We've been hearing the stories from sponsored spouses who are already here, but because the process is taking such a long time, they haven't been able to engage with the labour market.
We know that some spouses are choosing to return to their countries of origin, because they can't afford not to work. We know that health care becomes an issue for some folks, because the cost is prohibitive and they're not permanent residents, so they have no access to provincial health care programs. While these are anecdotal, we need to pay attention to it because it begs the question that if we can do express entry and expect to land folks within six months of invitation, why can't we put the same kinds of resources into inland sponsorship of spouses, into family reunifications?
The Canadian Council for Refugees, for example, has a campaign about family reunification linking it to the express entry platform, which is an excellent idea that at least we should be exploring as a country, if we truly believe that family reunification is a cornerstone of social and economic integration of immigrants.
Yes, the long wait times, the lack of transparency in terms of processes; some of the complaints we hear all the time are that folks are just not clear why it is that their spouse is already here and they are waiting 14, 16, 18, 24 months before they are processed through the system.