Public Safety Committee on Feb. 16th, 2012

[Peter Hill]

We found in our practice that it has been useful in the cases relating to national security. In those cases—there are five—the Immigration and Refugee Board has imposed the use of electronic monitoring. We have used electronic monitoring in the small number of other cases involving criminality.

We have not undertaken a cost-benefit analysis to determine the feasibility and the cost-effectiveness of the broader application of electronic monitoring for lower-risk populations. This is, however, an area of interest.

We are considering the potential for undertaking such a study, and we're doing that for a number of reasons. Our detention population is about 400 to 500 on a daily basis, but we do have aging infrastructure. We do have developments across the world that have brought us mass arrivals.

Also, of course, as part of our own evaluation, and as part of evaluations that have been conducted by the Auditor General in recent years, we are constantly looking for ways to strengthen the program performance and its effectiveness. In an environment of increasing fiscal constraint, the possibility of the application of EM is something that we're starting to look at with a bit more focus.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Hill.

Thank you, Ms. Hoeppner.

We'll now move to Mr. Sandhu and Madame Morin on a split here, for seven minutes.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

So 80% of the population of the 44,000 would be low risk...?

[Peter Hill]

That's correct.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

That's out there right now...?

[Peter Hill]

That's correct.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Would it serve any purpose to have the low-risk population fitted with the bracelets if they show up at our borders, like these asylum seekers show up?

[Peter Hill]

That's the kind of analysis that we haven't undertaken on a rigorous, comprehensive basis. Our use of the technology to date doesn't indicate that this would be a cost-effective approach.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

So it wouldn't be across the board. The people that we've identified as low risk, low flight risk people...this technology wouldn't be used on those people...?

[Peter Hill]

What I'm saying is that our current practices are not to use them on that population.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Would you see that changing in the future?

[Peter Hill]

You know, as I said in my remarks, the agency is open to the consideration of a broader application of EM in the future, but I'd be speculating. We would need to undertake a thorough cost-benefit analysis and appropriate feasibility studies before we could make that determination.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

You said that you have anywhere from 400 to 500 detentions on a daily basis. Have you done any sort of evaluation on your program?

[Peter Hill]

Of our detention program?

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Yes.

[Peter Hill]

We certainly have. We have undertaken an evaluation of the program, which is continuing, and we're looking at the cost-effectiveness of our detention. The costs on a daily basis are rising.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Is the evaluation done monthly, or quarterly, or yearly...?

[Peter Hill]

It depends. In the past year, we have just completed a thorough program analysis, a programmatic assessment, which has given us the basis for a go-forward strategy to strengthen the detention program. Our detention strategy is essentially multi-faceted, which includes the consideration of alternatives to detention.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

On the program evaluation you were talking about, can you forward the last one you did to the committee?

[Peter Hill]

I believe I could certainly provide that to the committee.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

How much does this detention program cost on a yearly basis?

[Peter Hill]

For the detention program?

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Right.

[Peter Hill]

I can tell you that on a daily basis it costs us approximately $200 to $250 a day to house our immigration detainees. We house them in three immigration holding centres that are administered by the CBSA, and we also rely on the provinces to house our high-risk population or to house our low-risk population in areas of the country where we don't have an immigration holding centre.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

How much was spent on electronic monitoring in the last year?