The number of new refugee claims Canada receives each year has surged in the last decade from about 16,000 to 190,000 in 2024, though it dropped significantly to 107,800 last year.
I know a lot of people are lamenting the change, but I can't help but read this line above from the article, and think about the findings from the recent auditor general's report related to Student Visa Frauds. The AG report noted that Canada's government had capacity to investigate 2000 fraud cases per year -- but that it received around 75000 such allegations per year.
A huge gap between how people 'wish' the country worked/functioned on that front, and the reality.
With a surge of more than 10x in a short period, our government is overwhelmed on this front. Just like our healthcare system is overwhelmed -- I've had relatives on wait lists for specialists for years at this point. Pretty much all of Canada's gov functions seem incapable of keeping up, even with bloated public servant numbers (under Trudeau, they hit a record of like 22% of working people working for public sector, iirc).
We need immigration of all sorts, but it needs to be managed at a level we can handle as a country. If our government can't even come close to processing their basic paperwork in a timely manner, it'd be crazy to think our other systems that require a whole lot more than pushing a button/admin paperwork, such as healthcare and housing, would be able to keep up with the increased demand. Putting in stricter conditions for refugee claims, given that the system is likely overwhelmed by the volume, makes practical sense.