Getting It Right the First Time: Exploring the False Economy of Bill C-12's Refugee Process Shortcuts

<p dir="ltr">Bill C-12 proposes to make two classes of asylum claimants ineligible for Immigration and Refugee Board hearings: those who claim protection more than one year after arriving in Canada, and those who claim 14 days after irregularly crossing from the United States. Instead, these claimants would be routed to the Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) system—a paper-based “safety net” process designed for speed rather than robustness. The government argues this will improve system efficiency.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">This paper explores those efficiency claims by analyzing over 180,000 Federal Court immigration judicial reviews using computational methods. The findings suggest that PRRA- cases generate more downstream work for the Federal Court than cases that received full IRB review. This raises the possibility that Bill C-12 will make the refugee process system less efficient, not more. The patterns observed raise concerns about Bill C-12's efficiency rationale. Before dismantling a system that appears to work, Parliament should carefully examine potential downstream costs.</p>