Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, Mr. Chairman, I can speak to it from the point of view of someone who actually got assessed. I only contributed to assessment of my other colleagues as I was not formally a manager within the IRB. Based on my experience with other agencies that I've worked in, and the perfo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have a very small piece of this pie in the refugee protection division. Our policy is, as the general counsel was just saying, that when we have a family member, we will join that family member's claim to the other member who's here. But you're talking about those who are left

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sir, I believe it did appear in the papers. I saw it on our website of the IRB, but our general counsel is quite certain that it appeared in the papers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, I did have that experience. As my résumé shows, I was the chair of the Ontario Board of Parole for six and a half years. In Ontario that was the provincial organization. We had considerable success in having the members of provincial Parliament come to observe our h

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sir, I'll answer that, and then I'll ask Ms. Figg to add to it. What happens typically is that if there is something quite new—a new development such as the one you've talked about—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. We have capacity within the board to have that information, and also the counsel who appears with the claimant will provide it. I have sat as a member when I have had news pertaining to the day I sat brought forward from another part of the world, information that was shared

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do not, as a board, reach out to the community because we have to rely on reliable, trustworthy information that is brought forward. We have a very effective research directorate that provides us with that kind of information. Our problem is that if we reach into the communit

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, we could spend a lot of time answering that one. But let me say very briefly that we use a number of tools to try to bring about consistency, one of which is to have sessions with the decision-makers, with the members, on where we see large differences or discrepanc

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, sir. In the refugee protection division, as I indicated, our approved complement is 127, and we currently have 82.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I understand, sir, that our chair—I don't know whether you know, but the minister announced confirmation of our interim chair just this week, and Mr. Brian Goodman has been confirmed in the position—discusses matters of appointment with the minister.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In my capacity, I'm always keeping him informed, and we're discussing matters, and you know that there have been appointments in the last few weeks.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sir, the number of cases or files dealt with by members differs somewhat in the three regions. For example, the western region travels to other cities to do cases. Our average is between 15 to 20 per member, but this is subject.... I hadn't figured it out, but from what I know, w

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The members are certainly working full-time. Some, I will tell you, are working more than full-time. It's a very demanding position. It's not something that can be dealt with in a passing manner, by anybody. You have to be completely focused. I have found, coming from other age

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me say what I think. I've just come out from being a member. I was a member for three years. But I'll ask Ms. Figg to respond to it as well. From my point of view, the process is such that the member managers do not allow that pressure to bear on the members who are there

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, we have recently received some appointments. There have been about 10 or 11 appointments in the last few weeks, and a few reappointments. So we are getting some appointments and we do have some new members we have to train. We are able to do that at this time becaus