Chinese economist faces barriers to Canadian job market


11/23/2011  | Paul Gallant, Yonge Street
Source: citytv.com
Maggie Chen. Courtesy of Voula Monoholias
When Maggie Chen worked in Shanghai as an economist for the Chinese government, she looked at macro-economic trends in order to analyze the impact on the labour force, vocational training and the social-insurance system. After immigrating to Canada just over three years ago, Chen found herself in the middle of something of an economic experiment. The test: Will the Toronto job market embrace the skills and experience she has, or will she have to alter her career path to make a living?
 
"I'm struggling with switching between my plan A and B," says Chen, 41. "It's a cost-efficiency evaluation problem."
 
As an economist, Chen has a greater awareness than most Canadians of the factors that determine what kind of job she will get. Her decision to move to Toronto with her son was motivated mostly by lifestyle. She liked Canada's fresh air and clean water, as well as the social environment and the predictability of life here: "With systems in Canada, if you want something, you know what you have to put in and you know what your outcome will be."
 
But she soon faced the obstacles faced by many new Canadians: integrating into the workforce. The well-known example of the cab-driving doctor is only the most extreme scenario. A 2009 report by the Conference Board of Canada points out that lack of recognition of international qualifications and experience, lack of Canadian experience, language barriers, lack of workplace integration and diversity programs, and discrimination all get in the way, adding up to a lot of wasted talent. An off-cited Conference Board report from 2001 estimated that the cost of not recognizing the credentials and skills of Canadians, notably immigrants, is between $4.1 billion and $5.9 billion annually. As a result, the earnings of recent immigrants are, on average, $5.04 less per hour than Canadian-born employees.
 
After arriving in Canada, Chen spent a year studying accounting at Seneca College and then landed a six-month contract at The Martin Prosperity Institute. While at the institute, she contributed to a discussion paper on where Toronto's service workers tend to live, where they tend to work and the transportation and career-development issues they face. "We realized that service workers don't have a lot of time for training, and employers aren't going to find a lot of time to train them."

She also co-authored a paper, The Geography of the Creative Economy in China, which applies the theories of Richard Florida, author and head of the Prosperity Institute, to China's creative economy, finding that it is unevenly distributed across the country, making it "unlikely that China will shift to a post-industrial economy all at once."
 
After her contract at the Martin Prosperity Institute ended, Chen found herself unemployed for six months. To pay the bills, she took a job as a bookkeeper working for a fertilizer company in Aurora. Although she continues to look for work as an economist, she wonders if becoming a certified accountant might be the more practical option. In a way, Chen's still an economist, watching herself as a subject.
 
"It's very interesting to me, because you can see that Canada needs skilled workers and it's ready to integrate them, but there is a huge cost on both sides. The system has to be flexible, to train people, to accommodate diversity. But for immigrants, they need to be flexible, too, which takes time and effort. I can spend years looking for the right job or I spend that time studying something else. The terrible thing is how to decide. One of the biggest costs to immigrants is the uncertainty."
 
The good news side of Chen's experience is the growing number of resources available for new Canadians and awareness of the challenges they face. It's not like Canada can afford to snub its immigrants. Susan Brown, a senior policy advisor for labour force development at the City of Toronto, is familiar with Chen's situation, both theoretically and personally. As Chen's career mentor through the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, Brown has been Chen's cheerleader through her job search.
 
"The thing about Maggie is that she has a plan A and a plan B. And she's made sure that plan B isn't waiting tables. New Canadians have to make sure that making money doesn't take them too far away from their goals," says Brown, who has a PhD in sociology. "The trick is to support immigrants to see the skills and education they have as being broad enough so they don't find themselves back at zero."
 
Salman Kureishy, manager of the International Accounting and Finance Professionals (IAFP) Program at Ryerson University's Chang School, immigrated to Canada from India five years ago. He gave himself a year to find a good job. He lucked out, finding one in less than nine months.
 
"I almost lost my way myself," he says. "Very often, people have to make compromises and work below their skill level. Sometimes, as long as it's possible to move up the ladder, that can work."
 
