Canada streamlines access to information for immigrants

Text and image credit: News Canada

Openness, transparency and accountability are guiding principles of the Government of Canada. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is incorporating these principles as it improves and modernizes systems, processes and digital infrastructure to better serve clients.

The annual number of access to information and privacy (ATIP) requests made to IRCC has increased dramatically in recent years, going from 63,333 in 2016 - 2017 to 132,891 in 2019 - 2020. IRCC now receives more requests than all other federal institutions combined, the majority of which are linked to individual case files.

IRCC is adapting to these recent increases and providing an overall improved ATIP client experience by enhancing readily accessible information, offering faster response times and streamlined systems. To that end, it announced IRCC’s ATIP Management Action Plan.

The ATIP Management Action Plan is an initiative that will increase proactive communications with clients to address their concerns. The plan is the result of ongoing collaboration with the Office of the Information Commissioner, and directly responds to the issues and recommendations raised in their recent report.

This initiative will expand the capabilities of the MyAccount portal – the platform clients use to access information about their files – to include more information on the status of cases, and provide clear and concise communications to explain the reasons why an application was not approved. In addition, IRCC has a responsive and flexible workforce that strives to meet the growing demand in ATIP requests, and is implementing automated processes to increase processing efficiencies.

Despite the pressures of the pandemic, IRCC reduced the number of outstanding access to information requests by 85 per cent, over a six month period, from 8,881 in January 2020 to 1,330 in July 2020. The processing timeline during this period has gone from 64 per cent to 75 per cent on-time responses. “We want to increase the availability of information to our clients, and we will continue to make improvements and evolve in how we do business through policy and digital service delivery,” said Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

A few quick facts:

• IRCC is unique, as most of the requests it receives are for the personal information of its clients – 98.9 per cent of requests to IRCC are for immigration case files, compared to the 1.1 per cent of requests for corporate records. The majority of these requests concern IRCC clients who are foreign nationals relying on representatives and immigration lawyers to submit access requests on their behalf.