Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important issue.

I want to make it clear that any instance of racism or discrimination at IRCC is absolutely unacceptable.

Following the hon. member's question in June, we investigated the selection practices within the South African High Commission and determined that discrimination and racism should not be taking place as the filtering of visa applications by race does not occur. IRCC neither requests nor collects information on the race of applicants. These protocols were established to ensure maximum oversight and minimal risk of systemic discrimination in all operations.

Indeed, the team in Pretoria has approved nearly nine out of 10 temporary resident applications filed by South African nationals since 2018, with the exception of the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Approval rates in Pretoria are higher in 2023 across all temporary resident lines of business compared to 2019.

We recognize that addressing systemic racism and discrimination, whether overt or covert, requires constant and ongoing vigilance. We have a moral obligation to address institutional racism and end discrimination across government. Though we continue to make progress on this front, there is more work to be done. IRCC hired the independent research firm Pollara in 2021 and 2023 to examine the department's anti-racism efforts and how we can do better to serve clients of all backgrounds. While the results from Pollara's latest study published in August show progress, there is still more we can do to prevent discrimination and promote equity and inclusion in our staffing and procedures worldwide.

We have also created action plans for each area of programming to help identify and eliminate racism in program and service delivery. We are currently analyzing disaggregated data on race and racism in our workforce collected through our surveys. We have created new impact assessment tools, bias identification methodologies, guidance and training to address racial disparities across our programs and procedures.

We also announced in August the creation of an equity secretariat, with an ombudsman's office that will support safe and independent channels to report instances of racism and discrimination. This will be an accessible, neutral and respected resource for our employees worldwide.

Finally, all IRCC employees receive training on inclusion and diversity. Our staff in Pretoria completed not only this comprehensive training, but also training adapted to include a specific focus on their clientele in April. The migration program manager in Pretoria additionally participated in workshops in Canada in January that included training on anti-racism.

As outlined, we are taking various steps to address systemic racism within IRCC and ensure that we are promoting diversity and inclusion in all our efforts. Though there is more work to be done, IRCC takes seriously our responsibility to our employees, clients and everyone we serve.

Paul Chiang

$515,770.00