"Madam Speaker, Canada's immigration backlog now exceeds two million people, with significant backlogs in every stream. The minister said he was going to fix it, but the backlog is increasing, not decreasing. Afghans and Ukraine nationals in urgent need to get to safety are mired in red tape. Families are separated. Lives are put on hold. For the caregivers stream, processing time is not even available. Passport offices are jammed: My constituents are having to camp overnight to get their passports.
Will the minister stop using COVID as an excuse for the growing backlog, and do his job to fix this broken immigration system?"
Marie-France Lalonde (Liberal) Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration
"Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her advocacy on this. Last year, we welcomed more than 405,000 new permanent residents: the greatest number of newcomers in a year in Canadian history. In the first quarter of this year, we hit even more records, processing over 157,000 permanent residence applications and issuing more than 100,000 work permits, and we are processing over 10,000 study permits per week as we are further boosting the processing capacity at IRCC with an investment of—"
