IRCC Deputy Minister Transition Binder 2022: Strategic and Program Policy Sector - Overview - July 2022

About us

Our vision

The Strategic and Program Policy Sector plays a key role in developing and coordinating departmental advice related to the Minister’s policy agenda. The sector provides evidence-based policy analysis and research on a complex suite of policies and programs that cover the full spectrum of Canada’s managed migration system.

Our work

• Manage a complex suite of programs both domestically and internationally;
• Create evidence based policies for the full immigration continuum (i.e. visitors to citizenship);
• Maintain key relationships with a wide range of stakeholders (i.e. municipalities, PTs, NGOs, international partners);
• Allow for a quick policy responses in a rapidly evolving global migration environment;
• Ensure Canada’s managed migration system remains a model for the rest of the world;
• Advance Canada’s ability to attract and retain the right mix of immigrants and maximize the benefits of immigration for both newcomers and established Canadians;
• Frame IRCC’s forward agenda and strategic landscape to equip our Minister and Cabinet with the best advice possible for informed decision making.

Our resources

Workforce

• We have a highly qualified and dedicated workforce, primarily from the EC category.
• The sector employs approximatively 598 FTEs.

Budget

• Confirmed core salary budget of $65.47M and a core O&M budget of $10.11M

Sector's structure

The Strategic and Program Policy Sector connects high-quality policy and research with program policy and design.
It is comprised of eight branches :

Senior ADM Marian Campbell Jarvis

Branches

• International and Intergovernmental Relations - DG Heather De Santis

Leads on IRCC’s international and provincial/territorial relationships across the department’s mandate, and on domestic information-sharing policy issues.

• Immigration - DG Michèle Kingsley

Leads the development of social and economic immigration programs that lead to permanent or temporary residence.

• Refugee Affairs - A/DG Jason Hollmann

Develops policies and designs programs for the resettlement of refugees from abroad, engages bilaterally and multilaterally on international protection and irregular migration, and develops policies for Canada’s in-country asylum system.

• Strategic Policy and Planning - DG Philip Somogyvari

Creates horizontal linkages and policy integration within IRCC and is policy lead for cross-cutting files like immigration levels planning and digital policy.

ADM Soyoung Park

Branches

• Admissibility - DG Tina Matos

Facilitates the travel of permanent residents and foreign nationals to Canada, and of Canadians going abroad, while protecting the health, safety and security of Canadians.

• Chief Data Officer - DG Ümit Kiziltan

IRCC’s data champion, responsible for data and information sharing governance, data vision, strategy, and policy, and ensuring data integrity in digital transformation.

• Citizenship - DG Nicole Girard

Responsible for the legislative, regulatory and policy framework governing citizenship, promoting awareness of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and is responsible for International Experience Canada.

• Research and Evaluation - DG Mieke Bos

Works with partners to develop, strengthen and promote an evidence base that supports public policy and programming, and leads planning, risk management and reporting.

How we do it

Main roles

• Liaison with Central Agencies and OGDs
• Evidence gathering, research, evaluation, and engagement with stakeholders and other partners for policy development
• The development of policy advice and options (e.g. choice of instrument, policy authority through Cabinet, Ministerial Instructions, etc.)

Current work

• Continued work on our 2023–2025 Multi-Year Levels Plan (MYLP)
• Introduced legislative changes to provide the Minister of IRCC with more authority within Express Entry through the BIA
• Continued the shift to on-line service delivery by expanding development and availability of citizenship e-applications, virtual ceremonies and tests.
• Budget 2022 provided an investment of over $1B into the asylum system, providing much-needed additional capacity that will result in better protections for people facing persecution in their country of origin.
• Started negotiations with the U.S. to modernize the Canada-US Information Sharing Treaty
• Continued to advance Canada-U.S. efforts to address irregular migration and forced displacement in the Americas
• Worked on transforming IRCC data foundations to enable IRCC achieve new business capabilities through the Digital Platform Modernization.

Recent deliverables

• Leading the development and implementation of legislative, regulatory and program changes across permanent, temporary, citizenship and passport lines of business – for the FY 2021-2022:
  • 18 regulatory instruments completed in (4 GIC Regulations; 6 Orders in Council; a Ministerial Order; 4 Ministerial Instructions; a set of Immigration Rules; a comprehensive delegation instrument; and one Gazette Notice)
  • 8 Memoranda to Cabinet (MCs) signed by the IRCC Minister, as well as 7 Cabinet decks on other IRCC-led items, and closely supported 4 OGD-led MCs
  • Coordinating briefing materials & supporting Cabinet & Committee meetings – provided briefing notes for 86 Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meetings (total of 304 agenda items, 40% of which had IRCC implications)

SPP & Mandate Letter Commitments

The Strategic and Program Policy Sector leads on briefing up on the status of implementing mandate letter commitments, and providing information on progress to the Privy Council Office.

The Sector plays a supporting role in implementing nearly all of the mandate letter commitments but below you will find the list of  the SPP-led commitments.

SPP-LED commitments

• Continue to bring newcomers to Canada to drive economic growth and recovery, as set out in the 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan.
• Expand the new immigration stream for human rights defenders and work with civil society groups to provide resettlement opportunities for people under threat.
• Work to strengthen family reunification by implementing a program to issue temporary resident status to spouses and children abroad while they wait for the processing of their permanent residency application.
• Make the citizenship application process free for permanent residents who have fulfilled the requirements needed to obtain it.
• Build on existing pilot programs to further explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.
• Lead the Government’s work on irregular migration, including continued work with the United States to modernize the Safe Third Country Agreement.
• Expand pathways to permanent residence for international students and temporary foreign workers through the Express Entry system.
• Building on the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, work with employers and communities across Canada to welcome 2,000 skilled refugees to fill labour shortages in high-demand sectors such as health care.
• Ensure that immigration better supports small- and medium-size communities that require additional immigrants to enhance their economic growth and social vibrancy. This will include expanding the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot; moving forward on the Municipal Nominee Program and; making the successful Atlantic Immigration Pilot a permanent program.

Note: See full Mandate Letter Commitments Tracker in Annex A.

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