Citizenship and Immigration committee  At this point it's not possible to have accurate statistics because we don't have systematic entry and exit information systems, although under the beyond the border action plan with the United States, there's a pilot project that has already been undertaken at the land border by CBSA to start capturing that information.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our colleague Dawn Edlund, the Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of Operations, serves as a liaison between the department and the tourism industry. She speaks with representatives of the tourism industry, airline companies and the hospitality sector across the country almost on a weekly basis.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Currently—I'm just looking at the comparative charts, which we're happy to provide through the clerk—we have the differential fee of $150 for a multiple and $75 for a single-entry visa. For the U.S.A., it's $164 plus a local issuance fee, which depends on the local market. For the U.K., it's $126; for Australia, $120; and for New Zealand, $143.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Bob may want to add, but my recollection of my time as a visa officer is that if an individual reapplies, a different officer would review the application, if possible. That's why we try to have at least two officers in each of our missions, so that we can accommodate those types of situations.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As Bob mentioned, comparatively speaking our costs are very competitive and in fact on the low side, when we look at five country conference partners. There is a question of commitment to the program in the degree of subsidization that the government provides. As we've indicated, we recover a good portion of the cost of processing applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We work in partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency, which is in charge of coordinating all the checks our officers refer to it. Initially, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada officers on the ground decide whether we can approve an application in a specific region of the country or whether the application needs to be referred to CBSA, so that the agency can conduct additional checks and get the Royal Canadian Mounted Police involved.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In general cases with no particular issues, we expect a response from the agency within one to two weeks.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, the same indicators are used. We transmit information on temporary and permanent residents, but security services carry out all the required work.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Misspellings or dates for where they travelled in the past.... People forget they were in the States a year ago or two years ago—things like that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we have looked at appeal mechanisms in both the U.K. and Australia. In terms of their applicability in the Canadian context, based on our review and conversations with our colleagues, we find that these processes are expensive, time-consuming, and not responsive to the timeliness of a decision based on an event like a wedding or a funeral.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think Bob will be able to speak to the operational statistics. I will just open by saying that the number has been increasing year over year, exponentially in some markets, particularly in China, India, and Brazil.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As a matter of policy we look at a number of comparators, including what other countries do, as well as the opportunities that Canadians have when they travel abroad. From our perspective, in terms of risk management—and I'm sure Bob would like to add to this as well—six months seems a reasonable amount of time to ensure that an individual is not planning to remain in Canada indefinitely and that the purpose of their visit is tied to a temporary stay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here again. My colleague Bob Orr and I are happy to assist this morning with testimony that we hope will be helpful to you as you undertake your study on temporary resident visas, or TRVs, for visitors to Canada. As the assistant deputy minister for strategic and program policy, I will provide you with a brief overview of our department's temporary resident visa policies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, definitely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do, in fact. We have a rather systematic approach to the sharing of information—administrative data, largely, between CIC and provinces and territories, so admissions data, category by category, that sort of thing, gender, province of intended destination, etc. These are long-standing arrangements that we have to ensure that our provincial and territorial colleagues have access to data relevant to migration to their particular jurisdiction, and also on temporary foreign workers and international students.