Mr. Speaker, I am rising today to table a petition on behalf of residents from Kelowna—Lake Country and surrounding region. To summarize, the residents state that due to bureaucratic impediments to passport issuance and unavailable consular services to many Ukrainians, Ukrainians under CUAET cannot apply for their open work permit extension, as many temporary resident statuses are linked to passport validity. As Ukrainians cannot return to Ukraine due to the war, without a passport and without a valid work permit they become undocumented residents without a legal authorization to work or study in Canada.
The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to resolve the situation with work permit extensions for Ukrainians in Canada whose passports have expired or are expiring in 2025 or 2026 and allow displaced Ukrainians who came to Canada under CUAET to continue working in Canada legally for another three years regardless of their Ukrainian passport validity.