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Ottawa should set deadline to clear immigration backlogs: House of Commons committee

Members of the House of Commons immigration committee say the government should set a deadline to clear immigration application backlogs and appoint an ombudsperson to hold the department accountable.

The committee has released a substantial report on immigration backlogs that includes 40 recommendations to ease the waits for potential newcomers.

As of the end of October, the Immigration Department had more than 963,000 applications in the backlog, which represents 43 per cent of all applications in the system.

The committee says the government should set a deadline to clear the backlog and allow people to see the status of their case online.

The committee is also echoing decades-long calls for an ombudsperson to oversee the department, supervise processing times and order changes as needed.

A majority of MPs on the committee is asking for more resources to be put toward processing applications and answering questions from applicants, though Conservatives said in an addendum to the report that more money would not solve the backlog problem.