MORGAN: Incompetent civil service bureaucrats bear some responsibility for the immigration crisis

Mass immigration is threatening the social and economic well-being of the entire Western world. One needs only to look at the catastrophes in Europe, as decades of unchecked immigration have led to entire sections of cities becoming unhabitable to locally born citizens, while race riots and demonstrations choke cities regularly. Integration has become nearly impossible as migrants cluster into introverted communities of their own and refuse to adapt to cultural norms within the democracies they entered.What we are observing in Europe is a precursor of what Canada can look forward to if there isn’t a radical shift in immigration policies. Trudeau’s decade of mass immigration policies has led to overwhelmed healthcare and education services, while a housing crisis emerged. Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken some tepid steps to fix the problem, but it has so far amounted to shuffling the problem around. The $1.2 billion program that put refugees into Canadian hotels was ended, for example. But that just led to refugees packing into Canadian shelters. Nothing will improve until the flow of incoming refugees is cut and those who don’t belong in Canada are deported.While cowardly politicians deserve much of the blame for this growing crisis, the massive, bloated bureaucracies that have mushroomed in Western democracies have made immigration reform close to impossible. Canada’s immigration processing and control system is so hopelessly inefficient and rife with ineptitude that backlogs just continue to grow, no matter how much more money is thrown at the issue. It’s unfair to both Canadian citizens and to well-meaning immigrants trying to legally enter the country.Last October, the total number of applications in Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) inventories was 2,182,200. The backlog only continues to grow, and it’s of little wonder when one looks at the speed with which IRCC processes applications. Privately sponsored refugees often wait nearly three years for their application to be processed. Government-assisted refugees wait 25 months. In the meantime, they sit in limbo within Canada and either collect some form of social assistance or often disappear as they head across the border to seek greener pastures in the United States. That doesn’t exactly help Canada’s already prickly relationship with the US..The current cost of healthcare alone for refugee claimants is over $1 billion per year.Regular immigration processing isn’t much better. Family sponsorships take one to two years to process, while what is called an “Express Entry” takes 7-8 months.The problem begins at the border, with over 100,000 illegal immigrants and refugee applicants currently awaiting background checks.The IRCC has 13,000 employees, while the Canada Border Services Agency has 17,000. With 30,000 well-compensated civil servants tasked with the issue, why can’t they get a grasp on it?The answer is simple. Government bureaucracies are bloated, inefficient, and controlled by unions, making reform too difficult for politicians to find the courage to take on.We are living in the digital age. It is hard for somebody to truly be undocumented, even if coming from the most underdeveloped of nations. It beggars belief that it can be so difficult to perform simple background checks in less than a few weeks. In fact, when it comes to developed nations, such checks could be done in minutes. Bureaucrats drag their heels and shuffle outdated forms from one desk to another, while the backlogs just keep growing, however..When it is finally determined that an applicant will be denied, they are often misplaced. At last count, Canada had lost track of 34,000 foreign nationals who had been ordered to leave the country. One way to reduce that backlog is to immediately turn undocumented people away when they arrive at the border. Nobody has the guts to implement such a common-sense and simple policy, though.As for those being processed in the system, it’s time to light a fire under the butts of the bureaucrats. If word came down that 20% of them will be laid off within a few months, rest assured, those who want to avoid the axe will suddenly find efficiencies if they want to keep their jobs. The federal government has been in a pitched battle for years with lazy bureaucrats and the unions protecting them, as they still refuse to return to work in the offices full-time since COVID. It’s time to lay down the bloody law. Return to work or be fired. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.It’s ridiculous and unacceptable that a country the size of Canada, with rather easy borders to control and a staff of 30,000 dedicated to immigration, can’t figure out how to process applications in less than a couple of years. Politicians can rail and claim they want to address the issue all they like. Unless they want to take on the ineptitude within the bureaucracy, though, things won’t change, and Canadian cities can look forward to enjoying the no-go zones that cities like Paris are enduring. Immigration can be a good thing, but only if it’s controlled and planned. That won’t happen until Canada’s civil service is brought in line.

MORGAN: Incompetent civil service bureaucrats bear some responsibility for the immigration crisis

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