In January, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser pledged to eliminate delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of the year. That was before Canada launched a major response to the refugee crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, allowing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and their families to come to Canada temporarily to escape the war. Those efforts, combined with updates on the government’s aging technology, have led to longer waits for people who want to come to Canada, Fraser said. Since the end of July, about 1.3 million immigration applications in the system have taken longer to process than the government’s service standards dictate. This is about 54 percent of all pending applications in the system. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Fraser said the department may need a few more months before all immigration flows return to normal processing times. “Based on what we’re looking at right now, we shouldn’t be too far off from predicting that we’ll be back to service standards for work and study permits by the end of this year, and I expect within a few months that visitor visas will be back to service standards,” Fraser said. That rules out any new international disasters, he said.
New hiring spree to deal with backlogs
While dealing with backlogs and humanitarian crises, Canada’s immigration system is also creating unprecedented demand, Fraser said. As of July 31, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had issued more than 349,000 new work permits so far this year, compared to 199,000 in all of 2021. A Canadian flag flies at the CD Howe Building in downtown Ottawa on January 21, 2022. The building houses Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. (Francis Ferland/CBC) At a press conference on Wednesday, Fraser announced that the Department of Immigration is on a hiring spree to bring in 1,250 new employees by the end of the fall to deal with huge application backlogs and increased demand. Fraser said the new hires have so far allowed the government to roll back waits for new applicants to the express permanent residence program, which is the main financial stream for new permanent residents in Canada. “In the coming weeks and months there will be a number of new measures we will announce that will help get workers here faster, make it easier for families to reunite with their loved ones and keep us accountable by being transparent Fraser said at the press conference outside the Vancouver Convention Centre. The delays are a growing concern shortly after the pandemic began, when health restrictions made border crossings more difficult and immigration slowed significantly. Late last year, the government committed $85 million to reduce waiting times. Another $187.3 million was allocated over the next five years in the 2022 budget. In June, the prime minister announced that ministers would form a task force to tackle growing backlogs for immigration applications and other government services.
