”The department’s ability to meet service standards is also affected by the size of the application inventory relative to admission targets. From March 2020 through 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada continued to accept applications to its permanent resident programs. But with office closures and travel restrictions, the volume of applications in its inventory grew. At the start of 2022, the volume of applications in the inventory for the majority of programs we examined already exceeded the number of applications that could be processed to meet admission targets (Exhibit 9.6).”

”Service standards for processing times were not in place for refugee applications, contrary to Treasury Board directives that require any identified service to have a service standard. The department identifies both of the refugee programs we examined as services, but it had no plan to set service standards as required.”　

In the 2021–22 fiscal year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spent approximately $254 million to deliver its permanent resident programs. To support its growing admission targets, address ongoing application backlogs, and speed up processing, the government allocated separate funding in each of the following years:
• $62 million over 5 years starting in the 2020–21 fiscal year and $15 million ongoing
• $183 million over 5 years starting in the 2021–22 fiscal year and $36 million ongoing
• $430 million over 5 years starting in the 2022–23 fiscal year and $101 million ongoing
In addition, in the 2022–23 fiscal year, the government allocated another $28 million to reduce application backlogs and processing times.

”We also found that the age of backlogged applications increased across all programs, indicating that the department finalized many newer applications over older ones. For example, in the Provincial Nominee program (Express Entry), the age of applications remaining in the backlog had increased from 12 to 20 months, while in the Sponsored Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada Program, the age rose from 27 to 47 months.”

We also found that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not consistently process applications on a first-in-first-out basis contrary to its operating principle. In 2022, newer applications were finalized ahead of older ones in all 8 programs we examined. For example, in the family class, more than 21,000 applications were finalized within 6 months of being received, ahead of at least 25,000 older applications that remained in the inventory at the end of the year. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s own analysis also found that the lack of adherence to this principle occurred across programs, and it identified operational pressure to finalize large volumes of applications to meet the Immigration Levels Plan as a key contributing factor.

Its Anti-Racism Strategy 2.0 (2021–2024) outlined its commitment to identify and address differential outcomes for applicants, including the use of racebased and ethnocultural information to assess disparities in processing times.”

We also found that the department did not track or analyze application processing times or backlogs by country of citizenship. It used a gender-based analysis plus assessment to understand the gender composition of new admissions, but this analysis did not look for differential outcomes in processing times on the basis of gender or other intersecting identity factors, such as race or citizenship or country of residence.

In 2016, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
announced its transition to capacity-based processing—whereby
application workloads would be moved according to available capacity
across its offices. The department identified this change as key to
alleviating excess demand on some offices, decreasing regional
disparities in processing times, and reducing backlogs. ”We found that the department did not transition to capacity-based processing and continued to assign workloads to offices based on application volumes in their assigned geographical region, without regard to their available capacity to process these applications. As a result, regional backlogs continued to accumulate in the overseas family and refugee classes in some offices with limited capacity.”

In addition, we found fundamental gaps in the department’s
information about the processing capacity within its offices: The
department did not know whether these offices had the resources they
needed to process the volumes of applications assigned to them. In
our opinion, the department cannot move to effective capacity-based
processing without reliable information on where capacity exists. At
the time of our audit, the department was still exploring options to track
capacity by office to better support timely processing. It expected to
begin this tracking in 2026—10 years after the department said that it had
shifted to capacity-based processing.

”We also found that applicants from certain countries of citizenship were directed to manual processing by the tool at higher rates and experienced longer than average processing times. For example, almost all applications from individuals with Haitian citizenship were routed to manual processing, and applicants waited twice as long for a final decision. At the same time, applications from other countries of citizenship, including India and South Korea, received automated eligibility decisions at higher rates and experienced faster than average processing times. ”

We found that applications that received an automated eligibility decision were finalized, on average, about 2 months faster than those that did not (Exhibit 9.9). The department was aware that, in order to meet increased admission targets, applications automatically deemed eligible by the tool were being finalized more quickly while those that were manually processed for eligibility were being left behind. However, it did not have a plan to reduce this differential impact to the extent possible.

Many lines of business are now back or close to being back to service standards. As of September 2023, the department has processed over 80% of federal high-skilled applications within service standards that were received since July 2022. As well, more than 80% of spouses, partners and children (except for Quebec) applications received since April 2022 have been processed within service standards. We are also committed to monitoring and evaluating our use of technology to help process applications.”

I am optimistic, considering the progress made by IRCC despite all the challenges it faced over the past few years. I want to recognize the dedication of IRCC’s employees, whose efforts are a crucial component of application processing. The Office of the Auditor General’s report is a good reminder that we have the responsibility to deliver on our promises and continue to ensure Canada is a welcoming and inclusive destination for people seeking to build a new life.