Happy face bro, kata gayab mula, hows life?...but anyway looks like this new immigration will work in favor of skilled potential immigrants, :-)
Bill would fast-track some immigrants, reject others
Updated Fri. Mar. 14 2008 9:46 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The Tories have slipped significant changes into Canada's
immigration laws into a budget implementation bill introduced in the
Commons Friday.
The changes, which amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,
were included in the budget bill, making them a confidence matter. If
they're passed, the changes would speed up the processing of
applications for skilled workers, but they would also throw other
claimants to the back of the line and reject others outright.
The bill will likely become law, unless the Liberals -- who have
abstained or voted with the Tories on recent confidence motions -- vote
against the bill with support from other opposition MPs.
The Tories say the immigration reforms would streamline backlogs in
immigration applications, which they say have swelled over the years.
"Under the previous government (the permanent residence application)
number ballooned from 50,000 to 800,000 ... It used to take three to
six months to get an application processed. Now it takes three to six
years," Immigration Minister Diane Finley told CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy
Live.
The legislation would give Ottawa the power to prioritize which
claimant categories will be placed at the top and which will be
relegated to the bottom.
Finley hasn't said which categories will be bumped up on the
priority list and which will end up on the bottom. But she claimed the
legislation could make it faster to process all immigrant applications.
Finley said changes are needed because Canada's workforce will need additional workers in the years ahead.
"Everywhere I go, employers from every sector are telling me they're
just screaming for help... Whether it's people to wash dishes and make
sandwiches, or whether it's the highly skilled engineers, medical
professionals. There are shortages right across the country," she said.
Under the bill:
- The immigration minister would have the power to reject
applications by individuals already determined to be inadmissible by
immigration officers.
- The minister would also be able to set limits on the types of
immigrants that can have their applications processed in a given year.
- Also, any claimant seeking to immigrate to Canada on humanitarian
grounds would already have to be in the country to have their
application processed.
The Liberals are accusing the Tories of shutting out immigrants and
say the changes will mean fewer immigrants will enter Canada.
"The government is so desperate to close the door on immigrants that
it will ignore the painful mistakes of previous Conservative
governments that tried to do the very same thing,'' Liberal MP David
McGuinty told The Canadian Press.
"(Former Canadian prime minister John) Diefenbaker tried to shut out
immigrants by capping the system only to abandon his plan a month later
because his policies were short-sighted and misguided ... Why does the
minister insist on closing Canada's doors to the newcomers we
desperately need to fuel our labour and our population growth even
though history shows this is absolutely the wrong approach?"
The NDP and Bloc Quebecois took a swipe at both the Tories and the
Liberals. They say if the Liberals really want to help immigrants they
would vote against the bill.
"I find it a bit sad to see the Conservatives profiting from the
fact that the Liberals don't really want to show their true colours --
that they're not ready to defeat the government," said Bloc MP Pierre
Paquette.
With files from The Canadian Press
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