IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2023: Overview - Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

Fundamental Brief

Introduction

• The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (the Board or IRB) is Canada’s largest independent administrative tribunal with four tribunals (“divisions”)
• Established over 30 years ago with a mandate to resolve a range of refugee and immigration cases fairly, efficiently and in accordance with the law

Immigration and Refugee Board

Refugee Protection Division

• Hears and decides claims for refugee protection made in Canada

Immigration Division

• Conducts admissibility hearings and detention reviews for foreign nationals or permanent residents

Refugee Appeal Division

• Decides appeals from Refugee Protection Division decisions to allow or reject refugee protection claims

Immigration Appeal Division

• Hears appeals on immigration-related matters, such as sponsorship applications and removal orders
• The Refugee Protection Division and the Immigration Division (for admissibility hearings) make first-instance decisions; the other two divisions hear appeals of decisions made by the Government or by the IRB itself
• The IRB’s Budget (2023-2024) is approximately $340M and 2,400 full-time equivalents (FTE) employees
• The IRB’s four divisions have a funded complement of approximately 580 adjudicative decision-makers (“members”) in 2022-2023:

  Staffed by public servants	Refugee Protection Division (RPD)
  	Immigration Division (ID)

  Staffed by Governor-in-Council appointees	Refugee Appeal Division (RAD)
  	Immigration Appeal Division (IAD)

• Members appointed by the Governor-in-Council (GIC) are recommended by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to Cabinet following a merit-based assessment process and named by the Governor General based on advice from Cabinet
• Initial appointments are usually three years in length. Reappointments typically vary from two to five years in length and are neither automatic nor guarantee
• A full complement of GIC appointments is key to IRB performance, access to justice and keeping wait times in check

The IRB’s GIC complement has grown significantly over the past 5 years in response to the workload associated with record levels of refugee decisions and appeals. Currently, the IRB is funded for a total of 190 full-time equivalent (FTE) GIC members. [Redacted]

IRB Overview

The Board

• is an independent administrative tribunal characterized by the following:
• both (i) individual decision-maker (“adjudicative”) independence and (ii) a degree of institutional independence, different than a line department such as IRCC
• it does, however, remain a part of the executive branch for which the Minister is ultimately politically accountable and works closely on strategic issues with IRCC/CBSA through a Deputy Minister-level Asylum System Management Board
• is led by a Governor-in-Council-appointed Chairperson who:

  Chairperson	… is responsible for determining the schedule and assignment of cases at IRB and may propose rules about how all divisions operate (IRPA)
  	… is a member of each division
  	… is a Deputy Head and acts as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Accounting Officer for IRB (Financial Administration Act)
  	… reports to Parliament through the Minister of IRCC

• has four Deputy Chairpersons who are responsible for each division as well as an Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer responsible for overall internal administration.

An overview of the organizational structure is provided (see Annex)

Recent Operational Context

• Between September 2016 and March 2020, the Board experienced an unprecedented intake of refugee claims with intake significantly exceeding funded processing capacity, leading to the largest backlog and longest wait times in the history of the Board.
• In response, the IRB launched, in 2018-19, an ambitious, multi-year “Growth and Transformation Agenda”:
  • Growth:
    • Government investment of some $600M over five years in temporary funds (B2018-B2020);
    • Through Budget 2022, IRB secured approximately $150M in additional permanent funding and $87M in flexible funding over 2 years to reduce the gap between its processing capacity and rising refugee claim intake.
  • Transformation: Three IRB strategic priorities
    • Increased productivity and efficiency
    • Enhanced quality and consistency in decision-making; and
    • Strengthened management
• In the first full year of the pandemic, Canada was one of only four countries that were able to significantly reduce backlogs of pending refugee cases. (UNHCR Global Trends Report 2021, published June 2022)
• Unprecedented intake of refugee claims since the reopening of the border in the Fall of 2021 – an increase of 120% over the pre-pandemic peak in 2019

Growth and Transformation Agenda: Growth

• Since the unprecedented intake levels in 2017, the Board has
  • Doubled in size: As a result, the IRB has productivity targets for finalizing claims and appeals
  • Built a culture of performance: Allowed the IRB to consistently meet/exceed funded performance commitments across all divisions
• In 2020-2021, after its pivot to a digital environment despite pandemic disruptions, the IRB:
  • finalized more than 70,000 decisions across all divisions
  • continued to reduce pending inventories by more than 20% across all divisions
  • met strict legislative time limits in detention reviews
• In 2022-2023, the IRB finalized more than 72,000 decisions across all divisions, with more than 48,000 refugee claims, the most since the system was reformed in 2012.
• Despite the Additional Protocol of STCA in March 2023 limiting claimants entering between ports of entry, current intake at the IRB continues to be over twice the current funded capacity.

