Another difficult week for Ottawa immigration.
After the story of the Martin-Di Virgilio family, those “perfect” French-speaking immigrants, employees who were denied the extension of their work visas, there was the Sunwing Club!
Some of the airline’s backlash during the holiday would be related to Ottawa’s refusal to issue temporary overseas work permits to 63 pilots Sunwing relied on. Nothing to deal with Santa’s “weather bomb”.
It would be tempting to think that the machinery of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is irreparable. And yet there is light at the end of the tunnel. A real.
progress
It’s easy to get angry at the 2 million files waiting. However, this number is misleading.
In 2022, no fewer than 4.8 million files were processed. That is almost twice as much as in the previous year.
What does this mean for the real world?
Applications for permanent residency, student visas or work permits are currently being granted within the usual time limits.
Of course there will always be exceptions. You will continue to make headlines. But indeed, the amazing delays will be reduced, we are assured.
Even on the Quebec front things would improve.
While no skilled worker application was processed within the normal timelines in 2020-2021, next year Ottawa is confident of receiving it within the required 11 months.
Hard decision
But Secretary Sean Fraser’s team are not at the end of their ropes. And I’m not talking about the grand ambitions of the Trudeau administration to attract 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025.
The system looks like a bottomless pit.
As of November 30, 2022, 670,000 applications for study permits have been processed. In the case of work permits, the number is around 700,000.
It’s okay to promise that these requests will be processed within the 60-day standard by March. The question arises: How many students and temporary workers can Canada accommodate in addition to permanent residents?
Because that’s where the shoe pinches.
Because when it comes to student visas and work permits, there is no upper limit. It’s an invisible sector that universities drink to fill their coffers and corporations to fill the labor shortage.
Lucrative sectors, of course, but adding to the significant pressure that the Trudeau government’s grand ambitions are putting on the whole system.
Concerns are already being voiced in English Canada about the damaging effects of massive immigration on the scale Ottawa is aiming for. Where are these permanent and temporary immigrants to be housed when there is a housing shortage from coast to coast? How do you treat them? Do you offer them all the services they are entitled to?
No one dares use François Legault’s formula, but the idea trickles down. Should Canada care less?
