Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has not made significant strides in improving immigrants’ information accessibility concerning their applications, which has had ramifications for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The surge in information access requests has become a critical issue despite IRCC’s strategy to manage the escalation. The report indicates that access requests have increased by more than double since the fiscal year ending in March 2018. CBSA experienced a 130% rise between 2020 and 2023, while IRCC fielded over 180,000 requests during 2022-23 and 2023-24. The Office of the Information Commissioner has been forced to reallocate its resources to accommodate the uptick in complaints. The operations division of IRCC is cited for not tackling the underlying issue. However, IRCC maintains that it has measures in progress to address the large number of requests.
