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“It may be worth considering a 50-50 split between selection of those in most need and those most able to establish themselves for a number of reasons.”

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society chair Fariborz Birjandian, who arrived in Canada as a refugee 30 years ago, agreed with the recommendation but suggested that expanding the number of government-assisted refugees accepted each year would be necessary to meet both needs.

“We have people that are highly in need of protection, so I think we should still be committed to that, but that doesn’t mean we should actually eliminate people with high human capital,” Birjandian said.

“The world is changing. People are obviously becoming more desperate. Canada is a country that is known to have a very open door when it comes to refugee resettlement through different processes.”

The report also suggests establishing a refugee processing unit in at least one major office in each region of the country to streamline in-Canada refugee claimant cases.

With backlogs of more than 47,000 claims as of February — which could take up to two years to process — Vineberg recommended shifting the responsibility of who makes the initial refugee claim decision to public servants with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which has offices across the country, as opposed to the Immigration and Refugee Board, which has offices in just Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Birjandian said a more streamlined approach would help ensure a claimant’s case is reviewed sooner in order to determine if they fit the definition of a refugee and, if not, help deal with them humanely before they’ve already put down roots in Canada.

“It has to be time-sensitive,” Birjandian said. “We can’t afford to have people here two or three years and then at the end tell them no, they are not accepted. We have to do our due diligence but I think the process has to be efficient time-wise.”

The full report is available online on the School of Public Policy’s website.