Tulloch: Maxine Ifill, Immigration Director General 

Profile: Maxine Ifill – Director General, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

by Dave Tulloch

The IRCC federal department facilitates the arrival of immigrants, provides protection to refugees and offers programming to help newcomers settle in Canada. It also grants citizenship and issues travel documents (such as passports) to Canadians.” Maxine Ifill is the Director-General for the Citizenship and Passport Programs at IRCC. [MI1] 

Maxine is the daughter of immigrant parents. Her father Lionel, a Barbadian national, and Joslyn from Trinidad & Tobago, both high school teachers in Trinidad, immigrated to Canada so that Lionel could pursue graduate studies in economics at McGill University. After earning a master’s degree in Economics, Lionel secured a position at Statistics Canada and the Ifill family left Montreal to take up residence in Ottawa. While working at Statistics Canada, Lionel decided to revert to his teaching profession. He went on to teach at Algonquin College where he was one of the first black professors, and lectured for the remainder of his working career, retiring some 30 plus years later. Joslyn initially worked at the Carleton University Map Library and then became a career public servant.  Both parents were active community builders, involved with various associations, including establishing the Impact Heritage organization which instilled the cultural heritage of the African diaspora in black children growing up in Ottawa when there was little recognition of diversity in society and school curricula.

Maxine, the eldest of three children, and her sister Beverley were born in Montreal. Her brother Gerry was born in Ottawa. She attended public schools in the south end of Ottawa and then went on to Brookfield High School. After graduating from Brookfield, Maxine enrolled at the [ST2] University of Ottawa, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Honours in Biochemistry and entering the workforce with a contract position at the National Research Council (NRC) and later Agriculture Canada. Maxine then decided to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at McGill University in Montreal.

After graduating from McGill, Maxine returned to the federal public service as a Management trainee with Agriculture Canada. But she left the Federal Government after a few years and spent the next decade working in the private sector; at Stentor, Bell Canada, and Canada Post. She eventually returned to the Federal Government as [MI3] Director of Strategic Policy at the Canada Revenue Agency. Maxine admitted that “when I initially left the Government, I’m not sure that I ever expected that I would go back.” During the ensuing years, Maxine continued to progress through the management ranks by building her skills and seeking out advancement roles compatible with her interests and expertise, and then successfully competing for those positions across different Federal Departments. While rising through the Federal ranks wasn’t without its challenges, the steps that she took ultimately led to her current role.

As Director General, Maxine’s job entails leading Citizenship program delivery; modernizing the passport application and issuance processes; enhancing the automation of citizenship and passport processing, with the objective of improving services to Canadians. Maxine’s work impacts thousands of Canadians needing travel documents, and those who seek to become Canadian citizens, therefore particularly impacting those who are immigrants to Canada.

Notwithstanding her phenomenal professional successes, Maxine has a burning passion to serve her community in the City of Ottawa, and beyond. She emulates her parents’ community activism and has “always complemented day-to-day work life with volunteer work.” Maxine has immersed herself in Ottawa’s black community development efforts to facilitate the ongoing evolution, positive impact, and value of Ottawa’s black demographic. “My rooting in social justice, gender equality, and racial justice has always guided my volunteer work.” 

She became an effective builder of Ottawa’s Black History committee in which she held the position of Co-Chair. She was an active member of Ottawa’s chapter of the Black Business and Professionals Association; a Board Member of the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre; a Board member and past Treasurer with The Match Fund which is now the Equality Fund. She was treasurer when MATCH and a consortium of partners launched the Equality Fund, an innovative collaboration designed to deliver new momentum for women’s movements globally.”

Maxine is also a Board Member of MakeWay, “a charitable environmental organization” enabling nature and communities to thrive together for a healthy planet and a just Canadian society.  And, she is involved with the Black Executives Network (BEN/REN), supporting black executives, while helping pave the path for a more equitable diverse, and inclusive public service for all Canadians.

Maxine works tirelessly to promote, develop, and contribute to these social institutions simply because she “wants to make a difference.” She recognizes that because she has been the beneficiary of “many opportunities”, it is “important to give back” in accordance with ‘the message from my parents and the example they have always lived.”

 [MI1]The dept has several Directors General – no hyphen

 [ST2]

 [MI3]Manager Customer Value Management role was at Cda Post

Dave Tulloch was born in Jamaica. He immigrated to Canada in 1970 to pursue post-secondary education. He earned a diploma in electronics engineering technology from Algonquin College, a Bachelor of Admin and Bachelor of Commerce (Hon) from the University of Ottawa, and a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University. He has an extensive career in information technology and in IT consulting with Systemhouse, KPMG, and Oracle Corporation where he retired as a director. Dave taught IT and business courses at CEGEP (Hull) and tutored at the Wake Tech College in North Carolina.  He wrote articles for the Ottawa Spectrum publication that focused on Ottawa’s Visible Minorities community and has written a book documenting the life stories of early Caribbean Immigrants to Ottawa, scheduled for publication later this year. He can be contacted via email: dstulloch@bell.net