Another difficult week for the Department of Immigration in Ottawa.
After the story of the Martin-Di Virgilio family, these “perfect” French-speaking immigrants, employees who were refused the extension of their work visa, there was the club of Sunwing!
Part of the carrier’s setbacks during the holidays would be linked to Ottawa’s refusal to grant temporary foreign worker permits to 63 pilots Sunwing relied on. Nothing to help deal with Santa’s “weather bomb.”
It would be tempting to think that the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada machine is beyond repair. And yet, a light appears at the end of the tunnel. A real.
Progress
It’s easy to be indignant at the 2 million files waiting. However, this figure is misleading.
In 2022, no less than 4.8 million files were processed. This is nearly double the previous year.
What does that mean for the real world?
Obtaining a permanent residence, a student visa or a work permit is in the process of being granted within the normal deadlines.
Of course, there will always be exceptions. They will continue to make headlines. But in fact, the staggering delays are being reduced, we are assured.
Even on the Quebec front, things would improve.
While in 2020-2021, no skilled worker application was processed within the normal timeframes, for the next year, Ottawa is confident of getting there within the prescribed 11 months.
Difficult choice
But Minister Sean Fraser’s team is not at the end of its troubles. And I’m not talking here about the great ambitions of the Trudeau government, which wants to attract 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025.
The system looks like a bottomless pit.
As of November 30, 2022, 670,000 study permit applications have been processed. In terms of work permits, the number is around 700,000.
It’s fine to promise that by March these requests will be processed within the 60-day standard. 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 in terms of student visas and work permits, there is no ceiling. It is an invisible sector which universities drink to fill their coffers, and businesses to make up for the shortage of manpower.
Lucrative sectors, of course, but which amplify the significant pressures exerted on the entire system by the great ambitions of the Trudeau government.
Already, voices are being raised in English Canada to worry about the deleterious effects of massive immigration on the scale envisaged by Ottawa. Where to house these permanent and temporary immigrants when there is a housing shortage from coast to coast? How to treat them? Offer them all the services to which they are entitled?
No one dares to use François Legault’s formula, but the idea percolates. Should Canada take less to care for it?