Ottawa to propose new asylum rules
As part of its 2024 budget, the federal government is moving ahead with changes to Canada’s asylum claim system, which could speed up the deportation process. Canada has a record number of asylum seekers and a ballooning backlog of applications. Mackenzie Gray looks at what the changes are and what they could mean. Mackenzie. Well, Donna, buried deep in the federal budgets, legislation or 22 pages worth of changes to Canada’s asylum system that the Liberals say will be big. The budget promises to simplify and streamline the asylum claims process in support of faster decisions and quicker removals. They are mostly public safety related. They are efficiencies within the system that I think we can take a look at. The efficiencies include increased powers to help the Canada Border Services Agency and force removals making it harder for denied refugee claimants to access other immigration streams. And simplify the process for minors to apply, but overall only small changes. I don’t see anything revolutionary in here that’s all of a sudden overnight going to clear the backlog. However, anything that you can do to make any step of the million steps of the process a little bit faster will have the end result of speeding up the system. A system that’s currently under major pressure. For the first three months of 2024, asylum claims are up 62% from the previous year with over 46,000 new claims. The Immigration and Refugee Board backlog is now at a record 186,000 applicants, well over what they can handle. The tribunal has admitted publicly they only have the capacity of dealing with 50,000 a year. They’re resourced for that. The federal budget does promise more cash to address the backlog 750,000,000 / 5 years, but if that doesn’t help fix the system, the former immigration minister believes the Canadian consensus that immigration is a positive could be under threat. I’m really worried about the last few months. It was surprising for me. To see the backlog grow, it’s going to take a big effort to get it back under control, despite new money and legislative changes the current immigration Minister. Was unwilling to put a target for how long asylum claims should take to process Donna, but right now, lawyers say. It can take up to three years before claims decided. All right, McKenzie in Ottawa. Thanks.