Doug Ford walks back pledge to issue work permits to asylum seekers

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has walked back last week’s pledge to wrestle some control away from the federal government to issue work permits to asylum seekers.

He did not explain why he changed his mind.

“I don’t want to take the responsibility off the federal government, but in saying that, if you have a pulse and you’re healthy, you need to be working,” Ford said Monday.

Ford and the rest of the country’s premiers said at their gathering last week they wanted more control over immigration, usually a purview of the federal government.

The Ontario premier pointed to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who cited Section 95 of the Constitution that they believed gave provinces the power to make decisions on immigration.

“We will be issuing our own work permits,” Ford said last week when all the premiers met in Huntsville.

He said the federal government was taking up to two years to issue work permits to asylum seekers.

But Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said work permits are usually processed within 45 days of an asylum claimant submitting a completed application that includes a medical examination and an updated address.

“The Government of Canada will continue to work collaboratively with provinces and territories to achieve our shared economic immigration objectives,” said Jeffrey MacDonald, a spokesman for the department.

He said immigration is within both federal and provincial jurisdictions and Ottawa enters into legally binding agreements with each province and territory to administer, co-ordinate and implement federal legislation on immigration.

MacDonald said the department is still in the midst of planning immigration levels from 2026 to 2028 with input from all provinces and territories.

Despite Ford’s change of mind, he still said the federal government is taking far too long to issue work permits. He said 70,000 work permits were issued to asylum claimants last year, but there were 90,000 such claimants in the province and he wants the backlog cleared.

New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles said Ford needs to focus on the problems he can control.

“He wants to talk about a whole bunch of stuff that is not his responsibility in the first place,” Stiles said.

“I think that the premier needs to start actually showing up for work for the people of this province and that means showing up to fix our health-care system, showing up to address the crumbling infrastructure in this province, showing up for the post-secondary institutions.”