Canada promises to open the floodgates to welcoming Ukrainians fleeing war by facilitating access to temporary visas and offering a fast track to family reunification for those who already have relatives in the country, officials said. Trudeau government ministers on Thursday.
The federal government is therefore not entirely lifting the visa requirement for Ukrainians, as the opposition parties were urging. This would take too long to put in place, “between 12 and 14 weeks”, according to the Minister responsible for Immigration, Sean Fraser, in addition to risking that fighters for the Russian regime fall through the cracks, he says .
The process will be comparable to “filling out a simple form,” Fraser said Thursday. Applicants will also be required to provide biometric data. The equipment needed to retrieve this information has already been deployed in the region since last month, according to the minister. The accelerated visa access procedure will thus be accessible in two weeks, that is to say in mid-March.
“We are removing as many administrative barriers as possible, to make access to the program easier and the process faster,” explained Sean Fraser. There will be no Labor Market Impact Assessment, […] no language requirements. You will be able to work and study as soon as you arrive with this program. »
In the meantime, requests from Ukrainians will always be given priority, promises the minister, as has been the case since January 19. 6,131 Ukrainians had already arrived in Canada since that date, according to Wednesday’s data.
All the opposition parties in Ottawa were asking to drop the visa requirement for Ukrainians. A report by the Standing Committee on National Defense already recommended in 2017 “a plan to allow Ukrainians to travel to Canada without visas”.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland also announced that her government will impose 35% tariffs on its imports from Russia and Belarus. Canada would thus become the first country to withdraw these countries from the “most favored nation” clause of the World Trade Organization.
Finally, Ottawa will send even more weapons to Ukraine: some 4,500 rocket launchers and 7,500 hand grenades, in addition to financial assistance of one million dollars for the purchase of satellite imagery allowing them to follow tracking the Russian army.
More details will follow.