Madam Speaker, on February 11, I asked the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration what measures were being taken to speed up citizenship approvals.
In my 15 years as a member of Parliament, I have very seldom dealt with any complaints from constituents about the citizenship process. Recently, many constituents have been approaching my office because approvals are taking more than a year. The standard in this region is approximately 15 months.
For people who have made great personal sacrifices to come here and contribute their skills, or who face danger to escape persecution in their own country, the delay in becoming a citizen now creates further barriers to becoming fully integrated, contributing Canadians.
Many jobs require Canadian citizenship. The delays in approving citizenship mean that many are employed well below the level of skill that would allow them to contribute more fully to the Canadian economy. With increased security at the Canada-U.S. border, many are concerned about travelling on business without their Canadian citizenship.
Many did not apply for a permanent resident card in the last year because their citizenship application was already in. They quite rightly assumed they would have it long before they would need the permanent resident card to travel outside the country.
The result was, of course, a problem for members of our own staff, when people suddenly found that their citizenship was not coming through and they would have to apply on an urgent basis for the permanent resident card.
Delays in the citizenship process are causing an additional workload for CIC employees.
Often security clearances lapse before the application process is completed and may have to be redone. Often security clearances once they are done then sit in the CIC office for a number of months causing further delays and again perhaps having to repeat the process.
In Ottawa approximately 500 applications are received a week. The capacity is to process 150 to 200 a week. We seem to be working toward building up a backlog.
For many this has been a long wait. In my constituency there are many Somalis who came here at a time of terrible crisis in their own country. They were not able to even become landed immigrants for eight to ten years because acquiring the proper papers to prove who they were was impossible. Here they sit 10, 12, 13 years after their arrival in Canada unable to achieve citizenship.
Finally, new Canadians are looking forward to exercising that most precious right of citizenship, the right to vote. It is normal in the period leading up to a major federal or provincial election to take measures to speed up the approval of citizenship so that they can enjoy that right.
I ask the minister to clarify what is being done to improve the citizenship approval process, to avoid building a huge backlog and to let new Canadians become full members of Canadian society.