IRCC Deputy Minister Transition Binder 2019 – Welcome Back to IRCC

This package includes background material on the Department and its priorities. Below you will find a brief overview of our policy, operational, and corporate environment.

Policy Environment

Key to Government Priorities

• With a mandate that straddles economic and social issues, international and domestic facets, and has a national security dimension, IRCC’s programming is key to many Government priorities. For example:
  • Canada stands as a world leader in managed migration at a time when migration is increasingly high profile following a rise in the numbers of mass migration movements and anti-migrant sentiment. Canada’s approach to managed migration, and in particular its humanitarian leadership through refugee resettlement, is part of the objective of advancing Canadian international leadership in a rules-based multilateral environment.
  • On an annual basis, IRCC facilitates the admission of a targeted number of permanent residents through the Multi-Year Levels Plan (MYLP). The MYLP allows Canada to manage application intake in most programs in order to pursue the objectives of attracting talent, reuniting families and offering protection.
  • Immigration is a shared federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) responsibility. IRCC has individual agreements with PTs that prescribe how responsibility is shared for immigration in each jurisdiction. The relationship with Quebec is governed by the Canada-Québec Accord, granting Quebec additional immigration authorities.
  • The attraction and selection of skilled immigrants is a critical contribution to objectives related to economic growth, spurring innovation and the digital economy, and meeting specific regional (rural) and sector needs.
  • Settlement programming and the pathway to citizenship align with objectives related to diversity and inclusion.
  • The Passport program contributes to priorities related to traveler facilitation, modernized client service, and national security (program integrity).
• Because of the broadly positive view that is held in Canada about the contribution of immigration to Canadian society, the immigration system is increasingly looked to as a solution rather than a problem for many current issues in the policy arena (e.g., demographics, investment attraction, bilateral relations, tourism strategies, etc.). And because of Canada’s leadership and reputation in this area internationally, there is often interest to advance further and to continue to innovate and lead.

Mandate Commitments on track

• Given the arc of the Government’s mandate, IRCC has completed nearly all Ministerial mandate letter commitments and fully into implementation and measuring against expected outcomes for the rest. Note: Of the 22 commitments, only 4 commitments are still on-going in status: changing the citizenship oath in line with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report; irregular migration; Safe Third Country Agreement; and launch of the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot.
• Alongside mandate letter commitments, are commitments from other sources (e.g., Parliamentary Committee recommendations, Ministerial and government commitments; Budget 2019), that are near-completion. These include: implementation of a new regulatory college for immigration and citizenship consultants; a rural and northern immigration pilot; an agri-food pilot; and, a temporary public policy for construction workers in the Greater Toronto Area.

Operational Environment

• While the policy agenda for IRCC has been consistently ambitious in recent years, the Department is also defined by its significant processing operations (dominant lines of business: processing temporary resident visas, applications for permanent residence, citizenship and passport applications), which are experiencing unprecedented growth in terms of volumes, human resource needs, and investments.
• Internationally, IRCC’s network is comprised of 9 area offices; 60 overseas offices; and 153 Visa Application Centres (VACs) in 104 countries. Processing cases from this International Network is shared with Centralized Network and Domestic Network, operating from within Canada.
• All lines of business (immigration, temporary residents, and citizenship) have experienced significant volume growth in recent years, which is expected to continue. While some of this growth (e.g., permanent immigration through Multi-Year Levels Plan) has been accompanied by new investments, other areas, notably, Temporary Resident Visas, do not have a funding model that is tied to volume growth.
• This dynamic (simultaneous growth across areas managed by an integrated network and funding appropriations that don’t track volumes) means that the Department and its partners (e.g., CBSA, RCMP, CSIS on security screening) face pressures to maintain high quality services within consistent and/or improved service standards.
• To manage current volumes the Department is working to improve the client experience and provide client-centred design; maximize work-sharing across networks and risk triaging; leverage automation and advanced analytics models; and, advance an operational Learning Academy.
• To address funding gaps, a financial resources review of programs is being conducted which will help support new financial baselines and the allocations required to achieve objectives across all programs:[REDACTED].

Public Environment - Parliament, Public Opinion and Communications

• Immigration and citizenship issues are increasingly front and centre in Parliamentary or public debate (e.g., Operation Syrian Refugees, Citizenship, Irregular Border Crossings).
• Despite growing populist dynamics in other countries, political parties in Canada have tended to be supportive of immigration in general, but they differ in approach on certain issues such as immigration levels, temporary foreign workers, family reunification, and irregular migration, to name a few. Consequently, the parliamentary environment is more dynamic for the passage of bills and for committees.
• While public opinion (which IRCC has tracked systematically for over 20 years) about immigration in Canada continues to be broadly stable, supportive, and more positive than a majority of other countries, it is a volatile area that can be undermined by events and/or shifts in political discourse and tactics. At present, many Canadians have concerns about integration, and a minority hold strongly negative views toward immigration levels. Irregular border crossings appear to have also had a somewhat negative impact on public opinion toward refugees and government management of immigration. As part of a communications strategy, IRCC works to communicate in a manner that maintains confidence in the overall immigration system and which communicates the benefits of immigration (e.g., the “Immigration Matters” initiative).

Corporate Environment

Positive Culture

• IRCC has a positive reputation, internally and externally, as a place to work. Staff appear to feel connected to the mandate, feel that the Department has a positive organizational culture and often stay for much of their careers. This is reflected in IRCC being named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers (2018) as well as in the 2018 Public Employee Survey Results (PSES).
• Results from the 2018 PSES show that many IRCC respondents agree that IRCC is a great place to work and report feeling increasingly satisfied with their work in the Department. In fact, the Department has more positive ratings than the public service as a whole in several areas. Areas identified as needing improvement include: support for pay and compensation issues; work-life balance and lack of job security as a source of stress; support for career development and recognition; and, communication of essential information by senior management.

Wellness and Managing Growth

• Mental health and wellness have been an increasing focus at all levels of the organization.
• While awareness of and attention to these issues is more prominent in all organizations, IRCC’s environment brings particular challenges: for example, the recent rapid pace of change and growth; employees confronted with high workloads and difficult cases (e.g., refugee processing); and managing organizational growth (hiring, new accommodations, department with the highest volume of ATIP requests and litigation, etc.).

Financials

• The growth in processing volumes and investments in modernization are reflected in overall spending by the Department. To address this, the Department has sought and received authorities for $2,669,600 (excluding funding from Budget 2019) in 2019-20. Further information on IRCC’s finances will be provided to you by the Chief Financial Officer in the coming days.

Annex A: IRCC Growth Since 2015

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