44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 27, 2022 10:00AM
- Sep/27/22 2:28:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we believe in the strength of our asylum and immigration systems. We are working closely with stakeholders on the border situation.
We are working with our U.S. counterparts on issues related to our shared border, including the safe third country agreement. We will always work closely with all of our partners.
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- Sep/27/22 2:30:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that we believe in the strength of our asylum and immigration systems, and that we are working with our U.S. counterparts on all issues related to our shared border, including the safe third country agreement.
I want to say to our colleagues in the Bloc that we can and must work together on immigration because it is an economic issue for Quebec and all of Canada.
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- Sep/27/22 3:09:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, the Liberals have falsely claimed that the immigration system is both fair and delivering value for money. I think that the 2.4 million people languishing in the longest immigration backlog in Canadian history will be enraged by these talking points. This includes the family of Ayad, a 12-year-old torture survivor who is currently huddled alone in a refugee camp.
Will the Liberals explain to Ayad 's family how spending half a million dollars to make it easier for people to skip the line in upstate New York at Roxham Road is both fair and delivering value for money?
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- Sep/27/22 3:10:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about some of the investments we are making. We have taken measures to reduce the wait time. We are doing more to tackle the backlog in the short term, while making our system more sustainable in the long term. We are doing this by hiring 1,250 more staff members.
We understand the value of immigration and we will continue to be there in protecting our immigration system, while continuing to invest to make sure people who can come to Canada come as quickly as possible.
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- Sep/27/22 6:29:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on April 28 I asked the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship how I should respond to constituents who are experiencing severe delays in processing immigration applications and the pause on express entry draws. People have had to put their lives and careers on hold as they wait for rescue from IRCC purgatory.
The government, four months after my question, was finally embarrassed enough to take some action to address the then over three million backlog, and the minister announced a 10-point plan on August 24, but sadly it was just more smoke and mirrors.
It has been over a month now since the plan was announced, and let us look at the numbers. As of the end of July, over 50%, over half of applications in IRCC’s inventory were considered backlogged. Let us put that percentage into context: There are 2.4 million total applications in all IRCC inventories, with 1.3 million cases exceeding the IRCC's own service standards. Is this what amounts to progress?
Moreover, the government has set a 20% backlog target. This is no game. The government is dealing with people’s lives and its continued failure has real consequences for the highly skilled foreign workers we need, who are being left in limbo. The government's continued failure is hurting our nation’s businesses as we face a labour shortage, and it has real financial and business implications for our nation’s economic prosperity.
If the government thinks it is worthy of a gold star for doing its job of processing applications while also accepting a 20% backlog, its members are simply delusional. Failing at 20% is still failure. Worst of all, the government is projected to not even meet its own target of failing at 20%.
Citizenship applications are projected to fall shy of the target, with a 25% backlog by December of this year. Temporary resident applications will continue to experience the highest level of backlogs by year end, and work permits, in particular, will face even more severe backlogs. The projected backlog for these applications is listed at 60% by December, which is an over 30% increase from current levels. The government has been failing Canadians and immigrants. It moved the goalposts in the hopes of making it appear like it was making progress, and is even failing to meet its new targets of only failing at 20%.
Given this, can the parliamentary secretary provide the millions who are waiting some glimmer of hope of their applications being processed in their lifetime? Let us not forget either the quagmire of Afghani refugees or indeed the Ukrainians. They have yet to see the government acting in a timely fashion to bring in the numbers that it promised to bring in. Some observers, looking at all of this information, would strongly suggest that the minister not take up archery as a hobby, because it is clear he cannot hit any target.
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- Sep/27/22 6:33:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy about the questions, because I hope they are going to help my hon. colleague to maybe answer some of his constituents and give me the chance to talk here about the accomplishments the government has achieved to strengthen and expand our immigration and refugee system.
As I hope the member for Spadina—Fort York is aware, the pandemic presented challenges to our immigration program that had not been seen before. Actually, the government has taken action to reduce wait times, expand online services and provide better information to clients on their applications, all to provide better services to Canadians. Our plan is working: Canada was able to achieve record-setting admissions of permanent residents.
In 2021, we set a record, bringing in more than 405,000 new permanent residents. Our goal for 2022 is to bring in 431,000 permanent residents, and we are on track to reach that goal, with about 309,000 admissions between January 1 and August 31. Never before have we brought in that many people that fast.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, also issued more than 199,000 work permits in 2021. This year, we issued over 349,000 work permits between January 1 and July 31, compared to approximately 112,000 permits issued during the same period last year. That includes over 220,000 open work permits. Every day, these work permits enable up to 1,700 new people to come work in Canada and contribute to our economic growth.
Canada is also a destination of choice for foreign students. In 2021, IRCC finalized nearly 560,000 applications for study permits, breaking the previous record set in 2019 by 31%. This year, IRCC is on track to break that record too, having finalized nearly 452,000 study permits between January 1 and August 31, 2022, compared to 367,000 permits during the same period in 2021. That is a 23% increase.
We have also taken actions to support those already here. We have extended post-graduation work permits for recent international graduates. Those whose permits have already expired are eligible for an additional open-work permit of 18 months.
The government has invested to improve processing. By the end of this year, we will have added up to 1,250 new staff to increase processing capacity. Also, some of our new system improvements are already increasing efficiency, with more coming to make processes more sustainable in the long term. The government is committed to providing regular progress on reducing inventories and delays. This is why IRCC publishes monthly updates on its website.
This all demonstrates that our immigration system is returning to its previous activity and will again achieve Canada's proud standard of welcoming immigrants and refugees.
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- Sep/27/22 6:37:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, here we go again. It is more smoke and mirrors. When is the government going to stop blaming the pandemic? It did all of these actions that the parliamentary secretary mentioned, yet we still have 2,583,827 people in the backlog as of the end of August. The proof is in the pudding and this pudding is 20% bad, or at least that we know of, because we know there are higher backlogs in other streams. We are not getting the full story and the government is not doing a full job. We are clearly headed for a backlog iceberg and the department is the Titanic.
When are we going to see a government capable of conducting an immigration system for this country, instead of a litany of failures, excuses and band-aid solutions?
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- Sep/27/22 6:38:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has been working hard to improve processing times for all applications since the beginning of the pandemic.
We have hired more staff and implemented new systems to process applications more quickly. We will have hired 1,250 people by the end of the year to process more applications for temporary and permanent residence.
We are well on our way to reaching our historic immigration levels again this year with approximately 309,200 admissions from January to August 31, a number reached faster than any previous year. This year, we have already issued over 350,000 new work permits, meaning that up to 1,700 new people are able to come to work in Canada every day and help grow our economy.
We believe that, by hiring more staff and modernizing our immigration system, we can get back to our processing service standards by the end of this year.
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