Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada’s 2025 to 2026 Departmental Plan at a glance

​​A departmental plan describes a department's priorities, plans, and associated costs for the upcoming three fiscal years.

​Key priorities

As is the case in many other countries, the in-Canada asylum system (ICAS) has seen a dramatic increase in the number of refugee claimants over the last two years. This has challenged the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB or the Board), which performs a vital role within the ICAS continuum with its partners. The Board will continue to rise to this challenge.

The IRB, as the administrative tribunal mandated to decide asylum and immigration matters in an impartial and fair manner, is keenly aware of its critical role in the process and the need to hear and decide cases quickly once persons appearing before the Board have provided the required information and a complete file is received from Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency. Over the past two years, the number of refugee claims being referred to the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) has grown significantly and has been greater than the number of claims it is funded to decide. To keep pace with the volume of claims, in fiscal year 2025 to 2026, the IRB​ will pursue further efficiency gains, increase its focus on the management of inventory that is ready to be adjudicated, and continue to look for a stable level of funding.

To that end, the Board's top priorities for 2025 to 2026 are as follows:

  • Scaling capacity: The IRB's priority is to maintain and increase the RPD's productivity gains in relation to its funded level, while maintaining quality. Therefore, the IRB is pursuing efforts to lean and standardize its processes, including leveraging technology. The Board is also reallocating existing resources to priority initiatives that will help transform how work is done.  
  • Performance management and accountability: It is increasingly important for performance management and accountability to guide the IRB's efforts in optimizing the use of its resources, maximizing productivity and minimizing costs, while maintaining quality decision-making. The Board will build upon its recently completed financial stability model by incorporating key drivers of cost and productivity into its performance measurement framework.

In addition to the RPD, the IRB has three other divisions: the Immigration Division, the Immigration Appeal Division, and the Refugee Appeal Division. These three divisions are currently able to hear and decide as many cases as are referred to them within targeted time frames. It is paramount that they maintain this capacity, despite the anticipated increase in the number of cases each may receive. To that end, operational improvements identified as part of “scaling capacity” are also being deployed, where feasible.

Highlights

In 2025 to 2026, total planned spending (including internal services) for the IRB is $345,397,322 and total planned full-time equivalent staff (including internal services) is 2,450. For complete information on the Board's total planned spending and human resources, read the Planned spending and human resources section of the full plan.

The following provides a summary of the IRB's planned achievements for 2025 to 2026 according to its approved Departmental Results Framework. A Departmental Results Framework consists of a department's core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.