Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, if you don't mind...? It's a bit unusual, but I was previously in a role in this area. To add a bit of precision, it's actually only members from designated countries who cannot access work permits, so others can access work permits.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The number of passports issued overseas is a fairly small component of the business. I would have to look through my papers to find the exact amount, but it would be less than 5% issued overseas, I believe. I could follow up with the exact amount, but the vast majority are in Can

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of fraudulent passports, I wouldn't have an amount, but I could certainly look into seeing what we might have. Certainly, we have strengthened the integrity of the passport system significantly over the years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly. At roughly the same time as the transition, so again in July of 2013 we introduced the ePassport, which is now the standard in Canada. This was a very important integrity initiative. Essentially, the passport now has an electronic chip embedded in the passport that ca

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. The ePassport was a significant initiative. As well, we've made investments in facial recognition. This is a very, very important tool that allows us to match pictures of passport holders against the previous picture we have on record of that same passport holder, as

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It did. It took place in July of 2013. The transition occurred without any interruption of services. The passport program exceeds its service standards consistently and it was able to maintain that high degree of adherence to service standards. The transition activities are now c

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've been issuing roughly five million passports on an annual basis. This is up considerably. In the year 2000 it was, I think, about 1.9 million passports annually. You can see that this is a growing business. In 2013-14, we issued 4.9 million passports. In 2014-15 so far, we'

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. That's—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It has become a very important document for Canadians, particularly since the western hemisphere travel initiative—now that you need a passport to enter into the United States, it has become a very critical document. We've seen that the possession rate of passports has increased

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The change that occurred was that in July of 2013 accountability for the passport program moved from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, however, is supported by the M

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The passport offers the protection of the Government of Canada. We'll be updating it to make it a Government of Canada issued passport.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Would you like me to comment on that?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You're absolutely right that the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development has a mandate for protecting Canadians overseas. That's still an integral component of the passport program, and it still has a role to play. Following the transfer, the passport program really

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members of Parliament. My name is Caitlin Imrie, I'm the director general of passport operational coordination at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. I am here today to answer any technical questions you may have related to the change to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Through the transition process our guiding principle has been to ensure no disruption of service to Canadians. The transfer has actually happened already, as of July 2, and we have achieved that goal of no disruption. The passport offices and the passport...the service delivery