Kureishy is working with the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and the Conference Board of Canada to create an online tool for financial professionals to help them determine their own skill sets and how they meet job requirements.
 
"Sometimes applicants aren't really sure what their gaps and deficiencies are," Kureishy says.
 
Aside from the lack of personal networks that people born in Canada have, Brown isn't sure where Chen's gaps are. It's not language. It's not that there's much difference, from a researcher's perspective, between how you'd study economy of China and how you'd study Canada. It's not lack of trying. "I find Maggie drags me along as a mentor," says Brown. (A 2009 study by an economics professor at the University of British Columbia suggests that not having an English-sounding last name can be a factor.)
 
Chen, meanwhile, continues to earn her bookkeeping paycheque, even as she see the world through an economist's — and optimist's — eyes.
 
"One of the things China can learn from Toronto is to increase its tolerance, which is important to attract talent," says Chen. "People really try to help other people and there's tremendous economic value in that."
 

Ottawa faces legal challenge over backlogged immigrant visa applications


Nicholas KeungImmigration Reporter
More than 300 people around the world awaiting immigration visas have filed legal notices against the Canadian government, claiming they are being “warehoused” in a lengthy backlog.
The notices, filed with the Federal Court of Canada, are asking Citizenship and Immigration Canada to process their applications within a reasonable time frame.
The litigants, some of whom applied as far back as 2004, accuse CIC of violating a pledge to assess and finalize decisions in a timely fashion.
“These people paid the application fees, but immigration has never even started processing their applications,” said Tim Leahy, one of the lawyers representing the litigants.
The legal notices — from Asia to Africa, Europe and the Middle East — are growing in numbers with the recent launch of an online appeal for litigants at unfaircic.com. It is not a class-action lawsuit, so a court ruling would apply only to those involved in the litigation.
Litigants include those who filed before February 2008, when new laws were brought in to fast-track new applications from skilled workers, and those who filed between 2008 and 2010, when further restrictions capped the number of skilled-worker applications.
Ottawa has argued restrictions are needed to reduce a backlog of 900,000 applications.
But some litigants claim the government has effectively ceased assessing applications filed before 2008.
Shrish Aithala, who has a master’s degree in computer integrated engineering from New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology, filed his application in 2006 in New Delhi.
“I cannot understand how the existing backlog can be bypassed. I’m sure there are skilled and educated people in the backlog ready to contribute to the economy,” Aithala, 36, told the Starfrom his current job in Dubai.
“Because of the uncertainly of my application status, I have missed out on many opportunities as commitment was required from my side with regards to these work assignments.”
Applicants who filed between 2008 and 2010 say they, too, are being unfairly treated since the application cap was brought in.
Rasoul Nikkhah, a 42-year-old computer network administrator from Tehran, Iran, was thrilled when Ottawa rolled out its fast-track federal skilled-worker program in 2008, anticipating a quick processing. The government promised to finalize cases within six to 12 months.
Immigration acknowledged receipt of Nikkhah’s application in April 2009 and 26 months later his file is still “in process,” he said.
“The reason I participated in this legal action is to bring justice to my case and similar cases, as I believe I have been treated unfairly by CIC.”
The immigration department confirmed receipt of the legal notices, but declined to comment on the allegations.
“The Federal Court has not yet even determined whether it will hear any of these cases, and as such, there has been no decision on the merits of the cases,” said immigration spokesperson Nancy Caron.
Caron said the skilled-worker backlog from before February 2008 has been reduced from 641,000 people to 314,000. About 140,000 applicants from the early phase of the fast-track program are still awaiting a decision, she said.
In 2002 and 2003, the federal government was confronted with a similar volley of court challenges to new regulations and the treatment of backlogged cases.
Ottawa offered a $2.9 million settlement to 105,000 backlogged applicants, agreeing to get rid of the new rule that affected pre-existing applications negatively, said Leahy, who led one of the lawsuits.

Prairies increasingly attractive for newcomers to Canada


 
 
 
More immigrants are flocking to the prairies and turning their backs on Ontario — a traditional hub for newcomers to Canada — according to new statistics.
 

