Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - November 2009
In a landmark ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeals has decided that the provincial government should examine sponsorship debt on a case-by-case basis and consider the position of each sponsor before demanding repayment.
In Canada’s Family Class stream of immigration, citizens are able to sponsor members of their family to immigrate to the country as well. However, with this, comes a promise that the sponsor will take on full financial responsibility for their family member, for anywhere from three to ten years. If any social assistance is provided during that time, it is the responsibility of the sponsor to assure that money is paid back in full.
The law was designed to minimize abuses to the system as well as costs to the government. However, the Ontario judges determined that not all cases are equal and should be examined individually, and pointed to a specific wording in the law that creates ambiguity – the use of the word “may” when saying that any debt incurred through a sponsorship case “may be recovered.”
“What it [the ruling] means is that the government has to go through a process before it collects the debt,” said Lorne Waldman, a lawyer representing one of the sponsors directly involved in the appeal. “The banks do this all the time, why shouldn’t the Ontario government do this in these types of cases?”
In Ontario to date, over 5,000 sponsorship immigrants have applied for and received approximately $56 million. Only $13.7 million has been paid back.
The ruling comes as a surprise to many, as it means not only a possible loss of formerly recoupable public funds, but also high administrative costs if each case will be examined individually.
Some advocates, however, argue that it is worth the costs if it can help in exceptional cases where sponsors themselves are being taken advantage of. Many sponsors agree to support their spouse or fiancé to immigrate but are often left with financial burdens when the marriage turns out to be fraudulent or, in some cases, abusive.
Analysts are no doubt tracking the outcome of this case as the Ontario government would likely bring an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. If that does happen, that ruling could have major implications on the procedures regarding sponsorship immigrants in all other Canadian provinces.
Source: National Post
