Good morning, Mr. Chairman and thank you, Madam and gentlemen. My name is Neil Yeates, and I am Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. I am joined by Les Linklater, Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic Policy and Programs, and Claudette Deschênes, Assistant Deputy Minister of Operations, at CIC.
I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to speak. Today I will focus my brief remarks on Chapter 2 of the Auditor General's report, and afterwards, we will be happy to answer your questions.
First of all, CIC agrees with the Auditor General's recommendations related to the selection of foreign workers. In recent years my department has taken a number of positive steps to facilitate the timely arrival and fair employment of foreign workers to meet Canada's labour market needs. For example, we have increased the admission ranges for immigrants nominated by the provinces and territories so that the benefits of immigration can be distributed all across the country. The Canadian experience class helps people with recognized skills in Canada who are integrating, along with helping skilled temporary workers and international students to stay here permanently.
Changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program will now make it easier for live-in caregivers to obtain permanent residence, by making the program more flexible for them and helping to protect their rights.
And finally, the new authority for the minister to issue instructions provides a flexible tool to prioritize those applications that best support the government's goals for immigration.
In the few minutes I have left, I would just like to highlight some of our progress to date, in response to some of the Auditor General's specific recommendations.
Since we issued our “Action Plan for Faster Immigration: Ministerial Instructions” in November 2008, the backlog of federal skilled workers, those who applied before the legislative changes took effect on February 27, 2008, has been significantly reduced. It now stands at fewer than 400 persons, a reduction of almost 40% from its peak of 641,000. Including the applications we received since the changes took effect, the number of applicants awaiting a decision has been reduced by 18%. Of the final decisions rendered since the instructions took effect in November 2008, 80% have been completed in an average of seven months. This is compared to wait times of up to six years before the changes.
The first set of instructions limited skilled worker applications to 38 occupations and allowed us to make progress in managing applications. But we have still received significantly more applications than we can process or accept under the levels planned. So we are consulting broadly with stakeholders, provinces and territories, and the public to ensure instructions remain responsive to our economic needs but also help us to manage the flow of applications. An evaluation of the federal skilled worker program is now under way and a national evaluation of the provincial nomination program will begin this fiscal year. Taken together, these initiatives will lead to the development of an immigration road map over the next two years.
Recently proposed regulatory amendments to the temporary foreign worker program will clarify the roles of my department and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and will establish specific criteria to guide the assessment of the genuineness of an employer's offer of employment to a temporary foreign worker. These changes will establish consequences for employers who fail to meet their commitments to workers and grant the government more authority to review the actions of employers and third parties acting on their behalf.
And finally, this summer we will start rolling out Release 2 of the Global Case Management System internationally. We have been using GCMS internally since 2004 to process applications for Canadian citizenship. It is already helping us to detect and prevent fraud. GCMS is a fundamental component of our service innovation agenda, and it lays the foundation for future improvements. These are just some of the ways we are working to address the Auditor General's concerns in a timely fashion.
We are ready for your questions now.