CANADA IMMIGRANTS SHOULD FORGET ABOUT ASKING WAITING TIME FOR THEIR IMMIGRANTS VISA AS EVEN MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ARE NOT GIVEN THIS INFORMATION SINCE IMMIGRATION MINISTER HAS INSTRUCTED BUREAUCRATS TO AVOID GIVING FULL DETAILS ON VISA WAIT TIMES EVEN ONE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT STILL WAITING REPLY Immigration Minister Alexander Helped Bureaucrats Avoid Giving Full Details On Visa Wait Times Documents show Immigration Minister Chris Alexander’s office intervened to save bureaucrats from answering part of a formal question from an NDP MP. New Democrat MP Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe submitted a question about processing times for visa applications but received information from Citizenship and Immigration Canada in response to only some parts of the question. OTTAWA—Newly released documents suggest the office of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander intervened to save bureaucrats from answering part of a formal question from an NPD MP about wait times for visa applications, reported the Toronto Star newspaper. NDP immigration critic Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe submitted an order paper question, which is like an access-to-information request for MPs, about the budget and processing times for applications for temporary and permanent residents. The department provided information in response to some parts of the question — mostly by linking to details already available on its website — but said they would not be able to break down wait times for applications by fiscal year and processing centre. “The remaining information requested in the question and subquestions would require an extensive manual search of Citizenship and Immigration Canada records. After a lengthy data extraction process involving millions of files, the report would have to be reviewed in its entirety to ensure that the data is accurate and valid. Providing full and accurate information within the prescribed timeline is therefore not feasible,” said the response tabled in the Commons on May 14 last year. Documents released in response to an access-to-information request filed by the NDP suggest that answer came after Alexander’s office weighed in. The documents provided to the Star by the NDP show departmental officials had been working on answering that part of the order paper question, although they did express concern they would not meet the May 14 deadline. A minister must respond to an order paper question regarding his or her portfolio within 45 days.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:05:46 +0000