Immigration minister says he's working on a faster path to permanence for temporary residents

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says his government is preparing to reinstate a program that would help to speed up the process of turning newcomers in Canada under temporary permits into permanent residents.

"We are looking right now at the best path forward to create a permanent pathway for temporary residents," he told CBC's The House in an interview airing this weekend.

A previous program called the "temporary resident to permanent resident pathway" — or TR to PR — was put in place last year for eight months after COVID-19 lockdowns shut the border to newcomers to prevent the spread of the virus.

It gave 90,000 essential workers, front-line health care workers and international students like Kushdeep Singh an accelerated path to permanent status.

Singh arrived in 2019 to study business administration at Norquest College in Edmonton. The temporary TR to PR program was announced just as he was preparing to write his final exams.

"When I first came to Canada I thought, 'It's gonna take almost about four years.' Two years of my studies then two years of waiting for my PR application," he said.

Instead, the approval came through in less than a year.

"And I told my mom. She was so, so happy," he said. "I think she was happy because I know how hard she also worked for me, like all my journey since I came here and ... how she also sacrifices, like sending me away from her, so that was a good moment."

Fraser said the new program won't be identical to the old one. He said he's working under a tight 120-day timeline established in a motion approved by the Commons last month.

"That actually puts me on a clock to come up with a framework to establish this new permanent residency pathway, not just for international students, but also for temporary foreign workers," he said.

"We're in the depths of planning the policy so we can have a policy that's not driven by a need to respond urgently in the face of an emergency, but actually to have a permanent pathway that provides a clear path for those seeking permanent residency who can enter Canada."

Rupa Banerjee is a Canada research chair focusing on immigration issues at Toronto Metropolitan University. She said continuing to fast-track some people to permanent resident status is good policy.

"Focusing on individuals who are already in the country, that was an essential move at the time, when we had border closures and a lot of the pandemic restrictions," she said during a separate panel discussion on The House.

"It also is really beneficial because we know that those who already have Canadian work experience, Canadian education, they do tend to fare better once they become permanent residents relative to those who come in one step straight from abroad."