Fraser highlighted how Canada is working to improve services at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) by:
- Hiring up to 1,250 new employees by the end of the fall to increase processing capacity and tackle the backlogs in the short term;
- Modernizing and streamlining IRCC operations to make Canada’s system more sustainable in the long term;
- Welcoming over 300,000 new permanent residents as of August 22;
- Issuing over 349,000 new work permits from January 1 to July 31 this year, compared to approximately 112,000 issued during the same period in 2021;
- Finalizing almost 360,000 study permits between January 1 and July 31, 2022, compared to about 306,000 finalized in the same period in 2021;
- Approving over 216,000 applications for the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel from March 17 to August 24, 2022 for Ukrainians and family members looking to find safety in Canada;
- Introducing application status trackers for citizenship and some permanent residence applicants to have timely information on their files, which will be expanded to more clients in the coming year; and
- Publishing monthly data on the IRCC website to keep Canadians up to date on our progress. Minister said that we will reduce wait times and work hard to attract and retain skilled workers, as we continue to help communities across the country access the talent they need.”
