Connecting with Calgary’s Cultural Communities
In August, Stephanie had the chance to meet with a wide range of members from Calgary’s cultural community. She met with various organizations, associations, and community leaders from both our riding of Calgary Midnapore and the city itself.
Thank you to the: Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Calgary Branch, United Calgary Chinese Association, Haitian Association of Calgary, Nigerian Association of Calgary, Indian Society of Calgary, Venezuelan Canadian Association of Calgary, Hindu community leaders in Calgary Midnapore and Ruth’s House for taking the time to meet and share your firsthand knowledge and experiences with Stephanie.
One recurring concern that Stephanie heard from many of these communities was Canada’s immigration system and the incredible backlogs we are continuously seeing with this department. After eight years of Justin Trudeau, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) – the federal department responsible for immigration – has accumulated a backlog of over 844 thousand applicants (Aug. 31, 2023). This means 844,000 individuals and families are stuck — stuck waiting for an answer to find out if their mother and father can come to Canada to meet their grandchild or attend their child’s wedding. In fact, in Nigeria today it would take over 500 days to simply receive an answer from IRCC on this topic! Worse, our office isn’t even able to intervene on a constituent’s behalf until this 500+ day process has finished unless it is a case of life or death, serious medical issues or one that relates to work.
Not only does this broken immigration system cause outrageous delays for individuals with families outside of Canada but as well for individuals applying for Canadian Citizenship itself. Right now, there are countless examples of Canadian Permanent Resident’s (PR) that have submitted their applications for citizenship yet waited so long to receive a response from IRCC that their PR card itself has expired – making it so even in case of an emergency, they are not able to travel to their home country.
This should not happen, and a common sense Conservative government will fix this system.
Our office is available to help constituents navigate the IRCC system and intervene on your behalf when we are able. If you are struggling with an immigration related question, you can contact our Case Manager, Sarah by emailing Stephanie.Kusie.C1A@parl.gc.ca.