Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says he plans to announce a long-awaited program to grant permanent residency to Ukrainians with familial ties to Canada soon, but a similar program for other Ukrainians is still a ways away.
Canada took the unusual step last year of offering temporary refuge to an unlimited number of Ukrainians fleeing the war, and so far 230,000 have made the journey.
The government plans to assess whether more needs to be done to secure permanent residency for other Ukrainians over the next year or two.
McGill Institute for the Study of Canada director Daniel Béland says the government will need to co-ordinate with the Ukrainian government, since offering permanent residency could signal a lack of optimism about Ukraine’s ability to beat the Russian military out of its sovereign borders.
