Immigration department has 'more than enough' staff to meet processing goals: PBO

The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government has more than enough staff to process applications for economic immigrants on time.

“Based on our analysis, current staffing levels at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are expected to be more than sufficient to meet the processing time goal for the next five years,” said Yves Giroux, the parliamentary budget officer.

In a report released Tuesday,the PBO analyzed the cost of processing applications for economic immigrants through the express entry system for five fiscal years.

For the 2022-23 fiscal year, the report said the department has 65 per cent more staff than needed to process applications on time.

The federal government’s goal is to process 80 per cent of those applications within six months.

Last year, Canada was grappling with significant immigration backlogs that formed during the pandemic. The federal government announced a hiring blitz to address the backlogs as it faced mounting political pressure over delays.

The PBO said the immigration department refused to share information about resources that would have been needed to meet processing goals in previous years, saying the information is protected by cabinet confidences.

In November, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced a new immigration plan that will see Canada aim to welcome 500,000 immigrants per year by 2025.