Immigration

We live in a time of rising global uncertainty. It is more important than ever that the Canadian immigration system can respond to arising global crises in an expedient and flexible manner. Alarmingly, this is not the case.

Even before major global refugee crises such as the Afghanistan, and Ukrainian crises, IRCC has been struggling with massive backlogs in all the immigration streams. Delayed immigration application is the most common request for assistance at my office, with some applications delayed for years! Behind the delayed applications are separated families, missed opportunities, and in some cases, immigration is a life-and-death situation for people who need to leave dangerous situations.

To start, IRCC should stop the practice of returning applications when there are minor mistakes and missing information and documents that can be easily provided by applicants. IRCC must also end oppressive immigration policies such as the inhumane cap on parent/grandparents’ sponsorship applications, closed work permits for migrant workers, and the unfair treatment of caregivers and domestic workers.

Lack of resources for IRCC is the major root cause of delayed applications. I will continue to advocate for adequate resources for IRCC to process applications in consistently reasonable timeframes and for immigration policies that are more just.

IN THE NEWS: Toronto Star - Available ‘deportation resources’ could quicken family reunification process

Frustrated at the delays, many applicants have taken to social media to voice their frustrations. One of the groups is the Canada Spousal Sponsorship Support Group, which has over 20,000 members.

NDP Immigration Critic Jenny Kwan has called upon the IRCC to prioritize family reunification and create a special temporary resident visa as part of the family reunification process.

IN THE NEWS: Globe & Mail - Critics still worried about immigration backlog after feds pledge $85M

The NDP had called for more resources to be dedicated to the backlog, but the government did not move quickly enough to put those funds in place, she said.

“We were already seeing the backlog delays last year, and as it stands right now the severity of the backlog would take at least three years to catch up to pre-pandemic levels,” Kwan said in an interview.

All immigration streams have been impacted by the delays at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Kwan said, and she’s concerned the money will only be used to process new applications.

IN THE NEWS: Toronto Star - Government’s massive visa backlog leaving lives in limbo

The current processing times for work permit visas at the High Commission of Canada to India is listed at 35 weeks for individuals and a year for spousal visas.
But that does not reflect reality, said Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. She estimates that it will take at least three years to make up for the lost processing times as a result of the pandemic in 2020.

“I am hearing daily from applicants desperately trying to learn why approval for their application is still pending when it is well passed the standard processing, while in other cases people who have applied long after them are much further in the process,” Kwan said in a letter addressed to new Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister Sean Fraser.

“There is also a greater need for transparency in all aspects of immigration. Applicants are struggling to get information on their application as lack of resources at IRCC has resulted in IRCC greatly reducing access to inquiry services,” Kwan states. She also asks for detailed information on the current state of backlogs and anticipated timelines for getting back to regular processing times.

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The Auditor General found the Public Health Agency of Canada does not know whether 75 per cent of air arrivals followed quarantine rules in early 2021. ‘The West Block’ guest host Abigail Bimman is joined by Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman and NDP MP Jenny Kwan to discuss the government’s response and reinstated travel rules due to the Omicron variant.

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“Nurses are overworked and it is hurting them and their patients. When hospitals don’t have enough nurses, wait times increase and surgeries get delayed,” said Kwan. “Meanwhile, there are qualified internationally educated nurses waiting for their applications to be processed. The Liberals need to recognize that they can fix this crisis, rather than being a roadblock. We are demanding that the government adequately fund IRCC so that qualified health care workers can be granted permanent residence.”

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Ms. Kwan, who insisted that the NDP will press the Liberal government hard to move on a myriad of issues starting with seniors who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit during the pandemic and who have now either seen their Guaranteed Income Supplement payments reduced or lost leaving some of them unable to pay rent.

“Housing affordability is a paramount issue—whether it’s someone who is homeless or those trying to get into the market for the first time,” said Ms. Kwan, the NDP’s housing critic.
She explained that the affordability issue touches health care too, where one of her constituents recently told her of being unable to cover the cost of cancer medication—a shining example, in Ms. Kwan’s view, of why her party will continue to press the Liberal government on universal pharmacare.

The Liberals will have an eager and unrelenting ally in the New Democrats to pursue action in addressing “the climate crisis before us,” said Ms. Kwan, a former NDP cabinet minister in British Columbia. “Canada has yet to meet a COP target since Paris in 2015.”

In her opinion, she said Mr. Trudeau also missed an opportunity to advance reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples this year by both vacationing in Tofino, B.C. on the country’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Sept. 30), and later by his government filing an appeal of a Federal Court decision upholding a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling on Indigenous child-welfare compensation, while continuing to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.

In her role as federal NDP critic for immigration, refugees and citizenship, Ms. Kwan has another issue she will hammer home when the House resumes sitting. “Immigration is in complete chaos right now. The backlog for every stream is mind boggling,” she explained.

“There was already a backlog before the pandemic, and with the pandemic, immigration processing was severely debilitated. Amidst all of that, the Liberals decided to call an election on the day [Aug. 15] when there was a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.”

Headline: CBC: Couple calls on new immigration minister to act on backlogged spousal sponsorship files, issue visitor visas

Kwan has also joined calls from family advocacy groups and the Canadian Bar association's immigration branch to remove or update section 179(b), and to provide TRVs to spouses who have been stuck in application processing queues for more than a year.

"Every MP in the country will know exactly what I'm talking about and will know this is a major issue for their constituents in their own riding, so it is in the best interests of the government to take action," said Kwan.

IN THE NEWS: CBC - Couple calls on new immigration minister to act on backlogged spousal sponsorship files, issue visitor visas

"Every MP in the country will know exactly what I'm talking about and will know this is a major issue for their constituents in their own riding, so it is in the best interests of the government to take action," said Kwan.

IN THE NEWS: Toronto Star - Canada faces a staggering immigration backlog

The pandemic has exposed many shortcomings of the immigration process, said MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP’s immigration critic, and officials must cut unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy in these unprecedented times.
One of the things they could do, she said, is to automatically renew immigration applicants’ expired documents.
Requiring people to scramble to update outdated documents during a pandemic may buy Ottawa time, she noted, but it won’t solve the crisis and is going to further agonize immigration applicants.
“To this day, it is a mystery to me why the government has insisted on contacting each individual with an expired or expiring permanent resident visa to see if they still wanted to come to Canada, instead of just automatically renewing it,” Kwan said.
“Why did they do that? Why did they spend all those resources doing that instead of putting it into processing applications? They need to adopt an approach that’s not so rigid.”

IN THE NEWS: Toronto Star - Advocacy group hints at unexplained immigration policy shift

Activists from the Migrant Rights Network (MRN) say a “secretive policy shift” may be brewing at Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) which may explain the unprecedented rate of rejections of permanent residence applications on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds.
Richard Goldman, a lawyer at Montreal City Mission, believes that some policy change may have occurred, but whether this involves the personnel assessing the applications, the training of these personnel or an internal directive is unknown.

“The Humanitarian and Compassionate application system is broken,” says Syed Hussan, who works with the Migrant Rights Network (MRN) secretariat, which organized marches in Montreal and Ottawa this past weekend to demand the government extend residency status to all migrants in order to ensure their equal access to rights. “And as the data we released is showing, it can arbitrarily be changed without oversight or accountability.”