https://openparliament.ca/committees/immigration/42-1/2/john-mccallum-21/
John McCallum
"I've spent a certain amount of time on the refugee issue, but I've certainly spent considerable time on this issue, yes, because, as I said, there are many important things to do. If I had to say what the top priority was for me over the next, let's say, two or three years, it would be to bring down these processing times for family members.
We have spoken to experts, we have looked at the figures, and I have received briefings about how they got to where they are and the ways in which this might be addressed. However, we still have a lot of work to do in terms of the nuts and bolts of how we can address this. It's partly through additional funding to hire more officials to interview more people in order to let more in. It's also reforming the way we do our business.
We learned from the Syrian refugee experience that if you put your mind to it, and have a very ambitious target you have to reach, the human mind can figure out new ways to do things. We can do things concurrently, instead of consecutively. We can find ways to shorten processes without increasing risk. We had a major role for the military in the health process.
There are a lot of innovative things that we can do in order to reduce the time it takes to process a given immigrant. The more that time can be reduced, the more immigrants we can process with a given input of human power. Much of our work will be in that area, consulting this committee, I hope, which can, in turn, consult its own experts, our own expert advisers, and most importantly, my department.
I think you would agree that the members of my department, and other departments, certainly rose to the challenge on the refugees. It wasn't always smooth sailing. We had our ups and downs, but it does appear that we'll hit our 25,000 target in just a few days. They have done a fantastic job. With that experience behind them, they can do another fantastic job on this second and equally important issue, which is to reduce the processing times for family class members.
I hasten to add, very quickly, that you don't change a battleship overnight. It will take a number of years to achieve major changes in this area."
