Mr. Speaker, the latest data available from the RCMP shows that by the end of September, a total of 15,102 individuals have been apprehended following an irregular crossing and have claimed asylum in Canada, with 13,626 occurring in the province of Quebec.
After months and months of my urging the government to take action and make funds available to the RCMP, the CBSA, the IRCC, and the IRB, we learned that during the joint briefing session on asylum crossings, the government had provided IRCC, “No additional dollars. The dollars are with the existing programs.” For the IRB, “There has been no new funding from a year ago.”
When I rose in May to ask my question of the Prime Minister regarding his empty promises around the lack of staffing and resources for the IRB, the IRB's caseload backlog was increasing by 1,000 cases per month. We learned this month that the lack of resources and staffing, combined with the continued influx of asylum seekers to Canada, has caused this backlog to grow by roughly 1,400 cases per month.
The deputy chairperson of the Refugee Protection Division of the IRB was clear. She said, “unless you put more resources to this problem, then it takes longer time to schedule so there will be longer wait times.” When asked what she meant by resources, she said, “It is a dollar issue, and it is a combination, obviously, of members, hearing rooms, and staff.” The deputy chairperson has acknowledged this, the minister has acknowledged this, and the parliamentary secretary has acknowledged this, but still no new funding is being made available and the board member seats remain vacant.
The IRB is key to the Canadian asylum system's integrity. Whether the organization is at arms length from the government or not, it relies on government funding. Government inaction is undermining the system. Last week, the media reported statistics on the irregular crossing asylum claims that has managed to be heard so far, and this result paints a very different picture than what the government has been saying.
There have been 592 claims finalized between March and September, and 408 have been accepted. That is a 69% acceptance rate. That is higher than any asylum claim method in 2016.
The government has continued to say that the United States remains a safe country to claim asylum. At committee, the minister refused to discuss the safe third country agreement in the context of a single claim that I questioned him on that was rejected in the United States and approved here. However, now we know higher than two out of three of these similar cases are being approved.
When will the government provide the resources that the IRB needs to maintain the integrity of our system, and when will it finally recognize what everyone else is seeing? Policy changes and rhetoric in the United States have changed things on the ground. People do not feel safe and are coming to Canada.
When will the government recognize that and suspend the safe third country agreement?