Citizenship office adds jobs, expands
SYDNEY — Sixty-two people have been hired and are working remotely as part of Friday's announced expansion of the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship office in Sydney.
Along with the new hires, the expansion includes a new office space in New Waterford which has been leased for one year.
The new office and positions are primarily dedicated to processing Family Class Overseas applications to help shorten processing time which has been longer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's a win-win-win situation. It's a win for the 62 new hires, full-time employees, and these are new jobs. It's a win for the families who will be united more quickly because that's one of the main processes these new full-timers will be working on," said
Minister Marco Mendicino during a phone interview
"But equally, some newcomers may be welcomed under the Atlantic Immigration Pilot program, which has been virtually an unqualified success. And it will be a win for the country because as we deliver on our immigration plan for 2021, we believe we're going to accelerate economic recovery. So a winwin-win."
EXPANSION CONFUSION
Sydney-victoria MP Jamie Battiste spoke with the Cape Breton Post after the newspaper spoke with Mendicino. At first, Battiste said the expansion would be good for the development of the downtown Sydney area and said the first he heard of the new office being in New Waterford was from the Post.
After getting more information, Battiste called back and said the expansion would be beneficial to both Sydney and New Waterford.
"They haven't sorted out all of the details, I've been told, but there will be an increased presence in both Sydney and New Waterford," Battiste said.
"(This is) meaningful employment for 62 people with good government jobs in an area where we're already doing well in Cape Breton, with immigration. It's definitely a step in the right direction."
PROCESSING DELAYS
During the COVID-19 pandemic, processing immigration, citizenship and refugee applications has taken months longer.
Mendicino said with the new hires and soon-to-open office they hope to get spousal application processing rates back to 12-14 months, what it was pre-pandemic.
"This will accelerate the process of reuniting families," said Mendicino, whose family arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax when they immigrated to Canada.
"Having worked very closely with the communities who have been advocating family reunification, we know how incredibly important it is to have loved ones brought together as much as possible during the pandemic."
Regardless of processing delays, immigration numbers are on the climb. Mendicino said in January, Canada landed 10 per cent more new permanent residents than the previous January. I
"That means we're more productive than we were prepandemic," said Mendicino.
"In February, we delivered the single largest ever draw of immigration inviting over 27,000 economic class immigrants to become residents. This shows that not only are we coming back online with pre-pandemic processing times but we're becoming more efficient.
GOOD NEWS
Cape Breton Regional Municipality District 11 Coun. Darren O'quinn said he was pleased to hear about the new office in his riding.
"It's great to see these jobs coming to New Waterford. As most people are aware, New Waterford has a high poverty rate of almost 43 per cent child poverty rate alone. Hopefully, some of these good-paying jobs in this area will help alleviate some of these problems," O'quinn said.
"Without good-paying jobs, we're always going to be in poverty, so this announcement for the area is great ... I also think it will be a great boost to the local economy.
Battiste said he and fellow Cape Breton MP Mike Kelloway have been pushing for more federal offices in cities outside of the nation's capital.
"We've been advocating, Mike Kelloway and myself, that we don't always need a centralized approach to offices in Ottawa, that we can do them in Cape Breton just as well," said Battiste.