Questions and responses 42nd Parliament, 1st session December 3, 2015, to September 11, 2019

With regard to Service Canada’s national in-person service delivery network, for each Service Canada Centre: (a) how many centres were operational as of November 4, 2015; (b) what were the locations and number of full-time employees (FTEs) at each location, as of November 4, 2015; (c) how many centres are currently operational; (d) what are the current locations and number of FTEs at each location; (e) which offices have changed their hours of service between November 4, 2015, and present; and (f) for each office which has changed their hours, what were the hours of service as of (i) November 4, 2015, (ii) May 1, 2019?

With regard to the process for renewing expiring permanent residency cards: (a) what is the average processing time for a card renewal; (b) what is the average time between when an application for renewal is received by the government and when the replacement card is ready; (c) what is the specific process the government undertakes for card renewals; (d) what specific options are available to residents who wish to travel abroad and have submitted their expiring card to the government as part of the renewal application, but who are still waiting for the government to provide them with a replacement card; and (e) what specific changes will the government make in order to make it easier for permanent residents to travel aboard during the renewal period?

With regard to the government’s response to Q-1982 regarding the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada office located at 365 Hargrave Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba: (a) why was the government’s rationale for no longer allowing access to the general public without an appointment not provided in the response to Q-1982; (b) what is the government’s rationale for not allowing access to the general public without an appointment; (c) how many clients were served at this location between January 2015 and September 2018, broken down by month; and (d) what is the breakdown of (c) by purpose of visit (Employment Insurance, obtaining a status card, etc.)?

With regard to part (c) of the government's response to Q-2104, which was presented on January 28, 2019, and states that “The client submits a completed application by mail to the Permanent Resident Card Processing Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The application is verified for completeness. If it is not complete, the application is returned to the client.”: (a) what are the average wait times for the return of applications which are not complete; and (b) is there any priority given to applications that have been deemed incomplete, once they are returned back to the Permanent Resident Card Processing Centre for a second time, or are the applications subject to the same waiting and processing times as a brand new application?

With regard to the quality of service provided by the Ministerial Enquiry Unit and MP Unit of Citizenship and Immigration Canada: (a) what is the total number of full time staff for each unit, and what are their job designations; (b) what training is provided to staff in preparation for responding to inquiries from MP offices; (c) are there regularly scheduled training or briefing sessions to keep the unit staff current on ministry policies and practices, and if so, how often do these occur; (d) do both units get the same training, and if not, what are the differences; (e) how do job descriptions and the mandates of these two units differ; (f) does one unit, or both, have the mandate to review files and to push for a timely resolution; (g) do these two units work collaboratively on files, and if so, how is information shared and updated; (h) who is ultimately responsible for incorrect information given to MP offices, i.e. what is the chain of command, or organizational chart for these two units; (i) what is the process for reporting instances of incorrect information given to MP offices; (j) what is the process or mechanism for reporting and fixing a problem in the system identified by an MP office; (k) what are the service standards for processing applications and security checks and verifications; (l) what remedy is available for cases that have gone beyond the service standards and timelines, and if difficult cases are moved to a different unit for treatment, are they then subject to a different set of protocols and service standards; (m) what are the protocols and service standards for applications originating from remote areas; (n) where services are not available, or not available in a timely fashion in a remote or less-serviced area, are applicants then given information on faster options (e.g. in a larger urban centre) that may be available to them; and (o) are all applicants given the same options and information, or is this a flexible standard, depending on the agent or officer?

With regard to Service Canada’s national in-person service delivery network, for each Service Canada Centre: (a) how many full-time employees (FTEs) were there on December 1, 2016; (b) how many FTEs were there on December 1, 2017; and (c) which offices have changed their hours of service, and for each office that has changed its hours of service, what are the new hours?

With regard to the Minister of Veterans Affairs series of announcements on the opening of new Veteran Affairs offices: (a) what was the cost for each event, including (i) venue rentals, (ii) audio-visual, (iii) advertising, (iv) accommodations, (v) travel, (vi) per diems for the Minister and staff; (b) how many people attended each event, broken down by location; and (c) what was the announced date for the actual reopening of each Veteran Affairs office, broken down by location?

With regard to Service Canada’s national in-person service delivery network, for each Service Canada Centre: (a) how many full-time employees (FTEs) were there on October 19, 2015; (b) how many FTEs are there today; (c) which offices have changed their hours of service, and for each office that has changed its hours of service, what are the new hours; (d) what is the service standard metric (number of client visits) that determine whether or not a Service Canada Centre changes its hours of service or closes altogether; (e) what is the forward looking strategic in-person footprint service delivery strategy and which locations plan to close in the next four years; and (f) how many FTEs are planning to be working in Citizen Service Branch, directly for in-person on October 1, 2019?

With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency: (a) what are all of the 1-800 numbers which Canadians can use to call the Canada Revenue Agency; (b) for each 1-800 number, which taxpayers should use each number and what specific services are available; (c) broken down by month, since December 2015, how many calls have been received by each number; and (d) broken down by month, since December 2015, what was the average wait time or time on hold for callers to each number?

