Canada’s refugee system is so overwhelmed that federal officials are now turning to the private sector for help, warning that a surging backlog of asylum claims has stretched processing times to nearly four years.Blacklock's Reporter says the Immigration and Refugee Board disclosed Monday that it requires outside contractors to handle mounting operational pressures caused by what it called “rising refugee claims.” In a notice to consultants, management said the board needs on-demand IT and organizational support, including business analysis and architecture services, for at least a year. No cost estimate was provided.IRB chair Manon Brassard told the Commons immigration committee last Nov. 6 that the scale of the backlog had come as a shock. “The shock to the system at the board was this large, large increase that got us to historical levels,” she said. “Such large numbers were not expected.”According to Brassard, the backlog has ballooned fivefold since 2022, climbing from 54,000 to roughly 290,000 refugee claims. At current capacity, that volume represents close to four years of hearings..“Given our ability to finalize about 80,000 a year, it would be about 44 months,” Brassard said. “If a case was referred to us today with the capacity we have, it would take about 44, 45 months to issue a decision.”She attributed the crisis to two consecutive years of record intake. In 2022–23, the Board received 154,000 claims. In 2024–25, intake jumped again to 176,000.“We were funded for 60,000,” Brassard said. “We finalized 78,000. To contrast this with the previous 10 years, intake was on average 29,000 or 30,000 and the board finalized on average 26,000.”Refugee claimants must prove their identity and demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution, Brassard noted, but the sheer volume of cases has strained the system beyond what was anticipated..Bloc Québécois MP Mario Simard told the committee that MPs’ constituency offices are being inundated with requests from asylum seekers seeking help navigating the process.“In 2023 I assisted a family from El Salvador to remain in Canada,” Simard said. “Unfortunately for me that got into the media and snowballed. My constituency office wound up with an incalculable number of asylum seekers asking for help.”Simard pointed to former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s 2017 social media message welcoming refugees to Canada as a catalyst.“Mr. Trudeau’s statements had an effect,” he said. “When a Prime Minister said we’re a welcoming country, come to us, you’re welcome, that’s warm, that’s friendly, that’s generous, but at a time when people are getting their information from social media, there is a snowball effect.”Trudeau’s widely shared tweet declared that Canadians would welcome those fleeing persecution, terror and war, a message critics say helped fuel expectations the system was never funded to handle.
