Canada’s immigration system is backlogged. Will PSAC strike make it worse? – National | 24CA News
The ongoing federal employees’ strike might have a “severe” influence on Canada’s immigration system, Ottawa has warned, as issues mounts over how lengthy the labour dispute may final.
Before the strike kicked off Wednesday, Canada was already dealing with a backlog of immigration softwares and visa delays after greater than three years of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, the labour disruption will have an impact on the gains that we have made and the work that we’ve been doing to address some of these backlogs in our inventories since the pandemic,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser mentioned at a news convention in Ottawa Wednesday.
Prior to the strike many immigration companies had returned to pre-pandemic service requirements and “we were getting very close to restoring service standards across all of our lines of business,” mentioned Fraser.
At any given time it’s common for the immigration division to be managing a couple of million purposes, mentioned Fraser, however the strike places the company at a “significantly reduced capacity.”
“I do count on that the influence will probably be extreme relying on the size of any work stoppage, “ Fraser informed reporters.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has warned to count on delays in processing purposes, in-person appointments, communication with IRCC, citizenship occasion and passport companies.
But individuals ought to nonetheless have the ability to submit their on-line and mailed purposes to IRCC, entry their on-line accounts, in addition to some emergency companies, the company says on its web site.
Other companies provided by non-governmental organizations will nonetheless be provided, comparable to health-care companies in Canada, settlement and resettlement companies and visa purposes centres outdoors of the nation.
Warren Creates, an immigration lawyer in Ottawa, mentioned the present labour disruption threatens to erode “the lack of confidence and trust” that has plagued Canada’s immigration system lately.
“We’re all waiting to get approvals for our employer clients, for the people that want to be reunited with their family members, the people that want to come here,” he informed Global News in an interview.
“They’re desperate every day. They want answers. And this is just a step backwards, unfortunately.”
Over the previous yr, the IRCC has been making an attempt to play catch up and cut back wait instances with further funding, hiring new processing workers, digitizing purposes and reallocating work amongst workplaces all over the world.
Last yr, the battle in Ukraine added to IRCC’s stock backlog, because the federal authorities introduced two particular applications to assist Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion.
Since January 2022, 208,793 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada, together with CUAET candidates and returning Canadian everlasting residents, in line with IRCC’s newest figures, as of April 9.
The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program (CUAET), which expedites visas and momentary residency permits for Ukrainians and their households, will stay in impact till July 15.
Since settlement and referral organizations are non-governmental, however federally funded, CUAET shoppers will proceed to entry companies throughout the strike interval, the IRCC says.
“Government-assisted refugees will continue to receive income support payments and we’re going to continue to provide temporary accommodations for vulnerable groups, including those, for example, who’ve recently fled the war in Ukraine,” mentioned Fraser.
Canada set a brand new immigration report final yr with greater than 430,000 everlasting residents arriving within the nation.
In November, the federal authorities introduced its 2023-25 immigration plan, with the goal of welcoming 1.45 million new immigrants over the subsequent three years.
— With information from Global’s David Baxter
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