More immigrants are flocking to the prairies and turning their backs on Ontario — a traditional hub for newcomers to Canada — according to new statistics.

Photograph by: Postmedia News files

More immigrants are flocking to the prairies and turning their backs on Ontario — a traditional hub for newcomers to Canada — according to new statistics.
Figures released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada earlier this month reveal that the province experienced a drop in new settlers to 118,114 in 2010 from 148,640 immigrants in 2001.
Toronto, a traditional immigration magnet, saw 92,185 new immigrants in 2010, down from 125,169 in 2001.
Meanwhile, the number of newcomers settling in Manitoba increased to 15,809 in 2010 from 4,591 in 2001; Saskatchewan saw an increase to 7,615 from 1,704; and Alberta saw 32,642 new faces, up from 16,404 a decade earlier.
All provinces and territories except Ontario saw gradual increases, but the prairies experienced the biggest spike during the past decade.
The ministry said part of the increase could be attributed to the Provincial Nominee Program that has given provinces more autonomy in selecting immigrants who match local needs.
In 2012, Citizenship and Immigration Canada plans to welcome 42,000 to 45,000 people under the Provincial Nominee Program, including nominees, their spouses and dependants.
Alberta's PNP intake has increased more than 18-fold in recent years, from just over 400 people admitted in 2004 to almost 7,500 in 2010, according to a CIC media release.
"Provincial nominees accounted for 33 per cent of economic class admissions and 23 per cent of total immigration to Alberta in 2010," the statement added.
The top three source countries for new immigrants in Canada continue to be in Asia, with most newcomers arriving from India, the Philippines and China, according to Candice Malcolm, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's press secretary.
"Traditionally people have moved to Toronto at least to start, and then move somewhere else, but with these other economic opportunities and the provincial selections, people are bypassing that and going straight to Calgary or straight to Alberta instead of going to Toronto," said Malcolm.
NDP immigration critic Don Davies said the combination of the economy and immigrant settlement approaches could explain why there has been a significant increase in the prairie region and cites Manitoba's approach as an example.
"Manitoba has led the way in immigrant settlement services, they have led the way in providing protection and enforcement of employment standards, particularly in the skilled workers area," said Davies.
"The conditions for which the employers apply for those workers are respected. I think that's paid off to make immigrants comfortable settling there," he added.

PNP BETTER BUT NO PLANS TO SCRAP SKILLED WORKER PROGRAM SAYS KENNEY


Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he has no plans to scrap the backlogged federal skilled worker program despite numbers that show a provincial program has been more successful in settling immigrants more evenly across Canada. Kenney was commenting on statistics from his department that show the federal government’s expansion of the Provincial Nominee program has been wildly successful at moving immigrants out of the Toronto-Montreal-Vancouver corridor.
The program allows provinces to choose a certain number of immigrants each year to fill labour shortages.
One of the biggest challenges for my predecessors was such an inefficient distribution of immigrants across the country,” Kenney said
“Ninety-two per cent used to settle in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, even though many of the best economic opportunities and labour shortages were in (other) regions of the country.”
A decade ago, Ontario took in the lion’s share of Canada’s immigrants, with half going to Toronto and 60 per cent to Ontario as a whole. Last year, just 42 per cent went to Ontario, statistics show. More newcomers are now heading toward smaller towns and cities in the west.
For example, Manitoba’s share of immigrants has tripled to 5.6 per cent of the national total, from 1.8 per cent in 2001. In Alberta the share has nearly doubled, from 6.5 per cent in 2001 to 11.6 per cent in 2010. Similarly, in Saskatchewan the share of immigrants has increased to 2.7 per cent from 0.7 per cent a decade earlier.
None of that would have happened if provinces weren’t given expanded access to provincial nominees since the Conservatives took power, Kenney argues.
“There’s been a significant shift and I frankly think it’s good for the country,” he said. “There are regions and industries that have very serious labour shortages. And this distribution of immigrants is helping to address these problems.”
Still, Kenney says he has no plans to scrap the federal skilled worker program, which continues to run a backlog and is plagued by years-long delays for applicants.
“I think immigration is about nation-building,” Kenney said.
Kenney said the federal government has been “very generous” in accommodating the growth in provincial nominees.
“But there has to be a limit to that because I don’t think it would be right for the federal government to completely abandon its role in the selection of economic immigrants. We need to mend the skilled worker program, not end it.”
Kenney said next year the federal government will introduce a new, more “flexible” points system that will give credit to skilled tradespeople, a group previously shut out in favour of those with higher education. It will also confer points for having a job lined up in advance.
Kenney admits these changes are driven by the dramatic success of immigrants who come through the provincial systems.
“In fact, we see provincial nominees are getting significantly better incomes at least in their early years in Canada, as opposed to (federal) skilled worker immigrants.”