With regard to Statistics Canada: (a) what is the complete and detailed list of all surveys, data products, tables, and publications whose collection, measurement, or reporting was discontinued between February 6, 2006, and November 4, 2015; (b) for each item listed in (a), (i) on what date was it first established, (ii) on what date was it discontinued, (iii) what was the rationale for its discontinuation, (iv) by what process was this decision reached, (v) how many Canadians had been accessing its data on an annual basis, (vi) what was the cost-savings from its discontinuation; and (c) is it the current government's policy to reinstate its collection, measurement, or reporting?

With regard to the Department of Veterans Affairs, between the fiscal year 2004-05 and the current fiscal year: (a) what are all the official departmental service standards and key performance indicators used to evaluate the performance of the department, (i) monthly, (ii) quarterly, (iii) annually, broken down by fiscal year; (b) what are the annual results for each standard or indicator, broken down by fiscal year; and (c) broken down by fiscal year, what are the details of each amendment made to these service standards or indicators, including the (i) effective date, (ii) rationale applied in amending them?

With regard to Service Canada, Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan call centres for 2015, year-to-date: (a) what was the volume of calls, broken down by (i) Canadian region, (ii) province, (iii) month; (b) what was the number of calls that received a high volume message, broken down by (i) Canadian region, (ii) province, (iii) month; (c) what were the Service Level standards achieved for calls answered by an agent, broken down by (i) Canadian region, (ii) province, (iii) month; (d) what were the service standards for call-backs; (e) what were the service standards achieved for call-backs broken down by (i) Canadian region, (ii) province, (iii) month; (f) what was the average number of days for a call-back by an agent, broken down by (i) Canadian region, (ii) province, (iii) month; (g) what was the number and percentage of term employees, and the number and percentage of indeterminate employees, broken down by (i) Canadian region, (ii) province, (iii) month; (h) what is the rate of sick leave use among call centre employees, broken down by month; (i) what is the number of call centre employees on long term disability; and (j) what is the rate of overtime and the number of overtime hours worked by call centre employees, broken down by month?

With regard to Employment Insurance (EI), for 2017 and 2018, broken down by year: (a) what was the volume of EI applications in total and broken down by (i) region and province where the claim originated, (ii) the number of claims accepted and the number of claims rejected, (iii) month; (b) what was the average EI application processing time in total and broken down by (i) region and province where the claim originated, (ii) month; (c) how many applications waited more than 28 days for a decision and, for these applications, what was the average wait time for a decision, in total and broken down by (i) region and province where claim originated, (ii) month; (d) what was the volume of calls to EI call centres in total and broken down by (i) month, (ii) region and province; (e) what was the number of calls to EI call centres that received a high-volume message in total and broken down by (i) month, (ii) region and province; (f) what were the national service-level standards for calls answered by an agent at EI call centres, broken down by month; (g) what were the actual service-level standards achieved by EI call centres for calls answered by an agent, broken down by (i) month, (ii) region and province; (h) what were the service standards for call backs from EI processing staff, broken down by month; (i) what were the service standards achieved by EI processing staff for call backs, broken down by (i) month, (ii) region and province; (j) what was the average number of days for a call back by EI processing staff, broken down by (i) month, (ii) region and province; (k) what were the number and percentage of term employees and indeterminate employees working at EI call centres and processing centres; (l) what was the rate of sick leave use among EI call centre and processing centre employees; (m) what was the number of EI call centre and processing centre employees on long-term disability; (n) what was the number of overtime hours worked by call centre employees; (o) who authored the report on EI processing for which the former Parliamentary Secretary for Employment and Social Development was credited; (p) what are the details of the Table of Contents for the report; (q) will the government make the report public; (r) how many complaints did the Office of Client Satisfaction receive, broken down by (i) month, (ii) region and province where the complaint originated; (s) how long on average did a complaint take to be investigated and resolved, broken down by month; and (t) what were the major themes of the complaints received?

With regard to the Prime Minister’s comments on March 2, 2017, that “We have reallocated resources to make sure that we are able to meet the incoming asylum seekers”: (a) what specific resources have been reallocated; (b) where were the resources reallocated from; and (c) what measures has the government taken to ensure that other government services are not affected by this reallocation of resources?

With regard to Section 2.33 of the Fall 2017 Report of the Auditor General of Canada which states in reference to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that “They gave us wrong information almost 30 per cent of the time”: (a) what specific recourse is available to taxpayers who received the wrong information; (b) how is the CRA notifying taxpayers who received the wrong information about their recourse options; (c) how many taxpayers who received the wrong information have been proactively contacted by the CRA to correct the wrong information, since January 1, 2016; (d) what specific action has been taken against the CRA employees who provided the wrong information; and (e) how many CRA employees have faced disciplinary action as a result of providing the wrong information to taxpayers, since January 1, 2016?