While working at a Calgary law firm, Sean Fraser noticed that a large portion of his graduating class now lived in the same city as him, 4,800 km from where they grew up.
In fact, he and his five sisters had also left Merigomish, Nova Scotia. As much as he loved his job as a lawyer, he wanted to do something to help young people and families stay and work in his home community.
“I thought this could be something meaningful that I could do with my life,” he said in a City Council 2021 with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
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In 2015, he ran as a Liberal candidate in the riding of Central Nova, which includes his hometown. He won a riding dominated by the Conservative Party and retained his seat in the last two elections.
This week, October 26, he was appointed Canada’s new Minister of Immigration.
1 / I am honored to have been nominated by PM @JustinTrudeau to exercise the functions of Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Immigration will remain a key pillar in Canada’s recovery and I am committed to ensuring that we continue to have the workers we need, where we need them. pic.twitter.com/IPzjm2cSdU
– Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) October 26, 2021
Fraser studied international and environmental law at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He also holds a law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
As a lawyer in Calgary, he practiced environmental and human rights law. After being elected, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and Minister of “Middle Class Prosperity”, who was removed from his post in the last cabinet reshuffle. Previously, he was also Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Exactly five years before he became Minister of Immigration, Fraser advocated for increased immigration to Atlantic Canada in the Communal room. Nova Scotia has one of the highest proportions of seniors in Canada. In addition, many young people and immigrants leave the province to seek employment elsewhere.
Quoting the famous Ivany Report, who discussed the importance of immigration to sustaining Nova Scotia’s economic growth, Fraser argued that the best way to rebuild the Atlantic region’s population was to adopt a strong strategy of immigration.
In the years that followed, Atlantic Canada was awarded the Atlantic Immigration Pilot, which will soon be a permanent program. Early studies of the program suggest that it helps improve immigrant retention in the region.
In January of this year, Fraser was named ‘Best Speaker’ in McLeans’ Parliamentarian of the Year Award, and was a finalist in the “Rising Star in Parliament” category for the second year in a row.
Fraser inherits pandemic challenges and election promises
During the pandemic, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has accumulated a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applicants. Last summer the Toronto Star reported that there were over 561,000 permanent residence requests to be processed, 748,000 temporary residence applications, and 376,000 citizenship applications. These numbers do not include requests that were in the mailroom and had not yet entered the system.
Since the crisis in Afghanistan, IRCC has reallocated its resources to process the claims of 40,000 Afghan refugees. Resources are also allocated to processing the 7,300 additional requests submitted to the From temporary residence to permanent residence (TR to PR).
The Liberal Party has pledged in its election platform to reduce processing times that have been affected by COVID-19 to less than 12 months, although the platform did not specify how. The Liberals have also said they will improve family reunification applications by introducing electronic applications.
In addition, since Canada has changed its immigration strategy to focus more on applicants who are already in the country, the new minister will have to make decisions on when to resume. Express Entry draws this includes Federal Skilled Worker Program candidates (FSWP).
In the platform, the Liberals said they would expand the pathways to permanent residence for temporary foreign workers and old international students through the Express Entry point system. This would ideally allow more temporary residents to qualify for Express Entry, although IRCC has not announced how the new occupational classification system will affect eligibility.
Fraser also has the opportunity to be the immigration minister who keeps the 2019 Liberal promise to end the citizenship application fee. We’ll also be monitoring what it does with the Budding Municipal Nominee Program, which is supposed to help address labor shortages in rural communities.
These are just a few of the ongoing challenges the new minister will face. We will learn more about Prime Minister Trudeau’s expectations of Fraser when he releases the mandate letters, which outline the minister’s priorities and shape the future of Canadian immigration.
On my way back from Ottawa, where I assumed my new role as Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
I look forward to working with the strong team of officials at IRCC! pic.twitter.com/AtRyrysfiG
– Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) 28 October 2021
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