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Conservative
ideology and incompetence hurting our immigration system
OTTAWA – Auditor General Sheila
Fraser confirmed what Liberals have been
saying for years – the Harper Conservatives’
handling of the immigration backlog and the
temporary foreign worker program is in shambles,
Liberal Citizenship and Immigration Critic Maurizio
Bevilacqua said .
“This report slams the
Conservative government’s inability to manage the
immigration file,” said Mr. Bevilacqua. “Clearly
this is a wake-up call for Immigration Minister
Jason Kenney to rethink his entire strategy when it
comes to the immigration system.”
According to the AG report tabled
in the House of Commons Tuesday, the minister and
his department have made a number of key decisions
in recent years without properly assessing their
costs, benefits and potential risks.
The report exposes huge problems
with Canada’s immigration system: no clear and
strategic plan to properly address Canada’s labour
market needs; a large number of vulnerable foreign
workers in need of protection; 620,000 skilled
workers in the cue, waiting an average of 63 months
to have their applications processed; and a Minister
that can not justify his need for ministerial powers
that enable him to shut Canada’s doors on
immigrants.
In 2008, the government introduced
controversial immigration policy changes that
critics said would only serve to shut the door on
thousands of potential immigrants in the cue. Ms.
Fraser confirmed that the unprecedented changes have
done little to cut down the number of new
applications pouring in or significantly reduce the
backlog of existing applications.
“The backlog was an excuse by this
ideological government to grant the Immigration
Minister sweeping discretionary powers to reject
whole categories of immigration applications,” said
Mr. Bevilacqua. “A sensible approach to deal with
the immigration backlog is to provide additional
resources for application processing, more support
for immigrant settlement and increase the number of
permanent residents Canada accepts.”
Despite the economic downturn,
there are still skills shortages in many fields and
Canada is still competing with the rest of the world
for the best and brightest immigrants to help build
the jobs of tomorrow.
“The Auditor General’s report
clearly points to the fact that we have a temporary
foreign worker program that is open to abuse and a
department that has no process for determining
whether their list of occupations is in tune with
the demands of our labour market needs,” said Mr.
Bevilacqua.
“Immigration is absolutely
essential to ensuring the growth of Canada’s economy
and our growth as a multicultural nation,” concluded
Mr. Bevilacqua. “Now, more than ever, Canada needs
a clear and well-defined strategy to integrate new
Canadians into our workforce. We are falling behind
the rest of the world in an area we once led.”
Updated : Nov 6,2009
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