From The Star: http://www.thestar.com/
RICHMOND, B.C.–Saying he wants to build “a stronger economy and a fairer country,” Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday pledged to spend $800 million to overhaul Canada’s problem-plagued immigration system.
“I want a new system that gives everyone a fair chance,” he told an audience of Chinese-Canadians at a campaign event here yesterday.
Dion said the overhaul would ease visa problems for foreign visitors, set up a new program for temporary workers and students to apply for permanent residence status and “significantly” raise immigration quotas. He also promised to set up a more efficient refugee-determination system.
If elected, he vowed his government would scrap the immigration law passed by the Tories that was widely criticized for vesting too much control of the system in the immigration minister’s hands.
“Last spring the Conservative government gave the immigration minister sweeping discretionary powers to reject whole categories of immigration applications,” said Dion. “When I am elected prime minister I will immediately reverse these unfair and dangerous immigration changes.”
The announcement in the swing riding of Richmond, held by Liberal incumbent Raymond Chan, was a clear appeal to the party’s traditional multicultural base.
Dion said the Liberals want to rewrite immigration rules and regulations to make it easier for newcomers to succeed in Canada once they are here.
“Immigration will account for all of Canada’s net labour and population growth during the next five years and is a key element of the Liberal plan for Canada’s future success.”
Saying the current visa system imposes wait times on visitors that “are not human,” Dion promised to bring in a Welcome Canada pass that would provide a five-year renewable, multiple-entry visitor’s visa for individuals sponsored by Canadian citizens and landed immigrants.
The Liberals say they would work with the provinces to improve the immigration system, promising the following measures over four years:
On October 14 Canadians will be headed for the polls. This will decide the future of the current Canadian minority government and along will decide the future of our immigration system.
The current government did introduce some radical changes to the Canadian immigration system, the most important change was introduced along with the budget bill C-50, and the introduction of the Canadian Experience Class.
Bill C-50 declared intentions were to end the backlog (almost 1 million applications), but what it really did achieve is a world of confusion and uncertainty. The bill sets a framework where there will be a quota determining the number of applications that will be processed in each embassy, and sets processing priorities. The priorities will be as the following:
1- All applications with an Arranged Employment Offer (AEO) will be processed first.
2- Applicant whose skills fall within a list of occupations under demand will then be processed. This list is called Global Occupation List (GOL).
3- All other applications will be processed after.
4- When the quota is achieved all the remaining applications will be returned and the applicants can resubmit their application next year.
All the above seems great, but there are few major problems:
1- The bill is retroactive and it affects all applications filled after
2- So far there are no instructions as to the quotas or GOL.
3- Applications are piling in the embassies and no one knows what to do with them (except for those with AEO).
4- This opened the door for a flourishing market of agents selling AEOs where no real recruitment efforts happened and no real relationship between employer and employee does exist.
5- There always been unconfirmed complaints that in some embassies some applications were given priorities over others. In the past this meant that some applications where unfairly delayed for some time. Under the current legislation this will mean that some applications will be returned to the applicant because some one else was given a priority in the queue.
How all this ties into the upcoming Canadian elections scheduled on
1- The current government announced that quota and the GOL will not be announced till November. And if the Liberals to win the elections, they might reverse the new legislation all together as they have announced repeatedly.
2- Even if the current government is able to form the next government, it will take some time before they are able to form that government and most likely the announcement will be delayed.
So we will all hold our breath till the election results are announced.