Significant Changes are occurring within Canada's immigration department

Previously this year, Neil Yeates, a former Deputy Minister at IRCC, authored a report outlining methods for the department to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness. This report was commissioned by IRCC to evaluate whether the department's existing structure is best suited to fulfilling its mission.

Yeates: IRCC's organizational model is broken

As per CIC News, in his report, Yeates concludes "the current organizational model at IRCC is broken but is being held together by the hard work and dedication of staff."

He recommends "a series of steps need to be taken to realign the organizational structure (including a major shift to a business line-based structure), reform the governance system, employ stronger management systems (especially planning and reporting) and make way for the development of a culture to better support the department's goals and objectives (including consideration of an overall review of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and measures to better leverage the experience and expertise of diverse staff groups)."

Yeates explains there are various reasons why IRCC's current model is broken, but highlights two that stand out in particular: a difficult operating environment in Canada and internationally; and secondly, IRCC has grown exponentially since its present organizational structure was introduced over 20 years ago. To highlight this point, Yeates notes IRCC's total workforce has grown from 5,352 employees in March 2013 to 12,949 employees as of January 2023.

IRCC reorganized to business-line model

Among the changes occurred last week, the department was re-organized across the following sectors:

• Asylum and Refugees Resettlement
• Citizenship and Passport
• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Client Service, Innovation, and Chief Digital Officer
• Communications
• Corporate Services
• Economic, Family, and Social Migration
• International Affairs and Crisis Response
• Migration Integrity
• Service Delivery
• Settlement Integration and Francophone Affairs
• Strategic Policy

IRCC's operating environment

Yeates illustrates on the various forces impacting IRCC, the main ones being:

Hybrid Work Environment and COVID-19: The nature of work appears to be altering permanently due to the pandemic, and as such, more workers, including IRCC employees, are working remotely, with a general direction to return to the office 2-3 days per week. Yeates explains while work-from-home has been effective, it is yet to be observed what the impacts will be on IRCC's organizational culture.

Demand for IRCC Services: Demand for IRCC's programs often surpasses the department's processing capacity as measured by its service standards (the goals the department sets for itself to process applications for each line of business). Although IRCC has tools and resources at its disposal to cope its inventory, i.e. caps for certain programs, its inventories can grow very quickly whenever demand for its programs surpasses its processing capacity.

Growth of IRCC: As demand for IRCC's program has developed, so too has its workforce. Yeates characterizes its workforce as "medium sized" in 2013, with 5,217 non-executive staff, which has more than doubled by 2023 to 12,721 staff. Executives at the department have grown from 135 employees in 2013 to 227 today. However, despite the program and staff progress, the organizational structure at IRCC, which was designed for a smaller department, has mostly remained the same.

Immigration Policy Review: The dominant immigration narrative in Canada has not generally been challenged, and that the actual impact of immigration is not generally well documented. As such, an immigration policy review at IRCC may be beneficial in helping IRCC shape the department's future direction.

Digital Transformation: IRCC has received significant funding for its Digital Platform Modernization, and such transformations are always thought-provoking, particularly at a place like IRCC which has many significant responsibilities. However there is little doubt that IRCC require becoming a fully digital department.

Global Uncertainty: International armed conflicts are on the rise, democracy is under threat, and factors i.e. climate change are impacting global demand to migrate, which will continue to have a significant impact on IRCC.

IRCC departmental culture is "committed"

While emphasising the purpose of his report is not to be critical, Yeates observes IRCC presently has limited department-wide planning, lacks a multi-year strategic plan, and planning across the department is inconsistent, all of which pose a variety of challenges such as the inability to achieve the department's objectives and lack of accountability among staff.

IRCC staff described the departmental culture as "committed, collaborative, and supportive", which has helped to overcome the department's organizational structure, governance, and management systems shortcomings.

Highlights of Yeates' recommendations

Overall, Yeates makes recommendations across four areas: Organizational Structure; Governance; Management Systems; and Culture. Highlights of the recommendations are as follows:

Organizational Structure Recommendations:

• IRCC move to a business line organization
• IRCC develop protocols for crisis and emergency management that identify Assistant Deputy Minister leads in various scenarios

Governance Recommendations:

• The Executive Committee assume responsibility for finance and corporate services and absorb the functions of the Corporate Finance Committee
• A new Operations Committee be established, chaired by the Deputy Minister's Office, that will absorb the functions of the Issues Management Committee
• That the membership of these committees be reconsidered as part of the re-organization process and that membership be no larger than 12
• A review be conducted on the split of responsibilities between IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) under IRPA in order to rationalize and streamline roles and accountabilities

Management System Recommendations:

• Deputy Minister lead a new planning and reporting regime
• Develop a 3 to 5 year strategic plan
• Undertake an annual planning cycle across all areas of the department, including HR, IT, Financial and Program plans
• Implement a quarterly reporting regime
• Ensure linkages with the department's performance management work

Culture Recommendations:

• Undertake a review of IRPA to determine whether amendments should be made to better support desired outcomes, including improved service delivery.
• Review the training provided to staff involved in the administration of IRPA to ensure if reflects the desired philosophy and approach of the department.
• Examine means to integrate the voices of IRCC’s diversity communities into the departmental governance regime

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To check eligibility and immigrate to Canada in 2023 on PR Visa, you may get in touch with Visas Avenue Canadian Visa Consultant on Toll-Free No. 78-18-000-777 or you can drop us an e-mail at info@visasavenue.com.

- Rajneesh Kumar