PROVINCIAL SUCCESSES

The PNP has worked best in Manitoba, where the province has worked closely with companies and municipalities, says Peter Showler, an immigration expert at the University of Ottawa.
“Manitoba in particular has been very imaginative,” he said. For example, a program to bring nurses from the Philippines brought them in groups which created built-in social support for them. Still, Shower warns that not all temporary foreign workers get the same level of support to become permanent residents through the PNP program or otherwise. And that can leave too much power in the hands of employers.
“When you have very positive, future-looking employers, that works very well,” he said. “If you have abusive employers, they can use that as a kind of threat or control to sometimes sustain improper labour practices.”
Kenney also admits the PNP program has its flaws.
“On the periphery there are some integrity challenges. For example, low retention rates in Atlantic Canada. Some people from overseas are pretending to go to one province when in fact they had settled in Toronto or Vancouver…. So we’re working with the provinces on shoring up the nominee program.”
And Kenney says that while he can imagine further expanding of the PNP program in the future, he has his eye on those languishing in the federal skilled worker queue.
“We have an obligation to several hundred thousand people in that backlog. We cannot just shut the door on them either. So we have to work away at all these problems at the same time.”
That may explain why recently released targets for the provincial program for 2012 are almost the same as this year’s.
Source: MuchmorCanada

Government of Canada bars violent criminals from sponsoring members of their family


Ottawa, November 23, 2011 — The Government of Canada is making it much harder for people convicted of crimes that result in bodily harm against members of their family or other particularly violent offences to sponsor any family class member to come to Canada, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney said today.
“I was very concerned after a court decision in 2008 found that a Canadian citizen, who was convicted in India of killing his sister-in-law after setting her on fire, could sponsor his new wife,” said Minister Kenney. “The regulatory changes now in force aim to prevent a similar situation from happening again.”
Previously, a sponsorship application would not have been approved if the sponsor had been convicted of a crime resulting in bodily harm against a list of family members or relatives. This list has now been expanded to ensure that prospective sponsors convicted of such crimes against an expanded list of individuals, or particularly violent offences against any person, are generally not allowed to sponsor family to come to Canada for five years following the completion of their sentence.
The proposed regulatory changes were pre-published in the Canada Gazette on April 2, 2011, followed by a 30-day public comment period. The changes came into force on Friday, November 18th, are posted on Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s website and will be published in Part II of the Canada Gazette on December 7, 2011.
“Family violence is not tolerated in Canada,” added the Minister. “Someone who commits a serious crime should not benefit from the privilege of sponsorship.”
These regulatory changes reinforce the integrity of Canada’s family class sponsorship program, assist in the protection of sponsored individuals from family violence and protect the health and safety of Canadians.
For further information (media only), please contact:
Candice Malcolm
Minister's Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.

