Nearly 60,000 applications have been put in processing limbo due to mismanagement, according to a recent Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request.
The ATIP request (a legal recourse to request information from government organizations)—submitted by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) revealed that 779 inactive Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officers had been assigned (59,456) pending and re-opened applications for processing.
Active cases were assigned to inactive officers spanning Canadian airports, border ports, and processing centres; as well as officers in consulates in India, the U.S., the Philippines, Brazil, and more.
At this time, it is unclear why IRCC has been assigning applications to inactive users; however, according to CBC, IRCC was unable to remove these inactive users from the GCMS, as traceability would be lost.
Changes to come?
In the wake of increasing scrutiny, and a continued need to welcome newcomers into Canada; IRCC has tried to take measures to combat a huge backlog of applications. The department has hired 1,250 more employees and committed to using more advanced data analytics to hasten application processing speed; while investing millions of dollars to develop a new department-wide digital system that would eventually replace the GCMS by 2023.
Application backlogs have also decreased in recent months, standing at 2.2 million people applicants, as of December 9th, 2022.
