Immigration flexibility will attract ‘hidden jewels’ to Canada: Kenney

By Robert Hiltz

OTTAWA — Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says changes are coming to Canada’s immigration system to make it more flexible in an effort to combat labour shortages.

Kenney told CTV’s Question Period that the government is planning to change the points system for selecting immigrants to recognize the skilled trades. This policy change would alter the focus of the traditional immigration preference for university-educated migrants including engineers and doctors.

“People who are skilled tradespeople have an almost impossible job of coming to Canada under our current system because the skilled worker program basically selects people with advanced university degrees,” Kenney told CTV.

He said by opening up the border to more trade-oriented workers, the federal government will be able to attract “hidden jewels” that will help fill labour shortages in specific areas.

NDP MP Olivia Chow said the federal government would serve Canadians better by training people out of work at home, before looking abroad to fill labour needs.

“We have 1.4 million Canadians looking for work and the apprenticeship programs and school training programs can certainly be ramped up,” Chow said. “Those (companies) that train workers — and train unemployed workers especially — should be rewarded with a tax break.”

She said Canada has relied on immigration too often to fill needs in the labour market, where there are plenty of options at home.

Chow said only bringing in workers would make it difficult for those who gain residency or citizenship to bring their families to Canada.

Kenney said there were plans to make it easier to deport people from the country found to be inadmissible by immigration officials.

“We’ll be coming forward with legislation on that in this term of Parliament to streamline the number of almost endless appeals that exist,” he said.

“When these people hire clever lawyers, they’re able to go back with endless appeals,” Kenney said. “We need to say, ‘You get your day in court in Canada, but not 20 years in court.’ ”

Chow said there is no need to change the rules surrounding deportation to remove people from Canada. Instead, she said, the Canada Border Services Agency should keep better track of individuals set for deportation.

A scathing auditor general’s report released in November said the CBSA was lacking guidance, training and information to properly determine who should and shouldn’t be let into Canada.

In an effort to track down people set for deportation, the CBSA rolled out a most wanted list to enlist the public’s help in tracking down people convicted of serious crimes and suspected war criminals that have slipped past the CBSA.

Kenney used as example the case of Leon Mugesera, a suspect wanted in his native Rwanda and accused of inciting the 1994 genocide — where close to one million minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. Mugesera was shipped back to his homeland this month after at 15 year legal battle over his deportation — an example that Chow said was extreme.

The minister also said there were no plans to expand the recent changes to government regulations making it mandatory for immigrants taking the oath of citizenship to reveal their faces, even if they wear traditional coverings like the niqab or burka.

He said it was already standard procedure for face coverings to be removed in interviews with visa officers.

“The general principle should be that when citizens are interacting with the government, with the state, they should be showing us who they are, uncovering their faces, and I think we’re taking a reasonable approach to that,” he said.

Ottawa: Immigrants need minimum language skills

CALGARY — A program which allows provinces to tailor immigration to fit local labour needs may look fine on the surface but a federal government evaluation has uncovered what it says are some troubling trends.

The program allows participating provinces and territories to nominate potential immigrants who they believe will meet particular economic and labour market requirements. It is the second-largest source of economic immigration to Canada and an estimated 42,000 to 45,000 people will be allowed to apply this year.

The evaluation by Immigration and Citizenship Canada says the majority of workers selected by the provinces are succeeding. More than 90 per cent declared employment earnings after one year in Canada and 70 per cent held a job in line with their skills.

But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says there are problems. One is that less than one-quarter of nominees who moved to the Atlantic provinces stayed there compared with a 95 per cent rate in British Columbia.

Deborah Bayer of Nova Soctia’s office of immigration pointed out that the retention rate in the province is 68 per cent.

Kenney said another problem is that too many of those coming to Canada have little or no proficiency in either official language. He wants a minimum language standard for all provincial nominees and stronger links between their occupations and local job needs.

"It’s a partnership, not an Ottawa-knows-best situation, but at the end of the day we are going to be quite assertive in saying that we do think it’s best to have a standard, national language benchmark," Kenney said in Calgary on Thursday.

He said some provinces don’t seem to care whether their nominees speak the language at all.

"I guess what we’re saying to them is it doesn’t make a lot of sense to invite someone to Canada who doesn’t speak any English ... and some of the provinces have been, I would say, undervaluing language proficiency in their selection," he said.

Fraudulent immigration applications are significant, and there is a correlation between provinces that don’t enforce a language requirement and a higher rate of fraud, Kenney added.

"Some of the people who have little or no language proficiency come in through these investor schemes that we’ve had to shut down because they were quite dodgy. There were some provinces allowing consultants to run fast and loose to attract people who had a lot of money but no language proficiency."

Kenney said there are always "people around the world, particularly in the industry of bottom-feeding, unscrupulous immigration agents and consultants, who are willing to cut corners in order to make money to get people to Canada."

In November, New Brunswick stopped accepting applications under a Chinese immigration pilot program after an internal review. The auditor general there has also flagged concerns after finding that the province accepted about 5,000 immigrants during a 10-year span but didn’t track where they ended up living.

In Prince Edward Island, a former civil servant has alleged she saw senior provincial officials accept bribes to expedite immigration applications. Immigration Canada has forwarded that allegation to the RCMP, who are deciding whether to investigate.

In Nova Scotia, the government had to pay a $25-million settlement to immigrants who paid thousands of dollars for the promise of middle-management jobs which they never received.

Kenney said problems in Atlantic Canada can partially be blamed on a higher unemployment rate. As well, there may not be a strong established immigrant community to provide guidance and support.

"We need to work with the Atlantic provinces. They have benefited from this program. I don’t want to be too critical of the program."