Despite recent gains across IRB divisions, the RPD inventory returned to pre-pandemic levels (96K) by May 2023, with a similar increase in wait times (to 23 months). The Board is working to ramp-up additional capacity, preparing itself based on inventory and claims at the IRCC/CBSA waiting to be referred to the IRB; [Redacted]

Budget^{Footnote 1}

FTE Budget^{Footnote 1}

Consistently met or exceeded performance commitments

58% reduction in actionable inventory since the pandemic^{Footnote 2}

Wait times for actionable cases:

14 months for new claims

4 months for new appeals

Despite recent gains across IRB divisions, the RPD inventory returned to pre-pandemic levels (96K) by May 2023, with a similar increase in wait times (to 23 months). The Board is working to ramp-up additional capacity, preparing itself based on inventory and claims at the IRCC/CBSA waiting to be referred to the IRB; and working to establish a more sustainable funding model with Government partners.

Growth and Transformation Agenda: Transformation

Three strategic priorities:

• Improved Productivity
  • Built a culture of operational awareness, performance and results
  • Introduced efficiency measures from intake to recourse in support of access to justice
• Enhanced Quality
  • Launched Quality Assurance Framework – identified as an international best practice following an independent review – broad suite of measures in support of quality decision-making at IRB
  • Established Centres of Excellence at the RPD and the RAD to monitor trends and address emerging issues
  • Revised Chairpersons Guidelines:
    • Guideline 2 – Detention
    • Guideline 3 – Proceedings Involving Minors at the IRB
    • Guideline 4 – Gender Considerations in Proceedings before the IRB
    • Guideline 8 – Accessibility to IRB Proceedings
    • Guideline 9 – Proceedings before the IRB Involving Sexual Orientation. Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics
• Strengthened Management
  • System-level approach: DM-level Asylum System Management Board established with IRCC and the CBSA to align effort across the asylum system, while respecting the Board’s independence
  • During the pandemic, the Board transformed into a digital organization and moved to a virtual-by-default hearings model, enhancing productivity
  • Focus on organizational culture; published the Board’s first Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan for 2021-2023

Outcomes: Improved access to justice and public confidence

Current State of Play – Challenges

Despite growth in capacity and productivity, progress achieved to date is at risk, and the Board faces several important challenges:

• Stable Source of Funding to ensure the stability and integrity of Canada’s asylum system
  • Permanent Funding: Budget 2022 announced $150 million for the IRB, starting in 2023-24, bringing total permanent funding for the Board to $270 million annually and allowing the Board to continue to process up to 50,000 refugee claims annually and stabilize its work force to approximately 2,100 permanent full-time employees (FTE)
  • Temporary funding: Budget 2022 also announced temporary top up investment of $87M over two years (sunsetting in 2024–25) allowing the Board to hire over 300 temporary employees (including approximately 100 members).
    • Additional top-up funding helps address the forecasted rise in asylum claims by funding the processing of up to 10,000 claims over a two-year period. While this top-up funding will help slow that growth, it is not expected to reverse it.
  • [Redacted]
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Key Takeaways

• IRB characterized by individual and institutional independence yet part of the executive branch with Minister politically accountable for organization, requiring careful balancing of considerations.
• Challenging operating context marked by unsustainable refugee wait times and backlogs led to recent permanent and temporary investments and IRB’s Growth and Transformation Agenda, enabling the Board to successfully scale up and achieve program commitments and public policy objectives.
• While pandemic disrupted operations, IRB was able to reduce the size of inventories across all divisions and manage wait times by pivoting to becoming an increasingly digital organization, with majority of hearings now being held remotely.
• As of June 2023, inventories and wait times have returned to pre-pandemic levels, with intake levels expected to remain above funded levels for the foreseeable future.
• [Redacted]
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• The IRB will continue to work with portfolio partners, central agencies, and stakeholders to address ongoing challenges and ensure the continued integrity of Canada’s refugee and immigration determination system.

Annex – Organizational Structure