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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 25

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 7, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 25 - Feb/7/22
Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)
  • Feb/7/22 3:02:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with respect to the hon. member and what I would say is a ginned-up question and theatrical performance, our focus throughout this pandemic has been to use the immigration system to continue to meet the needs of the Canadian economy. At a time when our borders were closed to protect the public's health, we pivoted to a strategy that started welcoming more people who were already inside Canada so that our businesses could rely on access to the talent they need to succeed. What is the result? It is that 107% of the jobs that were lost during the pandemic have now been recovered compared with only 82% in the United States. We will continue to leverage immigration to fulfill the needs of our economy, and I hope that member will work with me to achieve that outcome.
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Context: House Hansard - 25 - Feb/7/22
Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)
  • Feb/7/22 3:03:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question is rather timely given that, Monday of last week, I announced details of the $85 million that was set aside in the recent economic and fiscal update to address processing capacity within the department. The money that we are going to be investing is going to improve processing times for work permits, for study permits and for permanent residency cards, improve the timelines for temporary visitors coming, and allow quicker processing of proof of citizenship. New measures are going to be coming online in the months ahead that will allow individual applicants to access information about their files through digital means. The future looks bright when it come to immigration to Canada and—
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Context: House Hansard - 25 - Feb/7/22
Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)
  • Feb/7/22 3:04:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's outrage is manufactured at best. The reality of the situation is that the pandemic caused unprecedented pressures on our immigration system because we were trying to welcome a record number of newcomers at a time when our border was closed to protect the public's health and well-being against the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. By pivoting to an internal strategy to process more people, we were able to resettle more than 400,000 new permanent residents, an all-time record in Canada. Going forward, we are going to continue to make the investments necessary so that newcomers can arrive in Canada and make the kinds of contributions they have been making to our economy and our communities for generations.
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