Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - November 2009
In her latest report, Canada’s Auditor-General Sheila Fraser expresses some serious misgivings regarding the immigration system and the Conservative Government’s plans to improve it.
The report, tabled early this month in parliament, highlights concerns that, when it comes to immigration, Ottawa is “losing control” to the provinces and to employers. Additionally, to date figures show that Conservative reforms have neither improved the labour market, nor have they reduced the immigrant application backlog.
The problems pointed to by Fraser lie mainly in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Provincial Nominee Program – both of which provide alternate routes to immigration apart from the traditional Skilled Worker Class at the Federal level.
The skilled worker class of immigration, intended to bring Canada the skilled, educated citizens it needs, uses a point-system to award desired ages, good communications skills, as well as high education levels and work experience.
Now, however, warns the AG, the government is lowering targets for the Federal Skilled Worker Class, which is in danger of being overtaken as the key source of new Canadians. In its place, the Provincial Nominee Program looks poised to take over as the top source of economic immigrants. The PNP allows temporary foreign workers to be nominated for priority consideration in immigration.
Fraser’s report says that there is no evidence to support the notion that shifting power away from Ottawa toward employers and provinces is going to have a positive impact.
“We found that the Department [of Citizenship and Immigration] has made a number of key decisions in recent years without properly assessing their costs and benefits, potential risks, and likely impact on programs,” said Fraser. “Some of these decisions have caused a significant shift in the types of foreign workers being admitted permanently to Canada. There is little evidence that this shift is part of any well-defined strategy to best meet the needs of the Canadian labour market.”
Fraser pointed out several problems with the Temporary Worker Program, including unverified job offers, potential employer abuse and the tendency for employers to use the program to bring their own family members into the country.
The Conservative Government and current Immigration Jason Finney did not agree with much of Fraser’s report, pointing out that new improvements were announced to the Temporary Worker Program after the Auditor-General had completed her investigations.
Furthermore, Kenney argues that the economic benefits such a program provides far outweigh the instances of abuse.
“There are tens of thousands of employers in this country who would go under if they did not have access to labour for positions that are not being filled by Canadian residents or citizens,” Kenney told parliament. “In a recession, we need to make sure that businesses that are surviving have the labour they need to do the job and we are proud to be working in cooperation with them.”
Sources: Globe and Mail
