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Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Claudette Deschênes. I am the Assistant Deputy Minister for Operations. Joining me today is Les Linklater, the Assistant Deputy Minister for Strategic and Program Policy.
[English]
We're a tag team.
[Translation]
I want to thank the committee for this opportunity to speak to some of the challenges we face in ensuring the security of our immigration system, as well as the measures we are taking to address them.
[English]
First I would like to touch on some of the measures CIC has already introduced to help increase the security and integrity of our immigration system. A key focus of the department in recent years has been to reduce fraud, since this presents our biggest challenge.
The global case management system has been in place at all of our missions since March 2011 and will be available at all of our in Canada offices by the end of February 2012. Rather than looking for pieces of information in several outdated systems with limited functionality—one that is 20 years old—with GCMS we can view an applicant's information in one location. This has made our processes much more efficient and has greatly improved how CIC shares information with our partners to prevent fraud.
For example, GCMS has been instrumental in some of our investigations into citizenship fraud, since it can identify when an address is repeated more than once in applications. The government is currently investigating 6,500 people for misrepresenting their residence in Canada. To date, CIC has begun the process of revoking the citizenship of up to 2,200 citizens who obtained it fraudulently. This is a lot in a short time, if you consider that the government has only revoked the citizenship of 69 people since 1977.
Legislation to strengthen the regulation of third-party intermediaries came into force in June 2011, and this will make it more difficult for crooked consultants to assist applicants in committing such types of fraud. These efforts were also bolstered by an anti-fraud awareness campaign that I'm sure you've all seen. As well, prospective immigrants and citizens need to understand that fraud concerns us all. They must know that they are the first line of defence and they cannot just rely on the government to protect them.
In addition, CIC launched a suite of videos on our website to provide prospective immigrants with information about the dangers and risks of immigration scams, including unscrupulous immigration representatives.
[Translation]
Moving forward, CIC intends to bring into force regulatory changes this year that would deter marriage fraud and strengthen the ability of the Canada Border Services Agency to remove individuals who engage in this type of fraud. While we have bolstered our efforts to reduce fraud in recent years, we remain concerned about the growing prevalence and sophistication in identity fraud and identity theft globally.
In the immigration context, identities are most often stolen or concealed in order to help an applicant overcome their inadmissibility—to disguise their criminal past, for example—or to help them gain entry into Canada when they would be denied for other reasons.
[English]
To protect the health and safety of Canadians, it's critical that we stay on top of new technologies and the new methods used by fraudsters to manipulate our immigration system. Biometrics is an important step to stay ahead of the game and reduce fraud and identity theft.
Beginning in 2013, certain foreign nationals who require a visa to visit, study, or work temporarily in Canada will be required to provide fingerprints and have their photographs taken as part of their application.
With the introduction of biometrics, it will therefore become much more difficult to forge, steal, or use someone else's identity to gain access to Canada. Biometrics will also make it easier to prevent known criminals and previous deportees from entering Canada, and it will prevent failed refugee claimants from re-entering Canada by using false identity documents.
On the other side of the coin, biometrics will also help us to facilitate legitimate travel. A key challenge we face is in accurately identifying applicants each time they apply to come to Canada. An applicant may have changed their name since their last entry, for example. Linking an individual's biometric data with their biographic data will help us to identify applicants more quickly and ensure that the person coming to Canada is in fact the same person to whom we issued a visa.
Building on this, I'd also like to address our role in the Canada-United States action plan for perimeter security and economic competitiveness—a mouthful. Under this plan, the two countries will establish a common approach to record and share the entry and exit information of travellers crossing our shared land borders. While the Canada Border Services Agency will be the Government of Canada lead on establishing the entry and exit system, CIC will develop the legislative and regulatory policy changes to introduce the new entry requirements.
Currently, many travellers entering Canada at a land border may confirm their identity and status by oral declaration or by presenting documents of inferior reliabilities, ones that can easily be altered. Our new policy will simply require all travellers to present a prescribed document when entering Canada. The current patchwork of entry requirements has led to confusion at the border for travellers and commercial carriers. A more secure border will facilitate the flow of legitimate migration across North America while enhancing our security.
In addition to the new entry requirements, we plan to introduce a common approach with the U.S. for screening travellers before they begin travel and reach our shores. To achieve this, we will require that visa-exempt foreign nationals, except U.S. citizens, apply for an electronic travel authorization before flying to Canada. This means that anyone who wants to travel to Canada would first need to complete an Internet-based form to provide us with basic information. CIC would then issue an electronic document to passengers who pass the screening.
In the majority of cases we anticipate that applicants would receive confirmation of their travel authorizations within minutes. The U.S. has already successfully implemented a similar system whereby over 98% of applicants are automatically approved for travel, and we anticipate the ETA system will be in place in Canada no later than 2016.
[Translation]
Finally, we plan to share information with the U.S. in order to help establish and verify the identities of travellers. That will help us better detect fraud and enhance public safety through improved detection of persons who have a criminal history or who pose other risks to the public.
In addition to helping us address threats to North America, this approach will help us reduce the costs and resources involved in processing inadmissible persons in Canada.
