Thank you for the invitation to appear today.
My name is Stéfanie Morris. I'm an immigration and refugee lawyer with Community Legal Services of Ottawa, which is a legal clinic aimed at addressing access to justice issues for low-income residents. I appear today in my individual capacity to discuss major issues faced by refugees waiting to be reunited with their families.
In the fall of 2017, I was part of a research team that conducted interviews with refugees resettled by the Canadian government and by sponsor groups in the aftermath of the Syrian refugee crisis. One of our key findings was that resettled refugees identified separation from family members, including extended family members, as a primary driver of poor physical and mental health, financial instability and stalled social integration. Conversely, reunification is a powerful tool to foster refugee self-sufficiency.
The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act states that one of its primary objectives is this:
to support the self-sufficiency and the social and economic well-being of refugees by facilitating reunification with their family members in Canada
Unfortunately, Canada's current immigration system increasingly prioritizes economic immigration, sometimes seemingly at the expense of its family reunification objectives. Key examples of this include that processing times exceed three years for reuniting protected persons with their dependent family members and that programs often used to reunite family members are currently closed, including the groups of five and community sponsorship streams for the private sponsorship of refugees program, and have been since November 2024.
I'll start by addressing family reunification for protected persons in Canada.
When a person obtains status as a protected person in Canada, they are entitled to apply for permanent residence and include their dependent family members in their application. In recent years, protected persons have faced average processing times exceeding two years, simply to be granted permanent residence themselves. Then they wait, sometimes an additional two or more years, for their spouse and/or children to join them in Canada.
The delays in family reunification are not merely about processing capacity. They are a direct consequence of quotas set in Canada's immigration levels plan. In the most recent levels plan, the government announced permanent resident targets of only 20,000 spaces annually for protected persons and their dependents, despite an existing backlog of what I calculate to be more than 250,000 applicants. The government is effectively planning for these families to remain separated for years by setting quotas far below the actual number of applicants.
I echo the call of civil society organizations for protected persons to be removed from the quotas set in the immigration levels plan and to be granted automatic permanent residence as soon as they become protected persons. This would eliminate redundant applications and would fulfill the minister's mandate to prioritize family reunification. The dependents of protected persons should also be removed from these quotas and should be issued temporary resident permits so that they can come to Canada while they await the processing of their PR applications.
I also want to address family reunification for privately sponsored refugees in Canada. Private sponsorship is a time-honoured Canadian tradition in which communities pull together to provide refugees with full financial and emotional support during their first 12 months in Canada. In November 2024, IRCC suddenly announced a pause on community sponsorship, which has been extended until the end of 2026. Many fear the closure will be further extended.
In addition, the government has repeatedly decreased quotas under the private sponsorship category. Just three years ago, Canada committed to resettling 28,000 privately sponsored refugees in 2026, this year. The newest quota has been reduced to 16,000 for this year, representing a 42% decrease in privately sponsored refugees in 2026.
The demand for private sponsorships shows that Canadians are willing and able to welcome refugees by covering the full costs and by providing full support during refugees' first year in Canada. Why reduce quotas for a program whose costs are voluntarily borne by Canadians?
Outside of exceptional moments of crisis and public interest, the private sponsorship program is often used as a family reunification tool. It is often the only way for resettled refugees to reunite with their extended family members, who they long to be with.
I ask that family reunification be prioritized in your study of the immigration system. Prolonged family separation has long-term economic and social implications for our country and our communities. I would be happy to speak further about my research on this topic.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your questions.