New Canadians Frustrated with Conservative Immigration Inaction

RICHMOND, B.C. – New Canadians are frustrated with growing immigration backlogs and the Conservative government’s lack of action on the foreign credentials file, said Omar Alghabra, Liberal Citizenship and Immigration Critic and M.P. for Mississauga –Erindale.

 “Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Multiculturalism Secretary of State Jason Kenney are misleading Canadians by exploiting real and legitimate difficulties with nothing more than political double-speak. We must focus on more action and less rhetoric,” said Mr. Alghabra.

"That is why I wanted to hear from those affected by these issues and find solutions with the benefit of their perspective.”

Mr. Alghabra today attended a roundtable in Richmond, hosted by Richmond MP Raymond Chan and Newton-North Delta MP Sukh Dhaliwal.  The roundtable brought together a diverse range of stakeholders who expressed disappointment over the lack of funding and direction provided by the Conservative government to issues that have real impact on their ability to bring their families together and to use their skills to build a life here in Canada with dignity.

Mr. Alghabra said that the previous Liberal government made some substantial investments to reduce backlogs and aid with foreign credential recognition.

"We understood then as we understand today the importance of overcoming these obstacles, both for new Canadians and for Canada as a whole," he said.

In 2005, Liberals committed an initial $72 million to increase processing of parent and grandparent applications and instructed Citizenship and Immigration officials to be more flexible in issuing multiple-entry visitor visas to parents and grandparents so that they could visit Canada while their applications were in process. This initial response to the immigration backlog was followed in November of 2005 with a five year $700 million plan to help reduce the immigration applications backlog and create a new In-Canada Economic Stream of eligible immigrants.

To address foreign credentials, the Liberal government moved forward with a $263 million Internationally-Trained Workers Initiative to improve the integration of immigrants and internationally-trained Canadians into the work force.

"After more than a year in office, the only thing the Conservative government has done is cancel our $700-million commitment to deal with backlogs and failed even to deliver on the Prime Minister’s narrow approach to create a Foreign Credentials Agency," said Mr. Alghabra. "In fact, the government has actually diluted financial support for this agency by stretching the two-year funding commitment over three years."

"New Canadians have waited long enough for solutions to these very crucial issues. It’s time that their government steps up to the plate to help them. I will be taking what I heard today and giving it to our party’s leadership so that we can build on the concrete solutions we have already put on the table to tackle these problems," he said.