Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. For practical reasons, the CRA senior people have advised me year after year that it may interfere with the integrity of their revenue collection potential. People need to know, even if they're doing bad things, that CRA will not share information with law enforcement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I had contemplated a 30-day notice period or a 60-day notice period of an incoming ministerial instruction, which would stimulate consultation—desired or otherwise.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Historically, I've seen it happen, and my concern is that outside the light of day, bad things grow. To fully illuminate the political choices, we require a transparent selection system. Indeed, who could resist the political candy—any government—to curry favour with a desired

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we're almost in agreement. That might be a little heavy. Overall, it's how to counterbalance. I focus on the glass being half full, so to counterbalance we have to put in place someone who will keep the CIC public servants honest.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Government is accountable to Parliament.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would point this out. For the first time in Canadian immigration history, discrimination is no longer part of the overseas selection process. The rules that came in within the last half decade created a first come, first served process. Prior to that, it was first come, first s

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, and I'm very concerned about that potential. There's no monitoring. There's no control. There's no practical oversight.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, even this morning, I concluded my Ottawa rounds unofficially between the off-record senior officials and their take. I've seen turf wars blossom within 48 hours. HRSDC closely guards its turf. Unless there's an explicit permission to share information with CIC, they're not

Citizenship and Immigration committee  How they already...?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are layers of redundancy presently built into the selection system. Employers have to file virtually identical information at a minimum of two government departments. Why? A common platform on intake and information sharing would resolve that. It seems to be common sense,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is waste. This is absolute waste.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It hearkens back to the departmental design. In the good old days, Immigration and HRSDC were one and the same shop. What they've done is they've pulled out the baby and left the umbilical cord attached to the mother. Well, if that's the situation, you have to, by regulation, ens

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A very short answer: be transparent. Don't do it in private. Have open consultation with the provinces and the stakeholders, an open, almost e-based system, on the CIC website that inputs all people's needs. That way everyone can see the political choice being made by the immigra

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have the best program in the world. This is an improvement on that. One can improve it depending on who we want in—that's a key question—and when. For example, if in the construction industry we feel a need for a particular trade, we can act smartly by sending, proactively,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This “behind the wizard's curtain” aspect is the outcome of almost 25 years of internal CIC strategic planning. The terms were “streams” and “pools”, and it was Minister Robillard's public officials who came up with them. At this date, in 2013, we're finally delivering the end of