Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me to discuss chapter 7 of our May 2008 report, “Detention and Removal of Individuals”, an audit of the Canada Border Services Agency.
With me today is Gordon Stock, the principal of the public safety audit team responsible for this chapter.
Following a review of chapter 5 of our April 2003 report, the public accounts committee requested that we conduct this audit and report back on whether the management of detentions and removals had improved under the agency since 2003, when we audited those activities as part of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's control and enforcement program.
I should note that the work for this audit was largely completed in December 2007 and I cannot comment on actions taken since then.
The Canada Border Services Agency plays a key role in maintaining the integrity of Canada's immigration and refugee programs. The agency may detain permanent residents and foreign nationals who have or who may have breached the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Individuals may be detained if they pose a danger to the public, if their identity is in question, or if there is reason to believe that they will not appear for immigration proceedings.
The agency is also authorized to remove people found to be inadmissible to Canada. In 2006-07, the agency removed 12,617 persons, including 1,996 criminals, who posed a high risk to Canada.
Since our last audit, the agency has made a number of improvements in its management of detentions and removals. It better estimates the number of individuals with removal orders and has set up processes to help it remove higher-risk individuals. As of September 2007, the agency knew the whereabouts of 22,000 individuals who had been ordered to leave Canada; however, it did not know the whereabouts of a further 41,000 who had been ordered to leave and some of whom may already have left the country.
Improved case management systems would enable it to better track and prioritize removal cases to help ensure the consistent and timely removal of priority cases at the national level.
The Agency's policies and standards for detaining individuals are broad and give substantial latitude for decisions. We found that the Agency does not adequately monitor whether individuals, regardless of their location, receive consistent and fair decisions on their detention or release. Nor does it monitor compliance with its standards for the conditions and treatment of individuals detained.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Canada Border Services Agency and Citizenship and Immigration Canada clearly articulates their respective accountabilities in detentions and removals. At the time of our audit, both organizations were in the process of determining whether improvements were needed to better support program delivery.
In the majority of cases, the Agency manages the removal of individuals on the basis of risk and has made progress in recent years. However, the backlog of individuals to be removed from Canada, who may present a lower risk or whose whereabouts are unknown, continues to grow. This growing number of individuals who might still be in Canada illegally undermines the integrity of the immigration process.
In our chapter we recommended that the agency improve its analysis of progress on detentions and removals to ensure that risks, situations, and individuals are treated in a consistent manner. You may wish to request that the agency provide an update on its action plan to address our recommendations.
Mr. Chair, that concludes my opening statement. We will be happy to respond to the committee's questions.