In November 2022, the Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Christiane Fox, commissioned former Deputy Minister, Neil Yeates, to provide strategic advice on how the Department can become a more efficient and effective organization given the many competing demands that it currently faces.
In the past ten years, IRCC has more than doubled in size and did not have the organizational machinery to sustain the constant growth. Therefore, IRCC found itself in a situation where it was risk managing many of the priorities. IRCC’s structure was designed for a smaller department, and we have now outgrown it. That is why we need to make adjustments, by realigning structure, to find a more effective and efficient way of working to respond to the increased immigration levels and global crises.
The most recent levels plan has a target of 500,000 admissions per year by 2025;
In 2013, IRCC had 5,217 staff and it has increased by 114% to 12,721 in 2023.
Additionally, this realignment is giving IRCC the opportunity to meet the Budget 2023 commitment to bring the growth of government spending back to a pre-pandemic path. We are ensuring to be cost-conscious throughout this exercise.
The Yeates report (see Annex A) was submitted to Deputy Minister Fox in February 2023, and recommended changes to the organizational structure of the Department.
Key Messages
The new organization structure, implemented on October 16, 2023, primarily organized by key lines of business, aims to create clear accountabilities and align lines of business with key components of IRCC’s work, while ensuring the constant advancement in our client service.
Through its realignment exercise, IRCC committed to implement four pillars; Organizational Structure, Governance, Management Systems and Culture, in order to avoid the need for a future realignment exercise.
The main goal is to strengthen our organizational structure to endure future growth and to build a strong and future-proof Immigration System.
The report also made other recommendations regarding governance, culture and management excellence. All these were to reinforce the need to strengthen the organization’s quest to build a strong and future-proof Immigration System.
Supplementary Information
Organizational changes were made to strengthen IRCC's governance of the Francophone immigration file, in line with recommendations from stakeholders, including the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada, for stronger leadership on the issue. Specifically, IRCC has realigned its organizational structure to include Francophone immigration as a component of the Francophone Settlement, Integration and Affairs sector. The Official Languages Action Plan 2023-2028 (OLAP) will provide funding to further strengthen IRCC's governance of Francophone immigration, to support the implementation of seven immigration initiatives, including a new Francophone immigration policy. To obtain the Department's overall direction on Francophone immigration, IRCC uses the departmental governance structure, which oversees strategic decisions and ensures implementation.
