Terms of Reference
Background
As an independent federal government institution, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) is responsible for setting its own strategic priorities and for the development of its operational procedures and initiatives. With that said, the IRB recognizes that the successful implementation of new procedures and initiatives that affect stakeholders and those who appear before the IRB may require discussions and/or consultations with its stakeholders.
The IRB’s Consultative Committee (IRB CC) is comprised of representatives from national stakeholder organizations and IRB senior managers. The IRB CC is used to inform stakeholders of the Board’s organizational priorities and initiatives as well as to gather their views and consult on specific initiatives, as appropriate.
At the IRB CC meeting on June 18, 2019, the Committee recognized the need for more frequent and ongoing strategic engagement on the IRB’s digitization efforts. Accordingly, the IRB committed to the creation of a sub-IRB CC Digital Advisory Committee (DAC).
Mandate
The Digital Advisory Committee is responsible for engaging in dialogue about the IRB’s external digital presence through user-centered methods, including usability testing. Participating stakeholders of the DAC represent different user groups and understand user needs and experiences when using IRB's external facing digital services. Stakeholder participants are asked to provide their views on technology used to support hearings and other user-centered tools in development to guide design. The Chief Innovation and Technology Officer (CITO) then reports back to the IRB CC on the DAC’s key discussions and decisions as a standing agenda item during the biannual IRB CC meetings.
Objective
The objective of the DAC is to gather user feedback on the IRB’s external facing digital services including, but not limited to, the My Case portal. Feedback sought will include discussing user needs, challenges, and possible solutions/opportunities.
Membership
IRB (internal) members include:
- Committee Chair: Chief Innovation and Technology Officer
- Senior Director, Digital Strategy, Project Delivery and Innovation Directorate
- A representative from each IRB Division (participation will be based on the agenda topics)
- Senior Director, Policy, Engagement and Parliamentary Affairs (PEPA)
- Senior Director, Tribunal Support Services Directorate
- Director, Software Solutions
- Director, Tribunal Systems, Product Management Support and Services
- Manager, Digital Transformation Change Management, Engagement, and Communications
- General Counsel, Legal Services
- Manager or Senior Outreach Advisor, Outreach & Engagement
Stakeholder (external) members include one representative from:
- Aide juridique Montréal|Laval (1 member)
- Association québécoise des avocats et avocates en droit de l'immigration (AQAADI) (1 member)
- Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC) (1 member)
- Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) (1 member)
- Canadian Bar Association (CBA) (1 member)
- Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) (1 member)
- Legal Aid British Columbia (1 member)
- Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) (1 member)
- Refugee Lawyers Association of Ontario (RLA) (1 member)
Additional senior management and/or subject matter experts may be invited to participate in Committee meetings, at the IRB's discretion.
Frequency of meetings
This Committee will meet bi-annually. Additionally, meetings or consultations can be convened on an
ad hoc basis.
Secretariat Services
The IRB's Outreach and Engagement team (O&E) within the Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs (SDCA) Branch will provide the secretariat function for this Committee. The main responsibility of the secretariat is to convene and coordinate logistics for the Committee meetings as well as manage the IRB's correspondence with external Committee members.
The secretariatès responsibilities include:
- Developing meeting invitations and agendas, in consultation with internal Committee members.
- Coordinating the distribution of supporting meeting material with the relevant internal Committee members.
- Distributing final meeting materials to internal and external Committee members.
- Drafting a meeting summary report, in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Innovation and Technology Officer.
- Tracking and reporting on action items following each meeting, in consultation with the relevant internal Committee members.