Feds rush to get 32,000 asylum seekers work permits, health care

More than 32,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Canada so far this year, and roughly 80 staff from the immigration department have been reassigned to help with the influx of irregular border crossers in Quebec, a joint House of Commons committee heard Thursday.

On average, $15,000 to $20,000 is spent by different levels of government on each asylum claimant, according to Michael MacDonald, director general of the operations sector of the Citizenship and Immigration department, though “it very much does vary.”

MacDonald and other officials from the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency and the immigration department delivered a briefing on asylum seekers Thursday to the House of Commons committees on public safety and immigration.

Between January and August, 13,211 asylum seekers entered Canada through irregular border crossings, the vast majority in Quebec.

The 32,000 total asylum seekers who have arrived in Canada this year represent “a fairly significant increase” over last year, when the total for the year was just under 24,000, MacDonald said.

Still, these numbers aren’t unheard of. In 2009, he explained, Canada received 33,000 would-be refugees. The major difference this year is that many people are using a single point of entry in Quebec. Otherwise, MacDonald said, the numbers are “very much aligned with historical trends.”

On Thursday, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said the number of irregular border crossers in Quebec seems to be dropping this month, with roughly 50 people now crossing daily, down from hundreds in the summer.

Hussen said the government has made a “huge dent” in the backlog of asylum seekers waiting for eligibility interviews, the first step in the process before a refugee hearing can be scheduled. Typically, eligibility is assessed right at the border but, with the spike in numbers, some interviews have been delayed by several months. Hussen said there are now 2,000 people waiting for eligibility interviews, which is a decrease, and there are almost 200 interviews scheduled daily, up from just 30.

MacDonald outlined other measures the government is taking to respond to the influx of asylum seekers in Quebec, including a commitment to process work permit applications within 30 days. Six weeks ago, there were about 6,000 work permit applications waiting for review, but the backlog has now been virtually eliminated, he said. “The idea is to help people get into the workforce quicker.”

The federal government has also provided temporary health-care coverage to more than 5,600 people who’ve crossed the border irregularly at Lacolle who have not yet had an eligibility interview, according to MacDonald.

But Conservative Immigration critic Michelle Rempel says giving illegal border crossers expedited work permits and health care coverage sends the wrong message. “The better alternative is to ensure that people are playing by the rules, entering the country legally,” she told the Post. “We should not be encouraging people to enter the country illegally.”

Rempel said the officials who testified before the joint committee failed to provide