Olivia Chow questions Deputy Minister about excessive wait times

December 1, 2010     

  Ms. Olivia Chow: I see that under the family class, the parents and grandparents are stuck still at the 13,000 level, and that’s a steep drop than, say, 10, 15 years ago, where family-class applicants in terms of the total number accounts to almost half of the people coming into Canada. Now it’s about a quarter, so it’s a much smaller number, and at the meantime there is a huge backlog. Maybe you can let me know what is the backlog for parents.

    I just know that to sponsor a parent from Beijing, it’s like five years, New Delhi is six years, Accra is eight years, and it’s three years before your sponsorship application is even reviewed. So it’s just huge, and I can’t see how, with the 13,000 to 17,000 range in terms of parents and grandparents, that you’re ever going to get to deal with that backlog, or that wait times is ever going to get smaller.It will just grow. Am I wrong?

    Mr. Neil Yeates: Chair, that is exactly one of the dilemmas we have in the immigration program. In terms of the number of applications we have for parents and grandparents, it’s about 145,000. That’s a very large number.

    Ms. Olivia Chow: Per year, right?

    Mr. Neil Yeates: That’s what we have now, so we have about 10 year’s worth in our current inventory backlog of applications for parents and grandparents. I mentioned the federal skilled worker program earlier where we add 640,000. So that is our dilemma. We have large numbers of applications trying to get through a very small–if I can put it that way–levels plan tube.

    Ms. Olivia Chow: Why not expand the little hole that you’re letting people in because 145,000 backlog, the parents…it’s 13,000? It’s going to take forever. I can just see this going from five to eight years, and two years from now we could be sitting here with a 10-year wait, never mind five years.

    What would be a plan?

    Mr. Neil Yeates: Well I think there are two basic options available to us–well, three. One is the status quo, we just keep going and you’re probably quite right, that processing times will probably continue to lengthen, given the demand.

    Secondly, the government could look at a larger immigration target, overall. We’re at this range of 240,000 to 265,000. However, there are a lot of implications to that in terms of the number of people Canada can settle, and all of these kinds of things, through our whole support system through health and social services, education, and so on. So that needs pretty careful consideration.

    And then thirdly, there are the trade-offs between the different components of our existing plans and you could rebalance that and decide to do more of one, and less of another. And that’s what we’ve been doing a bit at the margin.

    Ms. Olivia Chow: May I ask, though, what people from Beijing…. Canadians who have been here for 10 years who want their parents to come, or because they’re having a baby they want a grandparent to babysit the baby, or for any number of reasons that you want to live with your parents–very traditional family values–point to the fact that if you sponsor a father or a mother from Paris, you wait for a year or two. Whereas, if it is from Beijing, it’s five years plus, and they say basically that’s really unfair that each visa office has a target and that target number is not balanced based on the number of applications.

    Why one year in Paris, and five years in Beijing? I can’t answer their question. It’s a basic violation of their human rights, they think. They see it that way. How would one answer that question? How do you set these targets?

    Mr. Neil Yeates: Well fundamentally we are wrestling with the number of applications at each mission. And missions are given specific targets in terms of their “share” of the overall target. So if there are a lot more applications in one mission, they’re going to develop more of a queue.

    This is where, however, GCMS can help us because historically it’s been very difficult. Our new Global Case Management System allows us to do the case work in different parts of our network. So it does give us the opportunity, if you like, to more equalize the processing time around the network.

    Claudette, anything further on the missions?

    Ms. Claudette Deschênes: Basically, Global Case Management System will permit us to deal with some of that issue. But at the end of the day it depends on the number of applications and the type of applications.

    And of course Paris is probably not a great example because a lot of the cases are destined to Quebec and we have certain obligations toward the Quebec government, also. That’s why they’d probably be processed a little faster.

    Ms. Olivia Chow: Do you have an estimate of how many non-status residents…. They have been called undocumented workers or people with precarious status, i.e., people who have gone underground. Do you have an estimate of how many? Because there have been numbers of 200,000. Some say there are 100,000, you know. Who knows, because they are underground?

    Are you concerned that is a trend that is happening? Because I’ve noticed that in the past, since 1957, every 13 years or 15 years or so there is an administrative review that allows some of them to get status in Canada, whether it’s on humanitarian grounds or whatever way, there are different ways. We haven’t done one for almost 20 years and I can just see, with all these temporary foreign workers and failed refugee claimants all there, that number of people who have gone underground is probably growing. Is that a concern of the department?

  Mr. Neil Yeates: Well, Chair, I think the short answer is, as the member suggested, we actually don’t know, in terms of numbers, because, by definition, people are underground. However, we are well aware, as is the Immigration and Refugee Board, there is a backlog of cases at the IRB, and we’re working hard with them now to try and work our way through that backlog. We’ll see how that goes, but in terms of the implementation of the new system next year, we would like to have gotten rid of as much of that backlog as possible.

    Ms. Olivia Chow: But those above ground, they’re not underground.

    Mr. Neil Yeates: Yes, they’re claimants.

    The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Chow.

Read more posts about: ,