OGGO – 53.4 – IRCC Funding for Training – June 5, 2023

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Response to a Request for Information Made by the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on February 15, 2023

Question

Ms. Jenny Kwan: The Minister said that he was not engaged in any of the McKinsey contracts' awarding and the Deputy did not speak with him about it. Of course, that is the case. Why? Because the Minister was not appointed until 2021, and the contracts took place in 2018 for the first round of the contract and 2019 for the second contract. Therefore, it predated the Minister's seat at this table and it predated the Deputy's seat at this table. Of course, they had nothing to do with it.

That said, there is a real question. The Minister raises the issue around the lack of capacity within IRCC, hence the requirement for contracting out.
My question to the Minister is how much funding was allocated within the Department for training and skills development, specifically for this?

Hon. Sean Fraser: You'll forgive me for not having the information front of mind, Ms. Kwan. If I could defer to my Deputy to provide whatever information she may have, I would be grateful.

Ms. Christiane Fox: I can say that, absolutely, we invest in our workforce, both in training and in learning. I would say that part of the benefits of the McKinsey contracts was the digital talent lab, which produced 160 IT professionals who now work for the Department. They have built on the lessons that they learned in the early days and are now implementing some significant changes, like digital applications for citizenship…

Ms. Jenny Kwan: I have limited time, so maybe the officials can table the documents on the funding that was provided for training and skill development…

Response

Since January 1, 2018, IRCC invested $21.3M (excluding language training) into our workforce both in terms of training and learning, of which $2.6M was for the Digital Strategy, Services and Innovation Sector. Please see Annex for full information on courses provided.