CIMM – The Immigration and Refuge Board (IRB) - Inventory and Wait Times – May 12, 2022

Key Messages

• Between 2015 and 2018, the IRB saw an unprecedented intake of refugee claims – an increase of 300% – well above funded processing levels, creating the largest backlog and wait times in the Board’s history.
• In response, the Government provided approximately $600 million in temporary funding to the Board, the largest investment in its 30 years’ history.
• With this investment, coupled with productivity improvements recently introduced by the IRB and other measures:
  • the backlog of refugee claims and appeals has decreased by more than a third, from a high of over 101,000 to 59,000 files as of March 2022; and
  • projected wait times for new refugee claims have decreased from 22 months at the start of the pandemic to 13 months as of March 2022, its lowest level since 2016.
• Despite the significant disruptions of the past two years, the oard has returned to full productivity. The inventory across all IRB divisions declined by more than 40%, between April 1, 2020, and April 1, 2022.
• Under Budget 2022, the Government proposed to regularize and increase the IRB’s funding, which would permit the Board to stabilize its operations and to prepare for expected higher refugee intake in the coming years.