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Canadian Alliance Supplemental Opinion
Issued by:
Diane Ablonczy, M.P.
Paul Forseth, M.P.
Lynne Yelich, M.P.
1. The Canadian Alliance generally supports the recommendations in Competing for Immigrants. However, there is one important issue raised in Committee members’ discussion with field immigration officers that has not been clearly addressed in the report: namely, that even with additional resources, the system is not be able to cope with the rapidly increasing volume of applications.
2. In addition to the existing backlog, the number of applications is rising steeply year‑by-year. This situation is untenable both for the applicant in the queue and for the officers at our busiest posts. Dedicated and honourable staff feel undue pressure from such heavy volumes and program integrity can be negatively impacted. It is imperative from a management perspective that we change the way we do business. Few of the traditional tools will be available under the new selection system. A more direct and more efficient way of managing the intake of applications to eliminate the backlogs must be developed.
3. Senior managers in the department want political permission to develop intake management measures in order to address serious systemic delays. Currently, the application information often becomes stale dated by the time it comes to be processed.
4. Canada must be internationally competitive. A variety of approaches must be explored to fill our need for skilled workers. Canada must strive to process and approve applicants faster than our international competitors by means of an employer-driven fast‑track process of quick acceptance and specialized processing. The Canadian Alliance has concerns that Canada’s immigration system cannot provide us with the skilled workers we need, despite the new law expected on June 28, 2002. Furthermore, Canada must manage according to its priorities, and not be at the mercy of foreign pressures.
5. Various options should be explored. Although rejected by the majority on the Committee, we think it could be feasible to consider taking applications through one central location and for a specified time period each year. Those who qualified to be considered for immigration in that period would enter the process, with a high priority given to skilled workers. The rest of the applications would be returned, thus keeping the inventory current. Another option would be to accept the number of applications that would likely produce the target number of visas, and then allot other applications a processing number that would represent their place in the application queue. Fees would, of course, be adjusted accordingly.
6. Although we are not in a position to assess the best option or combination of options, we have concluded that such measures are necessary. The majority report suggests principles for the system generally, and we suggest that these are the principles that should particularly guide intake management: it must be transparent, must promote excellence, must safeguard national security and must be inherently efficient, simple, and cost effective. Continuing to swamp our offices abroad with a rising tide of applications that we cannot hope to process in a timely and quality manner, simply makes no sense. This is a critical issue which must be specifically and effectively addressed as quickly as possible.
Recommendation: Citizenship and Immigration Canada should introduce intake management measures as part of its administrative strategy to better concentrate upon skilled workers and to deliver the program in a timely manner.
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