Speaking Notes

The Honourable Joe Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, before a meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on Supplementary Estimates

Ottawa, Ontario, November 1, 2005

Check against delivery

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It’s a pleasure to be here once more. I’m especially pleased to have this opportunity to thank each and every member of the committee for your hard work over the past few months as well as for your dedication to helping improve Canada’s citizenship, immigration and refugee program. Your guidance and input has been invaluable in helping us achieve progress on a number of fronts, and I’m confident it will continue to play an integral role in helping shape how we move forward in the future.

Today I have some opening comments to make about the supplementary estimates. I’d then like to spend the remainder of my time with you discussing several aspects of the program as well as the Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration that I tabled yesterday.

I also promised earlier this year to provide you with an update on whether I intend to implement the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD).

So I would also like to spend some time with you outlining my decision on the RAD. Finally, I would like to take a few minutes to update you on changes to the Citizenship Act.

I’ll be happy to answer your questions after that.

Supplementary Estimates (A) for fiscal year 2005-2006 provide the Department with additional resources of $281.7 million. This includes $113.2 million in transfers from other Departments, primarily the transfer from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada for the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Initiative. It also includes $168.5 million in incremental funding, including new funding to help deliver on the six point plan I set out at the beginning of the year.

I said at the time that there were six priorities that the Department needed to address over the short term. I said we had to get newcomers to Canada faster and work with businesses and unions to make sure Canada can get the skills it needs much faster than today. I said we had to find a way to attract more foreign students and address the issue of undocumented workers. I also said we had to improve client service and address the Department’s inventories. I’m immensely proud of the very significant progress that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has made in several of these areas.

I announced steps in April to increase the number of visas issued to parents and grandparents to contribute to reducing the backlog of immigration applications; funding to reduce the backlog citizenship applications, and measures to continue to help make Canada’s post-secondary institutions a destination of choice for international students.

Today the Department is also making great strides in improving the way it delivers services to clients. Call centre response times are up, more applications are being processed faster, and potential immigrants can get information about their cases faster and more easily. The Department has increased its capacity to serve applicants who want to come to Canada by hiring and training new staff. It has added new services that allow prospective immigrants to find out about the status of their application by email from anywhere in the world.

We’re speeding up citizenship processing as well as the processing for applicants by spouses and dependent children who want to join family members already in Canada. At the same time we have reduced the processing time for refugee claims. The Immigration and Refugee Board has cut the number of pending claims by nearly 50 percent, from over 50,000 in April 2003 to about 25,000 in March of this year. So we’re making progress on many fronts. But there is still work to do.

The Department has also made some strides forward in developing initiatives to help improve immigrant outcomes. Steps are being taken under programs such as the Internationally Trained Worker Initiative to help provide newcomers with tools such as enhanced language training in order to break down labour market barriers. Funding announced in the 2005 Budget and the Canada-Ontario agreement which we hope to sign shortly will also greatly improve access to settlement services. This is good news for everyone. But again we can and will do more.

We need to work on transforming the service delivery system to make it more responsive. We need to ensure our selection process is more responsive to labour market needs. We also need to ensure that we build on successes such as the 41 percent growth in Provincial Nominees in 2004 and collaborate with regional partners to help them attract and retain immigrants and spread the benefits of immigration more evenly across the country. Today Citizenship and Immigration Canada is working very hard in each of these areas and more in order to help ensure that the immigration program delivers the results that Canadians need and expect.

Canada needs to attract and retain more newcomers with skills, ambition and industry if our businesses and economy are going to remain internationally competitive. Common sense dictates, however, that we first ensure that those who choose to make Canada their new home succeed once they arrive. We will get there.

We need to make significant investments to ensure service delivery continues to improve. We need as well to ensure all regions benefit from immigration and that newcomers can fully participate in the labour market. And, we need to ensure we meet the labour market needs of Canada’s economy. Surely one way to do that might be to make it easier to stay here for those individuals who are already in Canada and have adapted to the Canadian society and the labour market. This includes foreign students as well as temporary workers. Today the Government of Canada is taking steps to allow post-secondary students to work off-campus. We are also expanding initiatives to allow students to work in their field of study for two years after graduation outside of Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver. So these measures will help in this regard. It also makes sense to look at how we can regularize those workers in the country today without any status.

The 2006 annual immigration plan builds on the successes of previous years. All of us can be proud of Canada’s track record in achieving its targeted immigration levels for the past five years. In 2004, Canada admitted 235,824 new permanent residents of which 57 percent were economic immigrants and their dependants, 26 percent were in the family class, 14 percent were refugees and other protected persons, and three percent were granted permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) grounds.

For 2005, we are on track to meet our targets, with the anticipated number of newcomers admitted being in the high end of the 220,000 to 245,000 range and the number admitted under the family class is likely to be higher than anticipated thanks to my announcement in April.

Let me now briefly turn my attention to the Refugee Appeal Division. I’ve given a great deal of thought over the past few months about whether to implement the RAD. I’ve considered several options and alternatives. I’ve also met and discussed the issue with stakeholders and NGOs on both sides of the debate.

My decision not to implement it is based on several considerations. The first is that our current refugee system is already fair. We invest in a strong first-level decision with an independent tribunal, well trained decision makers and solid institutional support.

It offers protection to those in genuine need and helps to reinforce this country’s track record of compassion and openness to those seeking asylum from around the world. Indeed, Canada is a world leader in treating applications in a fair and generous way, and this country has been a world leader in recognizing the protection needs of vulnerable groups, including women and children.

It also has built in safeguards to ensure Canada does not return individuals to a country where they might face torture or worse. Each refugee applicant whose claim is rejected has the opportunity to raise new evidence or evidence of changed circumstances to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment Officer before they can be removed from Canada. Each and every claimant, of course, can at any time in the process also apply to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Protection is what really counts. And that’s what the current system delivers. Canada’s refugee system is by no means perfect. It still takes too long for decisions to be made and too long for decisions once they are made to have any effect. Simply adding another layer of review or appeal to what we already have will do little to address this shortcoming. In fact, it may make it worse. My decision is therefore to not implement RAD. I would however like to assure the Committee that Citizenship and Immigration Canada will continue to monitor the current decision and review processes and continue to make improvements as appropriate. Again, I will be counting on the input and advice from the Committee in this regard.

I also look forward to continuing to work with you over both the short and long term on reforms to the Citizenship Act which I believe all of us understand are long overdue. Your recent work has been very helpful in this regard.

Let me assure you that I am presently working on developing legislative changes for consideration by my Cabinet colleagues and I hope to have legislation before Parliament in the very near future.

In conclusion, I’d like to emphasize that my strongest commitment is to working with each of you over the coming months in a spirit of cooperation, open dialogue and mutual respect. We’ve accomplished a great deal since the beginning of this year. By working closely together, I know we can continue to achieve great things for this country as well as for those who choose to make it their home.

Thank you.