The Ukrainian Community in PEI: CUAET Arrivals and the IRSA Response

1. The Program That Brought the Community Here

Canada launched the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) on March 17, 2022, in response to Russia's full-scale invasion, offering Ukrainians and their immediate family (of any nationality) temporary residence in Canada for up to three years, fee-exempt, with a 2-week processing target. Intake for new CUAET applications closed July 15, 2023, though visas already issued remained valid for travel until March 31, 2024, and existing CUAET holders retain access to their in-Canada benefits through the length of their permit.

2. Who Actually Coordinated the Response in PEI

The Immigrant & Refugee Services Association PEI (IRSA) became the frontline agency for Ukrainian arrivals, working alongside the province and the Provincial Immigration Partnership (PIP). In its 2022/23 annual report, IRSA describes this as one of its most significant undertakings that year, registering 2,246 new arrivals and delivering 33,546 recorded interactions across 5,463 unique clients that year alone, a volume driven substantially by the Ukraine response.

IRSA also became an active member of the National Secretariat for displaced Ukrainians coming to Canada, the federal-provincial coordinating body shaping the broader national response.

3. What Support Actually Looked Like on the Ground

In April 2022, PEI's Minister of Health and Wellness personally participated in an event coordinated by PIP specifically to bring together government officials and members of PEI's Ukrainian community, an early signal of how central this response became to the province's settlement priorities that year.

4. No Dedicated Provincial Cash Benefit, But Real Program Access

It's worth being precise here: PEI has no PEI-specific financial payment for CUAET arrivals beyond the federal one-time transitional support ($3,000 per adult, $1,500 per child). What PEI did provide was access to existing provincial programs, health card, dental, prescription coverage, and potential child care subsidy, that CUAET holders wouldn't automatically qualify for as temporary residents under other visa categories.

5. From Emergency Response to an Ongoing Community

A PEI Ukrainian working group formed specifically to keep addressing the community's evolving needs, expanding over time to include multiple first-stop settlement service providers rather than remaining a one-time crisis response. As CUAET holders' three-year permits approach expiry, this working group's continued existence matters: many CUAET arrivals are now navigating the transition from temporary emergency status toward more permanent immigration pathways, a different, longer-term settlement challenge than the one IRSA first responded to in 2022.

6. Where to Connect

All Ukrainians arriving in or already in PEI (including international students already on the Island) are directed to register with IRSA directly at irsapei.ca, the single entry point for every support listed above.