The Canadian parliamentary budget officer, Yves Giroux, has released a report stating that the federal government has more than enough staff to process economic immigrant applications on time. The report analyzed the cost of processing applications through the express entry system for five fiscal years and found that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has 65% more staff than necessary to process the 2022-23 applications on time, and more staff than needed for all years assessed. The federal government's goal is to process 80% of these applications within six months.
Last year, Canada faced significant immigration backlogs due to the pandemic. However, the immigration department refused to share information about the resources needed to meet processing goals in previous years, citing cabinet confidences as the reason. The report was published by The Canadian Press on March 7, 2023.