The federal government is pushing back against Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s claim it takes two years for an asylum seeker to be given the right to work in Canada, saying the average processing time is actually less than two months.

Ford made the claim on Wednesday afternoon at the end of a three-day leaders’ summit in Huntsville, Ont., where the country’s premiers agreed to look at ways to use their constitutional powers to hand out work permits.

“They’re waiting over two years, and they’re just sucking off the system — not their fault,” Ford said, describing asylum seekers living in hotels near his home. “The fault falls under immigration that it takes over two years to get a work permit.”

The federal government, however, said the claim it takes two years to get a work permit is simply not true.

A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told Global News that, since 2022, asylum seekers have been able to apply for a work permit as part of their request to stay in Canada.

That request, they said, is made through an online portal and includes checks like a medical exam. Once a claim is determined as eligible to be referred to the Immigration Refugee Board, a work permit is issued within two weeks, the spokesperson said.

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“The average processing time for work permits to be approved is 45 days,” they said.

The experience for asylum seekers is likely somewhere between the 45-day and 730-day estimates. Syed Hussan, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said both figures seemed off.

“It’s taking sometimes up to six months, up to five months for some people,” he told Global News. “Some people are getting them in 45 days, it’s just inconsistent beyond belief. But four to six months in some cases is a pretty long time, but it’s certainly not two years.”

Ford made the claim as he launched a plan to use provincial power to hand out more work visas, generally an area of federal responsibility.

The premier said he planned to rely on Section 95 of the Constitution, which allows provinces to make decisions about immigration on the condition they don’t clash with existing federal legislation.

According to officials in his office, work is now underway to study how to make the move, with no timeline yet or concrete plan on how to proceed.

Ford said he wanted to do everything he can to help asylum seekers find jobs while they wait for their applications to be assessed.

“I have a tremendous amount of asylum seekers that are up in Etobicoke in the hotels. They’re healthy, they’re willing to work, they’re hardworking people,” Ford said.

“They want to get out there and they want to be like every other Canadian. They want to find a job, they want to be able to first start off renting a condo or part of a house and then buying a house.”

Hussna, however, said the message represented a change of tone from Ontario’s premier.

“This to me seems like just a political talking point,” he said. “A way to rage bait and rage farm and look like — the same premier who has been on an anti-immigrant rampage, who has been saying we’ll take care of own first.”

Back in 2018, Ford said the province had to “take care of our own” before pushing for immigrants to move to northern Ontario.

After briefly removing land from the Greenbelt for new housing in 2022, the premier said the move was necessary because of rising immigration. That year, Canada broke its record for new immigration with 430,000 newcomers.

“He’s been really in this divine and conquer, pitting migrants against everyone else to cause a distraction, and now suddenly he’s the champion of refugees working,” Hussan added.

“It’s completely bizarre.”

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