By using a perimeter approach to screening, Canada will be able to identify and deny entry to inadmissible persons overseas, instead of dealing with them once they have reached a port of entry.
[English]
Immigration officers in both countries will also have better information on travellers to enforce and administer their own immigration laws.
For example, we will be able to expedite the departure of persons who have no right to stay. Conversely, information sharing will also help us to facilitate the flow of legitimate travellers by giving immigration officers greater confidence in the identity and immigration history presented by the applicant.
I would like to note at this time that rigorous privacy safeguards will be in place to ensure information is shared in a way that is consistent with Canadian laws.
In closing, I would like to note that CIC is first and foremost committed to protecting the health, safety, and security of Canada and Canadians while facilitating the travel of legitimate visitors, and we continue to explore ways in which we can better address the security challenges we face in our immigration system.
Thank you.
Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to be here today.
My name is Pierre Sabourin, and I am the vice-president of the operations branch at the Canada Border Services Agency. I am joined by Peter Hill, director general for our post-border programs directorate, programs branch.
As the CBSA has not yet appeared before this particular group of members, I would like to take a few moments to talk about the agency's mandate and its roles and responsibilities in Canada's immigration process.
The CBSA was created in 2003, established in the wake of the September 11 events, to bring together elements of customs, immigration, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The agency's mandate is to provide integrated border services that support national security and safety priorities while facilitating the free flow of legitimate persons and goods. The CBSA has approximately 14,000 employees, including 7,300 uniformed staff across Canada. Our border services officers are designated peace officers, primarily enforcing customs and immigration-related legislation, in particular the Customs Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, as well as over 90 other acts of Parliament.
Each year, the agency processes approximately 93 million travellers, including 25 million air passengers. These travellers arrive at our borders as returning residents, visitors, refugees, settlers to this country, and of course those who should not be admitted. As the committee can appreciate, delivery of service on this scale is an immense undertaking.
With respect to this committee's study, the role the agency plays in the security of the immigration system is fundamental. Having assumed the port of entry and inland enforcement mandates and oversight of the overseas liaison officer program formerly held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada in 2003, the CBSA is responsible under IRPA for admitting individuals into Canada who meet the requirements under the law and for refusing entry to those who do not; for preventing people who are inadmissible or improperly documented from travelling to Canada; for referring refugee claims made at ports of entry to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada; for detaining individuals who pose a security risk or a danger to the public; and for removing inadmissible persons who have an enforceable removal order in effect.
In carrying out these responsibilities, the CBSA processed approximately 10,000 out of a total 25,000 refugee claims made in 2011. We detained almost 9,000 individuals who were deemed dangerous, flight risks, or who were unable to prove their identity. The agency refused entry to 54,000 inadmissible persons at the ports of entry and removed some 15,000 inadmissible persons from Canada, 1,800 of whom were removed on the basis of criminality or other security issues.
To meet the challenge of finding the right balance between border enforcement and facilitation in a shifting and dynamic global environment, the CBSA employs a layered approach to the variety of intelligence and enforcement activities it carries out. This approach is focused on risk mitigation and on leveraging resources with key partners such as CIC, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In assessing risk before individuals depart for Canada, the CBSA undertakes intelligence and security screening activities to identify and intercept threats and inadmissible persons at the earliest opportunity.
The CBSA maintains a network of liaison officers to support its work abroad. Currently, the agency has 63 liaison officers in 49 key locations around the globe. The CBSA's liaison officers work closely with other government departments, foreign mission representatives, airlines, and host country officials. Some of their activities include interdiction, airline liaison and training, anti-fraud, intelligence gathering, and removals assistance.
The liaison officer program is successful from both a risk mitigation and service perspective. On an annual basis, liaison officers interdict over 4,000 improperly documented individuals, while facilitating approximately 2,000 legitimate travellers, the majority of whom are Canadians returning home after extended stays in a foreign country.
The CBSA undertakes the security screening of immigration applications at CIC's request. When CIC feels that an application may be of interest or concern based on security indicators, it is referred to the agency for a more detailed review. Once reviewed, the CBSA works with its security and intelligence partners to make a recommendation to CIC, with whom the decision to accept or refuse a case rests.
[Translation]
When travellers arrive at a port of entry, CBSA border service officers verify their travel documents and determine if all Canadian entry requirements have been met. Should someone be found inadmissible at that time, the appropriate enforcement action will be taken. In cases where individuals submit a claim for refugee protection, officers will conduct a preliminary interview and determine the eligibility of the claim. Eligible claims are then referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada for consideration.
To deal with individuals already in Canada who have been deemed inadmissible, the agency currently employs 409 inland enforcement officers. They carry out a broad range of activities, which include investigations, arrests, detentions and removals of individuals from the country. Individuals often go underground to avoid removal. The CBSA shares its information with its law enforcement partners in order to locate these individuals and enforce the removal order. In July 2011, our agency launched its “most wanted” pilot, in which we asked the public for assistance in locating certain individuals. That initiative has been quite successful, resulting in over 245 tip calls, 20 apprehensions and 13 removals to date in cases where our traditional investigative efforts had not produced results.
