(OTTAWA) Ukrainians who want to get a flight to Canada funded by donations of Aeroplan points will be able to register online Friday, but they may have to rush as the process will initially only be open for the distribution of 500 plane tickets.
Updated yesterday at 7:50 p.m.
That’s just a tiny fraction — a 20e — the ultimate goal of an initiative announced in April by the Trudeau government, in partnership with Air Canada and charities such as Miles4Migrants. The project, launched by collecting donations of cash and points, aims to provide free air travel to 10,000 people who fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, on its website, Miles4Migrants, an organization established in the United States which manages the logistics, specifies that registration starting Friday at 5 p.m., Eastern European time, is only valid for a “first round” of tickets available “on a first-come, first-served basis”.
“This first round of registrations will open (for) the first 500 tickets. If you are requesting to travel as a family, each person counts as a separate ticket. This means that a family of four will count as 4 of the 500 tickets,” it read.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser was in no way worried about the pace of things when asked about it Thursday in the halls of parliament in Ottawa.
“I believe that the result will be very successful,” he enthused, showing no concern about achieving the final goal. He said his understanding is that Mile4Migrants is starting with a 500 tranche to ensure his brand new program is running smoothly.
“Miles4Migrants has never operated on such a large scale before. (They are) amazing organization and initiative,” he said.
However, this is not what the organization in question maintained during an interview granted to The Canadian Press in May. “We recently worked with the US government to airlift over 20,000 Afghans […] and so we have experience at that scale,” said one of its co-founders, Andy Freedman.
At that time, the organization admitted to facing a “very slight delay” in launching its program in order to allow Ukrainians wishing to benefit from subsidized flights to register. Initially, Mile4Migrants anticipated the first departures by plane to Canada “as soon as May”.
Now that registration will begin on Friday, the organization reminds that only Ukrainian nationals who already have a residence permit in Canada, such as under the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (AVUCU), are eligible.
Miles4Migrants specifies on its webpage that another organisation, its “charity coordinating partner” MOSAIC, will verify the validity of each registration.
“By June 17, MOSAIC will contact you to confirm any information as part of the eligibility review,” we wrote to the attention of the main interested parties.
According to the most recent data released by the federal government, 127,153 AVUCU applications have been approved. The program provides temporary three-year residency in Canada to Ukrainians and their immediate family members.
Canadians were asked on April 20 to donate Aeroplan points and cash to fund the flights. According to an Air Canada web page, the collection has since raised 147 million points. The airline itself donated 100 million points.
No further charter flights announced
Along with its partnership with Miles4Migrants, Ottawa brought in about 900 Ukrainians through three charter flights. The Trudeau government has not announced if others will follow and when.
Asked to provide clarification on Thursday, Minister Fraser did not close the door to more federal charter flights, but praised the flexibility of commercial flights for Ukrainians who find themselves in different places in Europe, such as in Poland. and in Germany.
“What we’re seeing right now, from our federal perspective, is that it’s helped to have charter flights. (But) it’s actually more effective if you can push for commercial (flight) opportunities, especially through the Miles4Migrants initiative,” he replied.
The Bloc Québécois is calling for additional charter flights. “Rendered as it is, I think the government has failed in its desire to help Ukrainians set foot on Canadian soil,” said Bloc immigration spokesperson Alexis Brunelle. -Duceppe.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has also indicated in the past that the flights that have been chartered are insufficient in its eyes. “We should do more to support countries like Poland that help millions of Ukrainians,” Deputy Chief Alexandre Boulerice said in writing on Thursday.
For its part, Miles4Migrants mentions on its website that “additional tickets will be made available at a later date”.
For the Conservatives, it is clear that the government should not have turned to such a partnership which, according to them, comes too late.
“While it is admirable that so many Canadians have stepped up and donated to this program, the government should have taken the lead early in the conflict and not relied on a private program long after the facts,” their immigration spokesperson, Jasraj Singh Hallan, said in an email.
Mr. Boulerice also maintained that the federal government should have launched its own program, although he stressed that the NDP sees a good eye on the Miles4Migrants initiative.
All major opposition parties are calling for the suspension of all visa requirements for Ukrainians fleeing the war, a long-standing demand that has been dismissed by the Liberals.