China's Super-Rich Buy a Better Life Abroad

By  and 


Self-made millionaire Li Weijie runs his own ski and golf resort outside Beijing and considers himself a patriot: A lifesize statue of Mao Zedong on a four-meter base towers over the entrance to his resort. What would Chairman Mao say if he knew Li was the proud holder of a Canadian residency card? “I wanted access to the education system and health care of a developed country,” says Li, 43, whose other businesses include one of Beijing’s largest private taxi companies, two car dealerships, and a real estate company. Li now has a $6 million house on Vancouver’s Westside, known for its rich Chinese. His wife tools around Vancouver in a black Maybach while his 20-year-old son drives a dark gray Maserati to classes at the University of British Columbia. His wife and son live in Canada full-time.
What began as a trickle a decade ago when Li moved his family to Canada has become a flood as China’s new rich seek foreign passports or residency permits (commonly known as green cards in the U.S.) largely from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. More than 500,000 Chinese have investable assets of over 10 million yuan ($1.57 million), according to a joint survey released in April by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Co. The study says almost 60 percent are considering emigrating, have begun the process, or have emigrated.
In the U.S. so far this year almost 3,000 Chinese citizens have applied for investor visas, up from 270 in 2007. That’s 78 percent of the total applicant pool for this type of visa, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The U.S. investor visa, also known as the EB-5, requires a minimum investment of $500,000 by the applicant in a commercial project in the U.S. that employs at least 10 Americans within two years. If the Chinese applicants can’t generate those jobs, they and their family may have to leave the U.S.
The drive to emigrate makes for brisk business for people like Jason Zhang, a broker at Realty Direct Boston, a branch of a nationwide chain. Zhang’s office specializes in settling Chinese in the Boston area. He says this year he has already helped dozens of Chinese families purchase homes and cars (the émigrés often pay in cash, he says) and find the right schools for their children, up from just two or three families in total a few years ago. Wealthy suburbs like Weston and Lexington are top choices.
For the most part, China’s richest aren’t permanently fleeing their country, as some Russian oligarchs have. About 80 percent of the wealthy Chinese emigrating don’t plan on giving up their passports, according to an October survey by the Bank of China and Shanghai-based Hurun Report, which publishes an annual ranking of China’s richest people. Instead, the most common model is that of Li Weijie: Wife and child get foreign passports and live abroad, husband gets a residency permit but spends most of his time in China. “If you think of emigrating like Russians, it is because they are afraid and so are leaving their country,” says Hurun’s founder, Rupert Hoogewerf. “This is not true of the wealthy Chinese at all. They still have their businesses in China and most of their assets are in yuan.”
So why are they looking at residency abroad? The top motive cited is to pursue better educational opportunities for their children, according to the Bank of China-Hurun and China Merchants-Bain surveys, as well as comments from émigrés. The feeling among rich Chinese is that U.S. universities beat out their Chinese equivalents, and their children need to understand the world. Émigrés note that top Chinese leaders such as Xi Jinping, likely China’s next president, send their children abroad to study. Escaping dire air quality and food safety problems are also factors.
Moving a family abroad and obtaining foreign residency cards could also prove useful in case of sudden legal or policy shifts that hurt entrepreneurs, or if social unrest reaches a boiling point. So-called mass incidents—riots, strikes, and protests—doubled in five years, to 180,000 in 2010, Sun Liping, a professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, wrote in a Feb. 25 article in the Economic Observer. “Some people in China are talking about class conflicts against rich people,” says Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of the National Economic Research Institute in Beijing. “Maybe some of those emigrating or getting residency are worrying about possible policy changes turning China ‘left’ that will put them in danger.”
One émigré in Boston (who asked only that his last name, Yang, be used since he still owns a factory in China) points out that the Chinese government spent more money on internal security (549 billion yuan) than on defense (534 billion yuan) in 2010. He says that if things got ugly, the rich would be targets not just for being rich but for their close connections with the government. Most of China’s wealthy have an “original sin,” or some illegality relating to earning their “first bucket of gold,” says Yang.
“China develops so fast, and the society is unstable,” says Shengxi “Tina” Tian, an attorney at MT Law, a firm based in Burlington, Mass., that helps wealthy Chinese emigrate to the U.S. Tian points out that the émigrés appreciate the rule of law in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere.
Some wealthy émigrés are nervous talking openly about why they have sought foreign residencies. “For us businessmen, we go wherever is safe,” says another recent émigré in Boston. “China’s political system and legal system make us feel insecure,” says the businessman, who still runs a furniture business in Shanghai and would not allow his or his company’s name to be used. He later refused to talk further and instead declared his devotion to the Party.
In China, more than 800 licensed emigration service companies (and possibly hundreds more without proper government approvals) coach applicants for visa interviews, help them fill out forms, and identify possible overseas investments. Beijing-based Well Trend United, one of China’s oldest and largest emigration service companies, charges up to $30,000 per client. Well Trend, which has offices in 10 of China’s largest cities and more than 400 visa consultants and agents, says it has helped more than 10,000 Chinese get overseas visas since it opened in 1995. Business will remain strong for at least another decade, says founder Larry Wang. “It helps the U.S. get certain capital while Chinese can realize their dream of seeing the world. It’s supply and demand.”
A serious issue for both the Chinese applicants and their prospective host countries is the origin of their wealth. To ensure that those with criminal backgrounds aren’t let in, and to make sure they’re truly affluent, officials of the U.S., Canada, and other countries want thorough documentation of their assets. That can be difficult. “Wealthy Chinese almost all have a history of evading taxes,” says Gao Tong, who emigrated to Boston six years ago and is now setting up his own immigration services company called Harmonia Capital USA, with his brother, a wealthy Shanghai businessman. “They fear getting caught if they have to report their income globally.”
Some middlemen collude with clients to forge documents, say Well Trend executives, since many émigrés don’t have papers to prove the origin of their finances, or they may have gotten rich through illicit means. “There are more than a few bad apples,” says Victor Lum, a vice-president at Well Trend and a former Canadian visa official. “USCIS takes allegations regarding EB-5 program malfeasance very seriously,” USCIS spokesman Christopher Bentley wrote in an e-mail.
Longer term, if China’s economy continues to grow, the emigration surge could abate. Ski resort entrepreneur Li says some of his friends are reconsidering plans to get foreign residency. In part that’s because of stricter rules in Canada and elsewhere. And while rich Chinese still crave Canadian or U.S. degrees for their children, they may see less reason to emigrate. “When I first went to Canada, I thought China was very backward and it would take 50 years for us to catch up,” says Li. “After 10 years, we can all see that China will absolutely surpass the rest of the world.”
The bottom line: More than half a million Chinese are worth at least 10 million yuan. Many are seeking the insurance of a second home abroad.
Roberts is Bloomberg Businessweek's Asia News Editor and China bureau chief. Zhao is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

