Question Period Note - IRCC Services In Official Languages

Date: September 12, 2023

Classification: unclassified

Department: IRCC

Issue:

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is committed to providing services in both official languages.

Proposed Response:

• IRCC ensures that the public can communicate with its organization and receive services in English or French at all times, in accordance with the official language of their choice, and that communications and services respect the principle of substantive equality.
• IRCC takes all official language complaints seriously and has procedures in place to investigate and resolve these complaints in a timely manner.
• Clients have the option to choose services in English or French for all services, and IRCC ensures that it has adequate numbers of bilingual agents at its Client Support Centre (CSC) to respond to the demand for support in both official languages.
• Approximately 80% of callers ask to speak to a CSC agent in English and 20% of callers ask to speak to a CSC agent in French.

Contact:
Sylvain Beauchamp
Director General, Client Experience Branch
Cell. No.: 343-548-7270

Approved by:
Daniel Mills
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations Sector
Tel. No.: 613-437-6396

Background:

Client Support Centre

• The CSC at IRCC provides personalized client support for clients seeking immigration information, application status, technical support and other services through three primary channels: telephone (in-Canada only), email (via a webform), and the Ministerial Centre for Members of Parliament and Senators.
• To support the Government of Canada’s response to global crises, the CSC also has a dedicated support channel - the Client Support Unit for Global Crisis - for persons affected by crisis situations inside or outside Canada.
• For fiscal year 2022-2023, the CSC received: 10.7M telephone enquiries; 2.4M email enquiries; and, 446,000 enquiries at the Ministerial Centre for Members of Parliament and Senators. So far this fiscal year, April 1 to August 31, 2023, the CSC received:
  • 3.1M telephone enquiries;
  • 1.1M email enquiries; and,
  • 196,000 enquiries at the Ministerial Centre for Members of Parliament and Senators.
• From April 1 to August 31, 2023, the average speed of answer for the CSC for telephone support was 16 minutes (service standard is 30 minutes for average speed of response) and 26.5 days for email processing (service standard is three business days for responding to emails).
• Live agent telephone support is offered to clients located in Canada, coast to coast, and touchtone self-service for general information and simple application status is available through the Interactive Voice Response system 24/7. In-Canada and overseas clients can contact the CSC via an online Webform. All of these options are available in both official languages.
• IRCC continues to ensure that it has bilingual agents at its CSC, in adequate numbers, to respond to the demand for support in both official languages from across Canada. Approximately 80% of callers ask to speak to a CSC agent in English and 20% of callers ask to speak to a CSC agent in French. Approximatively 50% of CSC agent positions are designated bilingual.
• All employees at the supervisory and management level at the CSC are bilingual to ensure that all subordinate employees can communicate in the official language of their choice.

Modernization

• The Department is modernizing its immigration service delivery and this includes building new digital and user-centric tools. Throughout the design, testing and development of these new digital tools, the Department will continue to ensure consistency and access across both official languages.

Official languages complaints

• All complaints put forward to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL) are recorded. Upon analysis by OCOL, complaints are either determined to be receivable and subject to further investigation or un-receivable and are therefore not forwarded to departments.
• One of the key principles of Part IV the Official Languages Act is that members of the public have the right to communicate with and receive services from federal institutions in the official language of their choice.
• For fiscal year 2022-2023, IRCC received 17 complaints from the OCOL. Of those, 12 were related to communications and services with the public (or Part IV of the Official Languages Act). For the current fiscal year, 2023-2024, IRCC has received eight complaints to date, three of which relate to Part IV.