Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, in addition to the enhanced or improved guidance and operational instructions that we've sent out to the field, we do have regular working group meetings with our citizenship staff, and we have monthly conference calls to try to reinforce the procedures. Again, I think

Public Accounts committee  We do have a process that will document the risk indicators. As I said, this involves using evidence based on assessing cases that have been refused, and looking at and going into the cases. As has been pointed out, we analyze the cases in terms of the kinds of issues that were i

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, the provision in the legislation basically provides a new authority that was not there previously to allow a citizenship officer, if they suspect a document that has been presented in front of them, to validate or help to substantiate their application for citizenship

Public Accounts committee  Certainly in terms of the guidance and the instructions we've sent out to staff, we've been very clear that before entering a new address, number one, make sure there isn't already another address entered into the system. See if another address already exists so that we're not en

Public Accounts committee  As part of our quality assurance and quality control processes, those are the kinds of things we will be following up on, to make sure that we are addressing the problems that have been identified in terms of the way addresses are being entered into the system.

Public Accounts committee  As I say, there are multiple tools, Mr. Chair. The reference that I made in particular was to an advanced computerized image retrieval system—I think it's called Edison. It's an electronic system of travel documents from around the world. Officers can actually verify a document i

Public Accounts committee  I haven't actually had the opportunity, but certainly, Mr. Chair, Mr. Orr has.

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask Mr. Orr to respond in detail, but often we are in close proximity to access CBSA or RCMP officers. As I say, if the suspect document is an immigration-type document that's been used for immigration purposes to Canada, then the legal authority would exist under the Immigr

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, as I noted in my previous answer, and as the Auditor General has stressed, although the region didn't seize the documents, it doesn't mean to say that the officers didn't go through the full process. In fact, if they suspected there were an issue with the document, it

Public Accounts committee  The application is considered in the local office where the residence of the applicant is.

Public Accounts committee  All of the applications are input in Sydney, but as I say—

Public Accounts committee  All of the applications are input into our system in Sydney, but in terms of the actual receipt of the applications and the interviews, that could be done in Toronto if that's where the individual is resident, or it could be in Vancouver if that's where the applicant is resident.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, the proof is in the pudding, and that is why the program integrity framework that we have now completed and put in place includes very robust quality assurance and quality control processes. As I say, these include following up times a year on these kinds of thing

Public Accounts committee  Officers have been given training on these kinds of things. They actually are trained to look at original documents against sample documents. Officers have access to a fully computerized image retrieval system of travel documents from around the world. They can look at a document

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, perhaps I will start by saying that the issue we identified is the fact that we don't have the authority, under the citizenship legislation, to seize a document. If someone has provided, for example, what appears to be a fraudulent or suspicious identity document.... I