U.S. won’t budge on entry fee for Canadian travellers

Tonda MacCharlesOttawa Bureau

OTTAWA—The United States has shrugged off Conservative government appeals and will plow ahead with what Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year called a cash grab from Canadian travellers.

The U.S. will charge Canadian air and sea travellers $5.50 to enter the country even as the two governments have pledged to drop barriers to cross-border traffic.

In the Commons, the New Democrats railed against the surcharge and said it made a mockery of Conservative efforts to work with the U.S., noting the latest border irritant comes on top of Buy America provisions in U.S. President Barack Obama’s latest job stimulus package.

Gerald Keddy, parliamentary secretary for international trade, said the Conservative government is “disappointed” and hopes the U.S. “will recognize the error of their ways and that free and open trade is the way out of this economic depression, not into it.”

U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, swiftly tried damage control, suggesting the fee was “not a new fee” and that Canadians had long benefitted, as did citizens of Mexico and the Caribbean, from an exemption that every other country in the world doesn’t get.

The Harper government had lobbied to retain the exemption ever since the 2012 budget signalled the surcharge would be applied.

“I think it’s clear the U.S. government is casting around for ways to raise revenue,” Harper said in February. “I think that this is not a useful way to do that.”

Jacobsen claimed the U.S move was “necessitated by the budget situation in my country.”

“It is paid by American citizens and foreign nationals alike, just like Canadian citizens and non-Canadian citizens pay fees at Canadian airports.”

He said “our relationship continues to be the greatest in the world; whether either country charges travel fees won’t affect that. This fee is not in any way an action against Canada and will not have any effect on the progress of the ongoing discussions surrounding the Beyond the Border initiative.”

The NDP’s Robert Chisholm (Dartmouth—Cole Harbour) said later that “the United States is not taking Canada seriously when it comes to these negotiations.”

NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) was more blunt.

“It’s absurd,” he said. “We don’t charge them a fee to come and visit Banff. Why are we paying five and a half bucks for the honour of visiting the United States? It makes my blood boil as a Canadian Member of Parliament, frankly.”

Martin said the Conservative government “should stand up on their hind legs and frankly tell the Americans, what for?

“This is a provocative insult to Canadians and I expect our foreign affairs diplomats and representatives to push back and push back hard.

Edmonton company fined for foreign workers

An Edmonton company was fined for hiring foreign workers without authorization, according to the Canada Border Services Agency.

Empire Drywall pleaded guilty Tuesday in Edmonton Provincial Court to four counts of employing temporary foreign workers lacking proper authorization.

They were fined $9,000 for each count, totaling $36,000.

The Canada Border Services Agency — responsible for investigating people in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act — launched an investigation on the Empire Drywall in Sept. 2008.

This was the biggest imposed fine in the province since 2006.

FEDS PROPOSE CHANGING LANGUAGE RULES FOR IMMIGRANTS

The federal government wants immigrants to provide upfront evidence that they’re fluent in one of Canada’s two official languages when they submit citizenship applications. Ottawa is requesting comments on its proposal to require prospective immigrants to prove they have a Canadian Language Benchmark Level 4, in either English or French.

A notice says the proposed change would not increase the language level required for citizenship but would provide officials and judges with “objective evidence of an applicant’s language ability.”

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney is proposing changes to the way the government assesses the language abilities of prospective new citizens.

Under the proposal, published today in the Canada Gazette for public input, adult citizenship applicants would be required to provide objective evidence of language ability with their citizenship applications.

“The ability to communicate effectively in either French or English is key to the success of new citizens in Canada,” said Minister Kenney.  “This change will encourage applicants to ensure that they can speak English or French when they apply for citizenship, thereby improving the integrity and effectiveness of the citizenship program for Canada and for new Canadians alike.”

The Citizenship Act already requires that applicants be able to communicate in one of Canada’s official languages.  This proposed change would not increase the language level required, but would change the way that citizenship applicants aged 18-54 prove their language ability.

Under the new system, applicants would have to provide objective evidence that they meet the language requirement when they file their application.  Applicants would be able to demonstrate language ability by submitting a variety of evidence, including:

• the results of a third party test;
• evidence of completion of secondary or post-secondary education in English or French; or
• evidence of achieving CLB/NCLC4 in certain government funded language training programs.

CIC currently uses the citizenship knowledge test as well as the applicant’s interaction with CIC staff to assess language ability.  If it appears an applicant does not meet language requirements, they are invited for an interview with a citizenship judge.  There can be a significant time delay between the submission of the application and the subsequent hearing for language.

The proposed new rule that applicants must provide objective evidence that they meet the language requirement when they file their application would give citizenship judges better evidence on which to base their decision.  CIC would also be able to return applications of those who do not provide evidence they meet the requirements more quickly, thus improving application processing.

CIC is also proposing to clarify that the language skills to be assessed would be speaking and listening, and the criteria would clearly align with Canadian Language Benchmark/Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens  CLB/NCLC4, which represents basic fluent proficiency.  This would allow applicants to understand the requirements they need to meet and to provide evidence that is correlated to CLB/NCLC4.

The Notice of Intent, requesting comments from the public on the proposed change, will be posted for 30 days.