Skilled Worker and Provincial Nominee Admissions Increased; New Eligibility Stream for PhD Students Introduced


Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) announced this month that it plans to increase the total admissions to Canada in 2012 under both the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW) and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). At the same time, CIC has added a new eligibility stream for doctoral students under the FSW Program.
FSW admissions in 2012 will increase from the 47,000–47,400 targeted in the 2011 Immigration Levels Plan to a new target of 55,000-57,000. According to CIC, the higher range in 2012 is consistent with a 2010 evaluation of the FSW Program which indicated a strong continuing need for skilled immigrants in Canada and which showed that the program is working well: 89 per cent of FSWs were employed or self-employed three years after landing; and 95 per cent of the employers surveyed indicated that FSWs were meeting or exceeding their expectations.  CIC believes the higher range will also support “labour market responsiveness” and sustain progress on backlog reduction.

In the PNP category, CIC will increase the space available to the provinces and territories in 2012 for provincial nominees to a new level of between 42,000 to 45,000, including the nominees themselves, their spouses and dependents.  According to CIC, over 36,000 people entered Canada in 2010 as provincial nominees; the new level for 2012 represents an almost seven-fold increase since 2004. CIC has indicated that the PNP allotments by province and territory are still being finalized and will be released later.

Beginning November 5, 2011 qualifying international PhD students and recent graduates are eligible to apply for permanent residence under the FSW Program. To be eligible, students must have completed at least two years of study toward a PhD and remain in good academic standing at a provincially recognized post-secondary educational institution in Canada or have graduated from a Canadian PhD program within the 12 months before applying. CIC has indicated that it intends to accept up to an annual total of 1,000 PhD students/recent graduates in this new FSW stream.