With the coming into force of the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, the CBSA will play a key role in enhancing the integrity and efficiency of Canada's reformed refugee protection system. The CBSA will launch an assistant voluntary returns pilot program to increase the level of voluntary departures of failed refugee claimants. The program will also help make changes to tools, policies, regulations and procedures to support expedited processing of failed refugee claimants. That will also mean increased resources for criminal investigations in our liaison officer network to improve overseas interdictions and facilitate removals of persons seeking to defraud the refugee process.
However, despite all this good work, there are challenges we face in ensuring the security of our immigration system. To address those challenges, the CBSA has been pursuing opportunities to push the borders out through advance information gathering and risk assessment. These efforts also support our agency's priorities of facilitating and expediting legitimate travel for low-risk passengers. Among our priorities going forward is to increase access to biometric data in order to improve immigration and border determinations, establish and verify travellers' identities, and conduct security screenings at the earliest possible opportunity.
From a security perspective, biometrics is an important identification technology. The CBSA recognizes its importance and already uses it in its NEXUS program. As my colleague Ms. Deschênes remarked, the electronic travel authorization initiative will allow Canada to screen each applicant against a number of databases. That procedure will make it possible to conduct a risk assessment prior to a ticket to Canada even being purchased. Approval under both CIC and CBSA assessment processes will be required before an electronic travel authorization is granted.
Our agency also has an interactive advance passenger information initiative under way that will require air carriers to provide data to the CBSA prior to flight departure. Not only will this initiative allow the CBSA to verify the electronic travel authority status for third country nationals, it will enable us to conduct an initial risk assessment on all passengers, including a check against lost and stolen passport databases. We will also be able to deny boarding in advance of flight departure for reasons of admissibility status, health, safety and security.
Ms. Deschênes also noted that the CBSA is the Government of Canada lead on establishing an entry and exit system between Canada and the U.S., whereby entry into one country would establish exit from the other, essentially enabling us to close the loop on a visitor's travel history.
Once implemented, the system will assist us in identifying travellers who have willingly left the country, and in closing warrants accordingly. We will also be able to identify individuals who have stayed longer than authorized. Finally, the system will help us avoid issuing warrants for individuals who have overstayed or are subject to removal orders.
Following the implementation of these initiatives, the CBSA expects to see significant improvements in the way that we screen individuals before they even reach our borders.
With full implementation of the electronic travel authorization and the integrated advance passenger information initiatives, Canada will be able to greatly reduce the number of inadmissible people arriving at our ports of entry each year.
In addition, a fully operational entry-exit program will enable us to identify overstays and breaches of residency conditions and requirements.
Taken together, these future programs will ensure that Canada employs a modern, efficient and effective border management approach that protects the safety of Canadians and facilitates legitimate travel while safeguarding the integrity of our immigration processes.
[English]
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My colleague and I look forward to answering your questions.
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Yes. I could confirm the exact figure, but it's about one third. So detention periods are very short in many cases.
Most people being detained are waiting to be removed. On any given day, about 500 people are being detained in the three detention centres mentioned earlier, in Laval, Toronto and Vancouver. We also have about 200 spaces in provincial prisons because those individuals must be incarcerated, since they endanger the safety of Canadians, other detainees or our officers.
For instance, if someone must be removed from the country, the legislation stipulates that the removal should be done as quickly as possible. However, there may be many obstacles to the removal. For example, we may have difficulty obtaining documents from someone. The country to which the person is being removed also may not cooperate.
Forty-eight hours after someone is detained, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada decides whether that person should remain in detention or not. So there is a quasi-judicial process, if I may call it that, whereby the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada determines whether detention should continue. If so, it is extended by 7 days, and then by 30 days at a time.
Therefore, all the cases you mention in which people were detained for longer periods involved a process where the board decided they should be kept in detention.
First of all, we agree with all the recommendations of the Auditor General. I want to make that clear. The Auditor General made recommendations in four areas. The first one is around helping visa officers abroad make admissibility decisions: giving them the right tools, making sure the information we give them, such as risk indicators about those specific countries, are up to date.
The second was in the area of the security screening process, where we work very, very closely with our partners in CSIS and the RCMP. The Auditor General had a number of recommendations whereby we should ensure that all the information that is available in those three organizations be mapped out, so we're sure we're using the universe of information that's available in order to make proper decisions.
The third area was around process, and this is around training of our officers, quality control, and service standards. So there were some recommendations around there.
And the fourth area was around governance and performance measurement, whereby the Auditor General wanted to make sure our agreements, our memoranda of understanding with the various organizations, were up to date, that we were governing the process properly, and that we had proper performance measurements in place. In other words, we were getting proper feedback from visa officers that the system was working for them, that they had the right information, that they were able to make proper admissibility decisions, and finally, that between our two organizations—CIC and CBSA—particularly, that we measured the performance of the overall system in terms of knowing we're meeting service standards and this sort of thing.
We've agreed with all the recommendations. Most of the recommendations will be addressed this year. I could go into the details in terms of what we're doing.