Ministerial Relief applications: Proposed Regulatory Amendments CCR comments, May 2024

Ministerial Relief applications: Proposed Regulatory Amendments CCR comments, May 2024 The following are the comments of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) in response to the publication in the Canada Gazette, Part I, Volume 158, Number 16, on April 30, 2024, of proposed amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations with respect to Ministerial Relief applications ( . [...] Despite this acknowledgement of the overbreadth of the provisions and the essential role of Ministerial relief in exempting innocent individuals who are unfairly caught in the net, the proposed amendments have the effect of limiting the ability of individuals to make Ministerial Relief applications or to have those applications considered. [...] Promoting efficiency of process The Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement states that the amendments are designed “to improve the integrity of the program and ensure the most efficient use of resources.” The proposed amendments appear to be designed to reduce the government’s caseload of Ministerial relief applications by creating arbitrary new rules to bar or close applications. [...] It is true that changing the rules to allow files to be closed before a decision is rendered is one way for the government to increase the finalization rate, but it does nothing to address the fundamental problem with the government’s process. [...] Closing an application because of a breach of conditions is unfair and illogical We oppose the proposal to allow a pending application to be closed on the basis that an applicant has violated a condition to report to the CBSA.