Sean Fraser says he knew what he was getting into when he was chosen to be Canada’s next immigration minister.
“Things are at such a tense point as a result of COVID-19 that I see an opportunity to make an extraordinary difference from this particular starting point,” says the Nova Scotia MP.
“There is no shortage of challenges ahead of me.”
Few other federal services have seen as much disruption as the immigration system during the pandemic, with the operation paralyzed and staff working remotely with antiquated infrastructure and travel restricted for newcomers abroad due to border closures.
It has exposed the many problems with immigration operations, from outdated technologies that still relied on paper applications and processing, to administrative red tape built up over the years and a lack of resources to meet insatiable demand. immigration to this country. country.
In his first major media interview since taking office on October 26 from Marco Mendicino, now Public Safety Minister Fraser, a rising star within the Trudeau administration, highlighted some of the priorities that require his Inmediate attention.
Since all countries around the world are trying to reopen their economies at the same time and competing for the same pool of workers, he said Canada must stay competitive in the global search for talent.
Streamlining the system and digitizing the application process will be crucial to boost the immigration system’s throughput and improve the user experience, he added.
“We have a decision to make on whether we are going to increase the overall levels to accommodate the intense demand that we are seeing from people who want to come to Canada,” said Fraser.
“If there is going to be 400,000 people who can come to Canada in a given year and we have 700,000 applicants, it does not take a doctorate in mathematics to understand that this is going to generate a greater accumulation of accumulation. So we have to make strategic decisions about how many people our communities can successfully accommodate. ”
As of July 31, according to the immigration department, more than 561,700 people were in the permanent residence queue and 748,381 had a pending temporary residency application as students, workers or visitors, while the backlog for citizenship was 376,458 people.
Fraser says it does not have a target timeline for how long it will take to eliminate the backlog, but there are already numerous initiatives to achieve that goal, and other changes will be made as well.
“I don’t want to tell you today that in a short period of time, all these problems will be solved. They weren’t made overnight and they won’t be fixed overnight, ”he said.
“I you want to speed up the work that will help eliminate some of these delays. It’s going to make the process less painful for families who are trying to find a new life or reunite with loved ones or find a job to contribute to our economy. “
Fraser said that the digitization of citizenship applications has already been carried out and in the coming months there will be “serious reforms” in the applications for marital reunification.
There could also be legislative changes to remove what Fraser calls “bottlenecks” from the system as new policies are developed.
For example, he said it simply does not make sense to deny entry to a foreigner with a pending family reunification application to be with their spouse or children in Canada because of their intention to stay in the country permanently. The provision of the law has differentiated many families while their applications are in process, sometimes for years.
“It’s easy to get bogged down in a conversation about number of boxes and inventory. But in my role, you won’t be successful if you don’t realize that each of these cases or numbers in the inventory represents a human being, ”said Fraser.
“This will take longer than most people would like, longer than I would like. But if you want to change a system as big as Canada’s immigration regime, get it right and be successful, you have to put in the time. “
Born in Antigonish and raised in Merigomish, a small community in Nova Scotia’s Pictou County, Fraser is one of the few immigration ministers in rural Canada.
Like many young people from small remote communities, he and his five sisters had to move to larger urban centers in search of educational and job opportunities. With a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Francis Xavier University, the 37-year-old went on to study law at Dalhousie University and Leiden University in the Netherlands before working at a large law firm in Calgary.
Many communities have struggled with aging populations and youth emigration, and immigration is a crucial part of the solution, he said.
“When more people around the world come to your community, open businesses, open restaurants, create a more dynamic place to live, you see more Canadians flocking to those communities to have that kind of dynamic culture and experience of life. well, ”said Fraser.
Fraser said that most of his days since his appointment as immigration minister has evolved around the resettlement of Afghan refugees. The Liberal government has pledged to bring 40,000 Afghan newcomers and only 3,500 have so far reached Canada.
“Canadians are right to be frustrated by what is happening in Afghanistan,” he said. “The reality on the ground right now is that we don’t have access like we did in Syria, and that’s the equation that I think a lot of Canadians are trying to do.”
The government’s strategy is to work with partners in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, all fighting to resettle Afghan refugees, to bring Afghans to a permanent home. “Our commitment does not waver,” he said.
Although he was honored by Maclean’s magazine as the “Best Speaker” and a finalist for “Rising Star” in the last government, Fraser said he is just a guy who cares deeply about people.
“I really want to make sure that Canada treats people with a sense of dignity, respect and justice.”
Reference-www.thestar.com