Ongoing immigration processing delays leave many in limbo

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is an unacceptable, disgraceful and dysfunctional mess that is not serving Canada or Canadians.

A backlog of 468,000 citizenship applications is unforgivable. Canadians and permanent residents should be taken care of immediately. We can’t help others until we can take care of ourselves.

Trudeau’s claims that he intends to ramp up immigration are mired in a dysfunctional swamp. This government is oblivious to reality.

IRCC is beyond rescue. Every employee works with hundreds of outstanding applications, which is demoralizing. No matter how hard she works, there is no relief in sight. The workload prevents any satisfaction for work well done. The result is a workforce with no incentive to reduce a backlog it knows cannot diminish. New applications arrive faster than old applications can be processed. The department is dead in the water and sinking rapidly.

This is a domestic crisis ignored by the government.

COVID is not to blame. Incapable management is. Failure to recognize that changes are required to rebuild a functional workforce is unacceptable. All management personnel from the Deputy Ministers down through middle management must be replaced with competent personnel. The department systems need to be rebuilt to function as practical tools for employees rather than impediments.

Rebuilding the IRCC is only a start. Our government has to put in place the support systems to ensure a clear path to integration into our society and citizenship. We can’t continue to dump off immigrants and refugees in major cities and leave them to flounder their way to integration. Too often, that leads to estrangement rather than patriotism.

Trudeau’s penchant for rushing to the international stage promising to save the world from some hobgoblin is ridiculous when he cannot ensure that critical elements of his government are functional.

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Pratyush Dayal of CBC News reports 1.8 million applications are yet to be processed. Read his FULL REPORT.