MP Rahim Jaffer questioned Director General of CIC about parental immigration issue
Find full information by following this link
http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=101305
Mr. Rahim Jaffer (Edmonton―Strathcona, CPC): Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's almost like we need some tissue boxes here, because you almost had me in tears with that intervention in the committee.
Seriously, I want to follow up on a point that was made by my colleague from the NDP, Mr. Siksay, on the issue of...it seems to me the CIC is not being honest with Canadians, especially about the processing times of grandparents and parents, especially when I look at the website. That's the concern I have. If you look at the CIC website, it continues to publish historic and not prospective processing times. Based on the 2005 targets, and I have a list here in front of me, there will be significant disparities in processing times, depending on where the application is from.
I'll give you an example, because when I look at this list...for instance, with Beijing, the target for 2005 is about 100 cases, but the inventory as of November 2004 is almost 2,000 cases. Judging on the timeline, some of these cases will take up to 20 years to get processed, just to clear the backlog, so why are the processing times that you are currently publishing not being updated, based on the most recent data you have?
 (1200)
Mr. Rénald Dussault: You're right to find the website information is based on historical data. Fundamentally, the reason is that at this point in time, that's the only hard data we have. We have been discussing within the department the possibility of being able to publish, as you very well indicated, numbers looking ahead, and being able to indicate for the future how long it is likely to take, as an average, if you submit your application today. We're looking at that possibility in order to be more transparent about those numbers. You are absolutely correct on that particular front. As I said, we are working on that ourselves.
I have to repeat what I said to your colleague--that there are just so many places available in terms of our capacity to process and our capacity to integrate those people into Canadian society, and that we have to make choices. We thought the best choice within the family class would be to try to put the majority of our efforts into dealing with spouses and minor children. That's the reason parents and grandparents unfortunately have to wait longer.
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: That is obviously a question of resources and priority. It seems to me that there has been almost a 75% reduction in quotas over the past two years when you look at that particular class, especially the parents and grandparents. Has there been direction from your department, especially to overseas posts, when it comes to issuing visas to secondary family and immigrants? Has there been a restriction put on those visas overall because of the actual problems in the system when it comes to priority or resources?
Mr. Rénald Dussault: I can only explain partially how the international region actually processes those applications and identifies targets for their missions abroad. As a general rule, what they try to do is look at the priorities of the government that are being identified in the report to Parliament by category and subcategory, and they try to translate those objectives into targets for the missions in relation to the inventories of those missions. Obviously missions with the largest inventories are getting higher targets, because they usually also have the resources to support larger numbers. But it's a translation, as much as it is feasible, of the overall priorities of the government into the specific targets of the missions, depending on their specific inventories.
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: As my final question, it seems to me the issue of resources is still an issue. In the case of what I've identified, in the case of Beijing, many parents, but mostly grandparents, may not make it past that timeline to actually come here because obviously age is working against them.
What would be your suggestion? What should be happening in the department to actually address this? Is it a question of resources? I know you've mentioned the idea of priority coming down, but what needs to happen to actually address this particular problem? It seems to me that priority is obviously a factor, but in some cases you're never going to be able to process many of these people.
Mr. Rénald Dussault: There's always one danger when we do projections, and it is that obviously we project with what we know at this point in time. Obviously the situation as described is the situation that exists at this point in time. We have a range of 220,000 to 245,000 and we have a breakdown according to categories and subcategories, based on the demand and the inventories in those subcategories and based on the priority.
Obviously a number of things might change both in terms of the capacity of Canadian society to possibly absorb more immigrants and in terms of the rate of application itself. As I said, projection is a good tool, but at the same time we have to be careful not to assume we will be dealing with exactly the same situation five years from now that we're dealing with at this point in time. A number of things might change in the process.
The Chair: Thank you.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=101305
Find full information by following this link
http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=101305
Mr. Rahim Jaffer (Edmonton―Strathcona, CPC): Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's almost like we need some tissue boxes here, because you almost had me in tears with that intervention in the committee.
Seriously, I want to follow up on a point that was made by my colleague from the NDP, Mr. Siksay, on the issue of...it seems to me the CIC is not being honest with Canadians, especially about the processing times of grandparents and parents, especially when I look at the website. That's the concern I have. If you look at the CIC website, it continues to publish historic and not prospective processing times. Based on the 2005 targets, and I have a list here in front of me, there will be significant disparities in processing times, depending on where the application is from.
I'll give you an example, because when I look at this list...for instance, with Beijing, the target for 2005 is about 100 cases, but the inventory as of November 2004 is almost 2,000 cases. Judging on the timeline, some of these cases will take up to 20 years to get processed, just to clear the backlog, so why are the processing times that you are currently publishing not being updated, based on the most recent data you have?
 (1200)
Mr. Rénald Dussault: You're right to find the website information is based on historical data. Fundamentally, the reason is that at this point in time, that's the only hard data we have. We have been discussing within the department the possibility of being able to publish, as you very well indicated, numbers looking ahead, and being able to indicate for the future how long it is likely to take, as an average, if you submit your application today. We're looking at that possibility in order to be more transparent about those numbers. You are absolutely correct on that particular front. As I said, we are working on that ourselves.
I have to repeat what I said to your colleague--that there are just so many places available in terms of our capacity to process and our capacity to integrate those people into Canadian society, and that we have to make choices. We thought the best choice within the family class would be to try to put the majority of our efforts into dealing with spouses and minor children. That's the reason parents and grandparents unfortunately have to wait longer.
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: That is obviously a question of resources and priority. It seems to me that there has been almost a 75% reduction in quotas over the past two years when you look at that particular class, especially the parents and grandparents. Has there been direction from your department, especially to overseas posts, when it comes to issuing visas to secondary family and immigrants? Has there been a restriction put on those visas overall because of the actual problems in the system when it comes to priority or resources?
Mr. Rénald Dussault: I can only explain partially how the international region actually processes those applications and identifies targets for their missions abroad. As a general rule, what they try to do is look at the priorities of the government that are being identified in the report to Parliament by category and subcategory, and they try to translate those objectives into targets for the missions in relation to the inventories of those missions. Obviously missions with the largest inventories are getting higher targets, because they usually also have the resources to support larger numbers. But it's a translation, as much as it is feasible, of the overall priorities of the government into the specific targets of the missions, depending on their specific inventories.
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: As my final question, it seems to me the issue of resources is still an issue. In the case of what I've identified, in the case of Beijing, many parents, but mostly grandparents, may not make it past that timeline to actually come here because obviously age is working against them.
What would be your suggestion? What should be happening in the department to actually address this? Is it a question of resources? I know you've mentioned the idea of priority coming down, but what needs to happen to actually address this particular problem? It seems to me that priority is obviously a factor, but in some cases you're never going to be able to process many of these people.
Mr. Rénald Dussault: There's always one danger when we do projections, and it is that obviously we project with what we know at this point in time. Obviously the situation as described is the situation that exists at this point in time. We have a range of 220,000 to 245,000 and we have a breakdown according to categories and subcategories, based on the demand and the inventories in those subcategories and based on the priority.
Obviously a number of things might change both in terms of the capacity of Canadian society to possibly absorb more immigrants and in terms of the rate of application itself. As I said, projection is a good tool, but at the same time we have to be careful not to assume we will be dealing with exactly the same situation five years from now that we're dealing with at this point in time. A number of things might change in the process.
The Chair: Thank you.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=101305
