QUESTION PERIOD — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Immigration Processing Backlog
October 26, 2023
My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, my question has to do with the ninth report of the Auditor General of Canada regarding the backlog of permanent residency applications at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or the IRCC.
The IRCC currently has about 2,600 employees, but the target for the number of cases that must be processed has increased by 50% from 2018 to 2023, going from 310,000 to 465,000 cases. If the government intends to increase the target to 500,000, will it also hire more people to ensure more humane working conditions for the staff processing these cases?
Thank you for the question. The Government of Canada is doing everything it can to reduce wait times, eliminate processing backlogs and welcome more newcomers to Canada.
I am told that the government processed approximately 5.2 million applications, twice as many as the year before, and was able to restore the 60-day service standard for new study permit applications. That was made possible thanks to the digitization of applications, the hiring of additional staff and the streamlining of the application process.
In the same report by the Auditor General, we learned that applications from people coming from Haiti are almost automatically processed manually, which unduly increases processing times.
Could we simplify the immigration process in Canada to keep those processing times from becoming the equivalent of a death sentence for some asylum seekers?
There is a migrant crisis around the world, including in Canada. The government streamlined the asylum claim process and increased its processing capacity. It has done a lot to tackle this challenge. I understand that the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Canada Border Services Agency are implementing innovative measures to streamline the process and deal with pending applications as quickly as possible.
