Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly the person can have representation, legal counsel or a consultant, to assist in the preparation of their application and to appear with them at any oral hearing that the decision-maker determines is necessary pursuant to the provisions of the legislation. There's nothing that explicitly refers in our legislation to the role of members of Parliament.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, it doesn't. Everybody who currently has an opportunity to submit a pre-removal risk assessment will have an opportunity to do so in the future. The vast majority of those applications will be considered by the Immigration and Refugee Board. A small number of persons who are serious criminals, as I mentioned before, persons who are excluded from refugee protection by article 1F of the refugee convention, persons who are subject to security certificates--these would be retained at the ministerial level.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If the issue is whether the member can make direct representations to the decision-maker, as is the case with the refugee protection division today, to my understanding, members of Parliament cannot make direct representations to the decision-maker, so in the future that would still be the case...

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Presuming the same evidence and information before the decision-maker, one would expect the same decision in the future as one would get today on a particular case. If the person has demonstrated evidence that he or she would be at risk, they will be granted protection. If the evidence is insufficient to establish that risk, the person will not get protection.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Once the application is made to the Immigration and Refugee Board, the jurisdiction to hear the case and make a decision rests with the board. The minister cannot take that back unless the situation were one where the minister decided that the person should be allowed to stay in Canada--for example, on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, in which case there would no longer be a removal process, and the process before the board could be terminated.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Subject to the restrictions or bars that are in Bill C-11, the authority of the minister to act on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, even after the pre-removal risk assessment decision has been made, will not have changed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's the same as today, subject to those provisions that are in the bill already with respect to limits on access to applications on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I suppose inasmuch as the minister will no longer be making risk assessments on the vast majority of persons who are being removed from Canada, it would seem to decrease overall his range of authorities on that particular point. But he has other authorities that he can exercise where circumstances warrant it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that is correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would have to say that you're correct, that they cannot talk directly to the decision-maker. The person would have to make his own submissions, with assistance from the member of Parliament or from counsel, as the case may be. So the information would have to be put through the individual in his or her application.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Basically, in the current process, where the citizen and immigration officer, acting on behalf of the minister, makes decisions, a lot of the administrative steps in the decision-making process are reflected in the policy manuals of the department. They are not spelled out in the act or in the regulations.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The motions set out the detailed procedures for transferring these cases to the board from the department, from the minister. It sets out the legal limitations on the jurisdiction of the board and where the minister might choose to intervene if the minister had information. Certainly there will be more detail in rules made by the board with respect to procedures at any hearings or interviews that have to be held, but as I say, the motions spell out, in more detail than the act does today, certain steps in the process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think you're right in terms of the impact it would have on representations to the Immigration and Refugee Board, but the starting point for our pre-removal risk assessment is the decision by Canada Border Services Agency that the person is ready for removal. There is a removal order.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If the issue is the information with respect to changed country conditions, that information would be submitted by the applicant to the Immigration and Refugee Board. If the member of Parliament has information that would be pertinent to the individual's case, then as long as he or she ensures that the person is aware, the person can make those submissions in their application to the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Basically it's a question of treating both parties equitably and equally with respect to determinations before the board. The minister, in his legislative package, is proposing taking away the opportunity for an appeal to the refugee appeal division by the claimant in that situation, and, equally, he is proposing taking away any opportunity for him as minister to deal with those cases.