CIMM Committee Meeting
Notices of Meeting include information about the subject matter to be examined by the committee and date, time and place of the meeting, as well as a list of any witnesses scheduled to appear. The Evidence is the edited and revised transcript of what is said before a committee. The Minutes of Proceedings are the official record of the business conducted by the committee at a sitting.
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Minutes of Proceedings
Marie-France Lalonde moved, — That, the committee invite IRCC officials to appear for two hours, in public, on the study of differential outcomes in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada decisions and that any resulting undertakings from the meeting be made publicly available in advance of the committee members’ consideration of the draft report.
Garnett Genuis moved, — That the motion be amended by adding after the words “for two hours” the words “ during the Easter recess”.
Debate arose thereon.
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe moved, — That the amendment be amended by replacing the words “the Easter recess” with the words “a sitting week of the House”.
Debate arose thereon.
By unanimous consent, it was agreed, — That the motion of Garnett Genuis be withdrawn, and that, the committee invite IRCC officials to appear for two hours during a sitting week and at a time other than the committee’s regularly scheduled meeting time, in public, on the study of differential outcomes in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada decisions and that any resulting undertakings from the meeting be made publicly available in advance of the committee members’ consideration of the draft report.
Garnett Genuis moved, — That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a) and in relation to the committee’s study of differential outcomes in Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada decisions, that the Department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship provide the committee with: (a) any and all data and documents in its possession that show acceptance and rejection rates for visa applications broken down by (i) processing office, (ii) application category, (iii) country of origin of applicant, (iv) race, and (v) religion; (b) a list of which visa offices currently use advanced analytics to triage applications and which application they are used for; (c) a list of how many different advanced analytics triage models there are and which visa offices use which model; (d) any quality assurance reports for each advanced analytics model that is being used by a visa office; (e) the current instructions to decision makers regarding the implementation of the advanced analytics pilot model for any processing centers that use advanced analytics; (f) any training manuals or reviews regarding Watch Tower and a list of all priority flags that have been used in Chinook; (g) Chinook+ and GCMS Chinook user manuals; (h) all training manuals and documents prepared and used in training IRCC staff on the use of Chinook; (i) all contracts IRCC holds with Deloitte and Touche LLP, Accenture Inc, and McKinsey regarding artificial intelligence, digital platform modernization, Chinook, and the digital services response project; (j) privacy analysis conducted with respect to Chinook; (k) contracts between IRCC and ApplyBoard and between IRCC and ApplyProof since 2015; (l) project launch, terms of reference and roadmap documents for 'The Service Transformation Strategy and Roadmap'; 'The IM/IT Strategy and Roadmap Project'; TDSS' "Innovation Strategy" (m) IRCC Policy Playbook on Automated Support for Decision-Making (All editions); (n) any additional programming information and instructions used for advanced analytics systems; (o) the raw and complete responses that IRCC employees provided to Pollara Strategic Insights for the Anti-Racism Study; (p) the current and historical processing times for each visa office and category, from 2015 until now; (q) the course content and materials used for any anti-racism training or information sessions conducted for IRCC employees; and (r) all materials produced for the IRCC Digital Transformation Interdepartmental Advisory Committee (DMA Level); and, that the said material be delivered to the committee within 40 days, along with any proposed redactions; versions of the documents with the proposed redactions shall be published on the committee's website within 10 days of receipt; the committee shall issue a press release highlighting the publication of these documents, and unredacted documents shall be distributed to committee members within the same time frame; the documents in redacted and unredacted forms shall be shared with the Parliamentary Law Clerk, who will then be invited to meet with the committee in camera to advise on the appropriateness of the proposed redactions; and, the committee may then make determinations as to whether to publish all, some, or none of the redacted documents.
Jenny Kwan moved, — That the debate be now adjourned.
The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:
YEAS: Shafqat Ali, Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Sukh Dhaliwal, Fayçal El-Khoury, Arielle Kayabaga, Jenny Kwan, Marie-France Lalonde — 7;
NAYS: Bob Benzen, Garnett Genuis, Jasraj Singh Hallan, Brad Redekopp — 4.
The witnesses made statements and answered questions.
At 1:07 p.m., the committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.