Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, perhaps I'll open and then turn the floor over to my colleague, Mr. Orr. Routine files are those in which we have a complete application, all documents have been submitted and there are no further verifications required. It's all very straightforward. What we call no

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, I'd quickly add that we have actually put very effective efficiencies into the system as a result of the changes to the legislation in terms of what we call the decision-maker model. That is actually providing us with a lot of opportunities to optimize our pr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps I could begin, Mr. Chair, by saying that we just stood up express entry on January 1 of this year, as the minister indicated. The launch has been very successful and we've certainly been very encouraged by the take-up. Through this phase, we're continuing to make sure th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  On entry/exit, Mr. Chair, the initiative was launched and announced in budget 2012, as members may know. In fact, the work consisted of four implementation phases. We have already successfully completed phases one and two of entry/exit, and that includes the exchange of biographi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the question. Indeed, under our settlement services program we have in fact started to promote more actively and to put resources into pre-arrival settlement services. It has been certainly identified through various studies and evaluations tha

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I indicated in my opening comments, our department has a long-standing immigration loans program for refugees who've come to Canada with few personal financial resources. In many respects, they've had to access funds either for the costs of medical examinations for coming to C

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The program applies only to resettled refugees—refugees who are overseas and who are approved as refugees and authorized to resettle in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the most part, the expenses that they have incurred are for their travel to get here or for their medical expenses, so it's their initial one-time cost when they first arrive in the country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Cyber-authentication, Mr. Chair, is a unique electronic credential that includes a user name and a password. It allows individuals to communicate securely with online government services with the Government of Canada, and it's done through something called GCKey, which is a Gover

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, CIC is a partner in an initiative for a monument that is to be unveiled in the summer of 2015. The lead for this particular initiative is the Department of Canadian Heritage. Our department is transferring resources under our multiculturalism program to help with the d

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it is.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My understanding is that it is. As I say, the intention is that this monument will be unveiled in late summer 2015. I understand that the design work has been progressing, and, to the best of my information, things are on track.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly the transfer is a one-time transfer towards the overall design and build of the monument. We certainly aren't aware that there are any cost overruns associated with this, nor is there an obligation on the part of our department in terms of any additional funding for th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, if I may add to that, as part of the transition to the two new pathways, the 2015 immigration levels plan that was tabled in Parliament includes a target of 30,000 caregivers, in terms of our levels plan, to help us address the backlog of applications under the previou