The initiative announced in April by the federal government to provide Ukrainians fleeing the war with free flights to Canada has so far resulted in only 800 people registering for the benefit, a tiny fraction of 10,000 tickets promised.
A first round of registration for these flights paid for with donations of Aeroplan points was launched in June for 500 Ukrainians. Since then, the organization responsible for the logistics of the program, Miles4Migrants, only opened registration to 300 additional people, earlier this week. Of the 500 Ukrainians registered in the first round of 500 seats, 385 were able to book their flights, the charity told The Canadian Press.
Miles4Migrants has indicated that it plans to make 300 new tickets available every two weeks and that it intends to maintain this rate in the short term. Asked to indicate when it intends to open registrations to a greater number of people, the organization did not respond.
“We believe that making 300 tickets available every two weeks will allow us to provide the best experience for passengers, based on our existing resources,” said the organization’s co-founder, Andy Freedman, in a written statement.
“We hope to increase this number in the future based on factors such as the end of the summer travel season, increased flight availability and proper travel documentation for passengers,” he added. .
Asked that only 300 people can register every two weeks rather than 500 in the first round which occurred in June, Miles4Migrants replied that they had revised the number downwards after having “learned a lot about the operational process and the effort required to manage the reservation of flights of (each) individually”.
Asked if the Trudeau government is happy with the rate at which free plane tickets are being made available, the office of Immigration Minister Sean Fraser sidestepped the question.
“(Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) is grateful for this partnership and innovative initiative to support people fleeing war in Ukraine. We look forward to continuing this important work by continuing to welcome some of the world’s most vulnerable,” said Fraser’s press secretary Aidan Strickland.
The minister was unavailable for an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday.
In the eyes of the Conservatives, it is clear that the government has failed to help Ukrainians with this partnership with Air Canada, Miles4Migrants and other charities such as the Shapiro Foundation.
“The Liberal government has not learned from its failures in Afghanistan and continues to leave our Ukrainian allies fleeing violence waiting in limbo for months,” their immigration spokesperson Jasraj Singh wrote. Hallan.
The Bloc spokesperson on these issues, Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, also sees it as “a failure”. He criticizes Ottawa for bragging about this initiative, which it announced “with great fanfare” while assuming no role in the management of the program to ensure its effectiveness. “At some point, you have to take responsibility and you can’t just be in the picture. It takes results. And currently what I see is that there are no results and that there is a lot of image,” commented the MP.
The purpose of the initiative presented in April is to finance, through a fundraising in Aeroplan points and cash, the transport by plane of 10,000 Ukrainians wishing to reach Canada.
Only Ukrainian nationals who already have a permit to stay in Canada, such as under the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (CUATU), are eligible.
AVUCU offers three-year temporary residency in Canada to Ukrainians and their immediate family members. According to the most recent data published by the federal government, 276,338 people have received a residence permit under this program.
Also according to Ottawa statistics, just over 67,600 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada since last January. They were able to make their own way while approximately 900 nationals were able to board three flights chartered by Justin Trudeau’s government.