Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

September 2016 //

Canadian Government Executive /

The Interview

Workplace Commitment” we have put in place at the IRB. This

endeavour cascades from the most recent Public Service Employ-

ee Survey (2014) and the Blueprint 2020 initiative which prompts

even well-rated workplaces like ours to do better. In my regional

visits, I sit face-to-face with employees who openly share their

concerns. You cannot succeed as a leader if employees are not part

of the conversation. For personal rapport to thrive in a bureau-

cracy, people must come first, process second. As a government

leader, I believe in putting personal aspirations and fleeting ac-

colades second to meeting the legitimate needs of people. As a

leader, I serve Canadians, including the Canadians who work at

the board.

What do you think are the most pressing issues

facing the IRB in the next five years?

The record movement of people-in-crisis worldwide continues to

be a major challenge. We are following through on the three-year

review of systemic reforms implemented in 2012. The reforms set

time periods for the processing of refugee claims and created a

new appeal tribunal. The reforms exerted operational and re-

source pressures that the Board must keep striving to balance.

Maintaining an adequate complement of adjudicators is a crucial

challenge. It’s a daunting task of working through the backlog

of claims that have already been made while managing a daily

intake of new claims.

So how important is speed in a tribunal like this?

I am acutely sensitive to the need for speed: claimants should not

have to wait unreasonable lengths of time to have a hearing. We

schedule hundreds of hearings a week. We try to overcome lan-

guage barriers in explaining our procedures to people from dis-

tant lands. Sometimes there are absences, sometimes a missing

document. Hearings must sometimes be rescheduled. We like to

think we are in control all the time but, in a complex environment,

we can’t always be. There are too many variables in a system that

so many claimants move through in a year. In our world, we must

achieve a balance between doing things well and doing them

quickly—without ever sacrificing fairness. We appreciate that for

thousands of claimants, getting them scheduled and into our hear-

ing rooms as quickly as possible is paramount. Often they have

come a long way. They have left troubled places. We do our ut-

most to work promptly and competently, but the reality is that our

intake is variable, and when it exceeds our capacity, backlogs will

inevitably accumulate. We try hard to keep things moving and al-

leviate the stress and frustration that can affect hopeful claimants.

Seems like impossible work. How do you keep

staff motivated?

We have a Quality Workplace Commitment and it’s front and cen-

ter. I am convinced that the sort of work environment we provide

determines the level of service we give to Canadians. An excellent

workplace inspires excellent service. That is our mantra. It must

ring loudly from my desk, from the desks of each of my execu-

tives and managers and from the desks of all of our dedicated and

deserving staff members across all four of our tribunals. We must

remind ourselves constantly that a high-quality workplace is para-

mount and work relentlessly to put thought into action.

The IRB’s Vision Statement says that the IRB will

be “a leading edge administrative tribunal and a cre-

ative partner in building the future of the Canadian

immigration system.” That’s a really tall order for

administrative tribunals, which are not known to be

innovative or creative. What are your priorities?

As Canada’s largest administrative tribunal, I think the IRB

proudly sets an example. While not as obvious as at research and

development organizations, creativity and innovation on a daily

basis are very much a part of what we do. We developed our own

system for tracking our thousands of cases in detail each year.

We adopted LEAN management, a board-wide, cutting-edge ap-

proach to setting priorities, channeling resources and measuring

success in program delivery. We equipped our hearing rooms

with digital audio-record technology to transcribe our proceed-

ings.

How are you adapting to new ICTs?

We installed videoconferencing technology which allows em-

ployees to communicate across our three regions on a more

frequent and productive basis. I am a fan of video as a tool for

simultaneously reaching our widespread internal audience. I fre-

quently broadcast important messages in this way. We continu-

ously work to perfect the video technology that allows claimants

to appear remotely at their hearings while the adjudicator pre-

sides in a distant city. We use social media tools such as Twitter

to share important information quickly on key issues. We are at

the forefront of administrative innovation and a leading author-

ity within the Canadian immigration system.

Let’s talk about the people who do the adjudica-

tion. What are you doing to ensure that they are well

equipped and that their decisions are fair?

We have developed and continue to develop some of the most

advanced adjudicator guidelines and training programs in the

world on the law, cultural sensitivity, gender awareness and de-

cision-making. Our guideline on sexual orientation and gender

identity will serve to enshrine best practices in a manner that

is transparent to the parties who appear before the Board. I am

also updating our detention guideline to reflect a more precise

balance between release and public safety. The proposed guide-

line will soon be shared internally and with our stakeholders and

then finalized with the added insight. We are starting to take a

proactive approach to shaping our own jurisprudence. We do this

by having panels of three-members hear cases where there are

novel issues to be decided or there are inconsistencies in the law.

A decision of a three-member panel can then provide guidance to

other decision-makers who may have to deal with similar issues

in the future.

Flexibility, sensitivity and responsiveness rank high among our

hallmarks. My priorities are to lead a board at which unbiased

and highly competent adjudicators are sensitive to the diverse

and often highly traumatic backgrounds of refugee claimants;

whose bright, competent and diverse employees are fully en-

gaged; whose stakeholders are fully informed; and with whose

decisions Canadians feel secure and comfortable that their mon-

ey is well-spent.