Sean Fraser joined the field of politics in order to create more and better opportunities for the community that he grew up in, and now he has risen to the responsibility of Minister in Canada, overseeing the immigration system.
During his work in the law field in the city of Calgary, it came to his notice that most of the students of his graduating class were now living in the same city, which was approximately 4800 km away from the place where they grew up. Apart from this, all his sisters had also left the city of Merigomish in Nova Scotia. He quite liked his job as a lawyer, but he wanted to do something more, something that could help the younger generation of his community along with their family members who were staying in his home area.
During the town hall meeting with the Federation of Independent Business in Canada, he thought of it as something that would add meaning to his life. The year 205 saw him running as a Liberal candidate for Central Nova Scotia, the area that also included under its jurisdiction, his hometown along with the Antigonish and New Glasgow communities. He won by defeating the Conservative Party member who had a long-standing in that area and has now held onto this seat for two elections.
On October 26 this week, he saw himself being appointed the new minister to oversee immigration in Canada. Fraser then began studying environmental and international law at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. He also worked to obtain a degree in law from the Dalhousie University based in the province of Halifax.
During his work in the field of law, he worked in the environment and human rights law, and after he was elected into office, he worked in the role of parliamentary secretary, serving the then minister of finance and middle-class prosperity. In the latest shuffle, this position has now been removed from the cabinet. Before his work here, Sean Fraser also worked as the secretary to the minister of environment and climate change.
It took 5 years for him to work his way from that to the immigration minister. Sean Fraser is advocating for more immigrants to be welcomed to the Atlantic region of Canada and representation in the House of Commons. The proportion of senior citizens is the highest in the province of Nova Scotia and even the younger generation is leaving the area looking for better job opportunities in other parts of Canada.
Fraser cited the Ivany report on how immigration is imperative for economic growth in Nova Scotia, arguing that to replenish the population of this region, the province needs a new and robust immigration strategy. After that, the Atlantic Immigration Pilot was born, which will soon gain the status of a permanent immigration program. Early analysis shows that this program and its subsequent streams have been helping in improving the retention of immigrants in this region.
Sean Fraser And The Challenges Related to The Pandemic.
Due to the pandemic, the ORC reported a backlog of thousands of applications to be processed. The past summer saw the Toronto Star with 561k applications for Canada PR waiting to be processed, 748k for temporary resident status as well as 376k applications waiting to gain Canadian citizenship. These numbers do not include the applications that have not been counted yet, the ones that have not been removed from the mailroom.
Since the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan, IRCC worked and shifted resources towards the urgent processing of the application from the refugees from Afghanistan, around 40k of them. Resources were also channeled to address the 7k extra application from the new TR to PR pathway that was introduced in the Canadian immigration system.
The promise made by the Liberal Party in the elections is to reduce the time of processing of applications in light of the Covid-19 pandemic to a minimum of 12 months, but no plans have been put in place on how this is to be achieved. The plan does include improving the application for family reunification using the method of the electronic application. The Canadian immigration system saw a shift in focus of the immigration strategy to applicants who were already in the country. Sean Fraser as the new minister will have to decide whether that focus has to now be shifted back to the Express Entry Program draws to begin including the candidates who have submitted their applications to the Federal Skilled Worker Program.
The Liberal Party announced its decision to expand the streams for gaining Canada PR for those foreign workers who already had temporary resident status in Canada along with for those immigrants who are international students present in the federal Express Entry system. This is supposed to allow more people who have temporary resident status and are eligible under the Express Entry Program to gain Canada PR. But the IRCC is yet to announce how the changed occupation classifications will have an impact on the existing eligibility criteria.
Sean Fraser can use his position as the new immigration minister to make good on these promises made by the Liberal Party and put an end to the application fee for citizenship. We also wait to see what role he will play towards the new and emerging Municipal Nominee Program which is designed to address the labour shortages that exist in the rural communities of Canada.
There are a few challenges that Sean Fraser will have to look out for as the new immigration minister. What are the expectations of Prime Minister Trudeau from the new immigration minister will also become clear once he issues the letter of the mandate that will contain the highlights outlines of the expectation of the Prime Minister from the future of the Immigration System of Canada?
