cases a day to be heard and get decisions every single day.
That's how we continue to do the work, and we try to increase our capacity every day.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Given the challenges that you may be facing, what recommendations would you offer to the government to further improve efficiency and client service at the IRB?