Minister Fraser Co-Chaired the Members of Task Force to Address Application Backlogs
On August 29, Ministers Gould, Alghabra and Fraser co-chaired the members of task force to address the service delivery issues, which are affecting Canadians.
The task force has been meeting on a regular basis for identifying key action areas, and outlining short--term and long-term solutions for serving Canadians in a better way.
On 29th August, task force discussed the underlying reasons related to pandemic for the noteworthy surges in demand for key government services, like travel. there has been an unprecedented rise in demand for such services, and have largely contributed to creating unwanted delays not only for Canadians, but for other nationals as well.
On this matter, minister Fraser also highlighted how Canadian government is working towards strengthening its immigration system, reducing application backlogs, focusing on addressing labour market shortages, improving applicant experience and reuniting families.
The measures includes the following:
- Recruiting approximately 1,250 new employees to increase application processing capacity and manage application backlogs
- Modernizing and streamlining IRCC's operations to bring more long-term sustainability
- Inviting more than 300,000 newcomers as permanent residents by August 22 and reach another milestone
- Issuing more than 349,000 new work permits this year
- Finalizing about 360,000 study permits this year
- Approving more than 216,000 applications for the CUAET (Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel) between March 17 - August 24, 2022 for Ukrainians and their family members
- Introducing new application status trackers for all the citizenship applicants and a few PR applicants to get timely information
- Publishing monthly data on IRCC to keep applicants up to date on application progress
