2012-2013 Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) was created in 1994 to link citizenship and immigration services. In 2008, the department’s portfolio was expanded to include multiculturalism. CIC’s mandate includes, among other things, the selection and processing of foreign nationals as permanent and temporary residents, the development of Canada’s admissibility policy, and the setting of conditions for entering and remaining in Canada.
In 2012-13, CIC received 25,010 requests, by far the largest number of requests of all institutions (representing 45% of all requests). CIC’s strong performance in 2012-13 has had a positive impact on the overall government-wide statistics.
CIC completed 26,020 requests in 2012-13, 24.6% more than in the last reporting period. It ended the 2012-13 reporting period with 95.6% of all its requests completed. This completion rate is the highest achieved by CIC in the past 10 years. The average time to complete a request was 30 days.Footnote 1
More than half of the requests received by CIC in 2012-13 came from businesses (59%), mostly consultants and lawyers requesting personal information files on behalf of their clients. These files did not involved processing a large volume of pages, as only 0.32% of the requests completed required processing more than 1,000 pages.
Table 1: Workload
| Measures | Reporting period 2011-12 | Reporting period 2012-13 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of requests received | 20,575 | 25,010 | 21.56% |
| Number of consultations received (from other government institutions) | 192 | 188 | -2.08% |
| Average number of pages processed per request closed | 68 | 60 | -8 |
| % of requests for which more than 1,000 pages were processed | 0.45% | 0.32% | -0.13% |
| Note: The average number of pages processed per request closed and the percentage of requests for which more than 1,000 pages were processed are calculated from the total of requests completed for which the information was disclosed (in part or totally), exempted/excluded and for requests abandoned. It excludes requests completed for the following dispositions: no records exist, requests transferred and requests treated informally. | |||
Timeliness
In terms of timeliness, CIC completed about 74.6% of requests in 30 days or less, an improvement from the previous reporting period.
6.6% of the requests completed were closed past the statutory deadline. This proportion represents a “B” grade.Footnote 2 Workload was identified as the principal reason for completing requests late (88% of the time).
Each year, the OIC receives notices regarding the use of extensions for more than 30 days and compiles this information in order to generate statistics. In 2012-13, the OIC received 239 notices of extension from CIC, which represents a total of 252 separate extensions.
Extensions
CIC took a total of 1,899 extensions. Most (83%) were taken under section 9(1)(a) (interference with operations). About 72% of extensions were for less than 30 days.
The number of extensions taken by CIC for a period of more than 30 days decreased from 1,871 in 2011-12 to 539 in 2012-13. This is also consistent with OIC statistics regarding notices of extensions under section 9(2).
Disclosure
Of the 26,020 requests completed, 24.5% were disclosed entirely (comparable to the previous year). A large number of pages processed were disclosed (84.2%).
Table 2: Performance
| Measures | Reporting Period 2011-12 | Reporting Period 2012-13 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completion of Requests | |||
| Completion rate | 90.72% | 95.57% | 4.85% |
| Completion Time | |||
| % of requests closed within 30 days | 52.94% | 74.62% | 21.68% |
| % of requests closed past statutory deadline | 13.52% | 6.61% | -6.91% |
| % of consultations from government institution closed within 30 days | 71.35% | 67.74% | -3.61% |
| % of extensions of 30 days or less | 43.66% | 71.62% | 27.96% |
| Level of Disclosure | |||
| % of pages processed that were disclosed | 84.72% | 84.22% | -0.5% |
| % of requests closed for which the information was disclosed entirely | 24.69% | 24.52% | -0.17% |
| Note: The completion rate represents the number of requests completed divided by the total number of requests on hand, which includes the new requests received and the requests carried over from the previous reporting period. | |||
Complaints
The number of complaints received against CIC went up significantly between 2011-12 and 2012-13, from 66 to 109 complaints.
About 41% of the complaints received in 2012-13 were considered not well-founded (compared to 8.7% in 2011-12). An additional 33% were well-founded and 12.8% were discontinued.
The majority of the complaints in 2012-13 were refusal complaints (78.2%).
Footnotes
- Footnote 1
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Based on response to parliamentary written question Q-485.
- Footnote 2
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The 2007-08 OIC report card grading system was used to estimate a grade: A= 0 to 5%; B= 5 to 10%; C= 10 to 15%; D=15 to 20%, F=more than 20%.