CIMM – Lessons Learned and Approach to Crisis Response – February 8, 2023

Implicated Recommendations:

Recommendation #3 – IRCC to establish an emergency mechanism

Recommendation #35 – Internal review of Canada’s response to refugee crises

Key Messages

• In line with the Committee’s recommendations, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), along with other government departments, is actively reviewing lessons learned during the response to the Afghanistan crisis.
• IRCC has commissioned BDO Canada to conduct a lessons-learned exercise, and we are committed to sharing the main findings with this committee.
• Many of the emerging themes align with the recommendations made in the Special Committee on Afghanistan Report, namely: the importance of interdepartmental and internal governance structures in crisis situations; the need for clear stakeholder engagement and communications; and the importance of ensuring adequate employee capacity to sustain a longer-term crisis response.
• Global Affairs Canada is mandated to lead the Government of Canada’s response to international emergencies abroad, and IRCC is actively working to strengthen its contribution to these efforts.
• IRCC’s Strategic Immigration Review aims, in part, to enhance its crisis response mechanisms and renew its organizational framework for crisis management to better enable more nimble and sustainable immigration responses to humanitarian crises as part of the broader Government of Canada response.
• The Strategic Immigration Review will also explore how IRCC may be more responsive to the diverse settlement needs of immigrant newcomers against a backdrop of housing shortages and settlement organization capacity issues.
• We will continue to engage with stakeholders and clients to obtain feedback on what is working well, where there are gaps, and how we can enhance our policies, programs, and processes, both in the context of Afghanistan, and in response to other current and future crises.

Supplementary Messages

Policy Tools and Partnerships

• The Government of Canada recognized that unique solutions were needed to assist vulnerable Afghans. In response to the crisis, IRCC developed multiple pathways and processing measures to enable Canada to resettle Afghans who had closely supported the Government of Canada during our two decades in Afghanistan, as well as other at-risk Afghans.
• We also expanded our referral partners and deepened our partnerships with likeminded countries and various non-governmental organizations.
• The approach to Afghanistan, including to new partnerships, will inform any immigration response to a future crisis.

Resettlement and Integration in Canada

• At the onset of the crisis, IRCC launched a national Afghanistan Steering Committee, comprised of Resettlement Assistance Program Service Provider Organizations (RAP-SPOs) from across the country. It provides a dedicated forum for weekly engagement and dialogue on challenges, lessons learned, and innovative best practices related to settlement and integration of Afghan newcomers.
• A key lesson learned, given housing and capacity challenges in larger urban centers, has been for IRCC to work with SPOs to direct arrivals to smaller urban centers (e.g., St. John’s, London, Windsor, Abbotsford). With advanced funding and increased staff, RAP-SPOs in these regions have been able to ramp-up quickly and provide necessary housing and settlement supports.
• The Department has also supported RAP-SPOs, such as the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia, with their housing deposit pilot in order to secure housing for clients before they arrive. In addition, the Department has added funding for housing coordinator positions across the country to facilitate the housing search process for clients.
• The Afghan resettlement response continues to highlight many ways in which our (re)settlement policies and program delivery can become more innovative and agile to meet an increasingly changing resettlement landscape.

Communication With Clients and Stakeholders

• Since the fall of Kabul, the Government of Canada has received communications from hundreds of thousands of individuals expressing interest in coming to Canada, including through the online web form and the dedicated telephone line that have been established to serve Afghan clients.
• In addition to existing support channels, IRCC has established a dedicated team, to support and manage stakeholder inquiries. The team regularly communicates with advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations, and stakeholders in order to provide clear updates on the Afghanistan commitment and to collaborate, as needed, to address complex issues.

Responsive on BDO Canada Report

• External expertise was brought in to provide the internal team with support and advice on how such a lessons learned exercise could be conducted in an efficient manner. Consultants are generally used to supplement internal teams with expert knowledge. Consultants also play a role in transferring the expert knowledge to the internal team during the course of the project.
• BDO Canada was selected through a competitive process using the PASS (Professional Audit Services Supply Arrangement) procurement tool. The value of this project with BDO Canada is $75,388.00.