For further information on the requirements and process of applying for permanent residence under the FSW Program or under a PNP, please contact the immigration law specialists at Green and Spiegel LLP.

Auditor general finds 'disturbing' flaws in visa system


The auditor general's office is expressing frustration about the way Citizenship and Immigration Canada continues to hand out visas, and is concerned about delays on drug safety at Health Canada and planned spending by National Defence.
Overall, the report released Tuesday gives a passing grade to the Conservative government on how it tracked spending for three of the programs under its $47-billion Economic Action Plan introduced in 2009, but said it's not clear how the government is going to determine the effectiveness of one of them.
The report examined the $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, the $2-billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program and the $1-billion Community Adjustment Fund.
Interim Auditor General John Wiersema is critical about the Department of National Defence and Citizenship and Immigration Canada in his report released Tuesday.Interim Auditor General John Wiersema is critical about the Department of National Defence and Citizenship and Immigration Canada in his report released Tuesday. The Canadian Press
"For the three specific programs we audited, the government was diligent in monitoring the progress of projects and their spending," Wiersema said at a news conference in Ottawa. "It also took corrective action as required to ensure that projects were completed as intended." His audit did not include an analysis of whether the projects funded were worthy of the cash, only if the money was properly tracked by the departments spending it.
The Conservatives have touted the EAP as a successful program that created jobs, but Wiersema's report says data was collected in a number of ways by various departments, making it difficult for the government to assess how well its goals were achieved.
The government is supposed to table a report in early 2012 to summarize the overall performance of the Economic Action Plan and Wiersema said at a news conference that his understanding is that the Conservatives are going to use economic modeling to come up with figures on how many jobs were created.
He acknowledged it is a difficult task to quantify how many jobs can specifically be tied to the EAP programs and said it's too early to tell if the government's final tally will be reliable. Accuracy will depend on how the government will estimate the job creation numbers and Wiersema said his office will take a close look at that report once it is submitted but he did not commit to doing any further audits of the EAP.
"The Economic Action Plan involved $47 billion of stimulus to the economy, I think it's really important that the government follow through on its commitment to report to Parliament on the overall success of the Economic Action Plan," he said.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in question period that the government will table a final report and he defended his government's job-creation efforts saying 600,000 net new jobs have been created since the recession hit.
Opposition parties slammed the government throughout the day on the report's findings but ministers responsible for the various departments that were the subject of audits fended off the attacks.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said he shares some of the concerns identified in the report and that his department is already implementing its recommendations.
The fall report identified a number of problems when it came to Kenney's department and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Wiersema said they "need to do a much better job of managing the health, safety and security risks associated with issuing a visa."
Wiersema said that the system lacks even the "basic elements" for visa officers to ensure that they get the right information to make the decision on whether to let someone into the country or not.

Flaws in visa-granting system

The audit identified a number of problems: it found that many of the criteria used by visa officers to identify high-risk applicants are outdated; CBSA analysts who provide security advice to visa officers have not received the necessary training; their work is rarely reviewed; and there was no evidence that mandatory checks were completed.
"We've been reporting on some of these problems with visas for 20 years and I find it disturbing that fundamental weaknesses still exist," he said."It's time that CIC and CBSA work together to resolve them."
Wiersema said the security manuals used by visa officers when making their decisions haven't been updated since 1999. The audit also pointed out that medical screening for danger to the public has focused on syphilis and tuberculosis for the past 50 years, even though health professionals are required to monitor and report on 56 diseases.
Citizenship and Immigration has not reviewed whether visa applicants should undergo mandatory testing for some of those diseases and it also doesn't review its decisions to grant visas later to ensure the right decisions were made.
"This means that CIC and CBSA don't know if a visa was issued to someone who was in fact inadmissible," Wiersema said.
The interim auditor general was asked at his news conference whether the flaws in the system means there are people who were granted entry to Canada who should have been kept out.
"The department is not able to provide us with assurance that that's not happening," he responded.

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