Media Statement: Immigration Levels Plan
Media Statement: Immigration Levels Plan
NDP Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Critic Jenny Kwan Responds to Immigration Levels Plan Announcement:
The Liberals have made a complete mess of our immigration system, and now, they are proposing changes just for show. Let me be clear, migrants did not create Canada's housing crisis. It's the result of failed housing policies of successive Conservative and Liberal governments.
The Prime Minister thinks that scapegoating newcomers will somehow turn his political fortunes around, the truth is, it won’t. During the last 9 years, the Liberals had every opportunity to change Canada’s immigration system, sadly, they have squandered the chance to do what is necessary to reform the system to be more responsive, efficient and fair.
It was the Conservatives that created the low-wage temporary foreign workers program in 2014 and the Liberals fueled it with its massive expansion. Not only was the program designed to devalue the contributions of these workers to benefit rich CEOs, it also exposed them to abuse, exploitation, and suppressed wages for Canadians.
Under Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre, immigration has become a funnel of cheap labour to big companies so they can exploit vulnerable workers and pay the lowest wage possible. They allowed International Students to be used as cash cows by certain post-secondary education institutions and provinces. They have created back logs in processing like we have never seen before causing families heartache and suffering as they long to reunite with their loved ones. They allowed essential workers who risked their lives in support of Canadians to fall out of status during the pandemic. And at a time when there are more people displaced due to conflict and the climate crisis, the government is cutting humanitarian support. Their litany of empty promises is a betrayal.
A New Democrat will change that. There is no doubt we need immigration to meet our needs. It’s time to take balanced approach, and restore what Canada used to have, an immigration system that is compassionate and offered permanent resident status on arrival to a wide range of workers that include both blue and white collar workers, from labourers to skilled and semi-skilled workers, care workers, service industry workers and more. Newcomers work hard to build a better future for themselves and their family while contributing to Canada's economic, social and cultural fabric. They deserve to be respected.
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How your data determines what you pay!
What if the price you pay at the store is different than the person standing next to you?
Corporations can use personal data such as location, device type, browsing history, purchase behavior, login status, and loyalty cards/programs to profile consumers and determine what different people are charged for the same goods and services.
How can we stop this from happening in Canada?
Join MP Jenny Kwan, Patrick Johnson - President of UFCW 1518, Jim Stanford - Economist and Director of Centre for Future Work, Avi Lewis - NDP Leader and Benjamin Fung - Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity and other experts, for a public forum and community conversation about what surveillance pricing means for consumers and workers, how technology and personal data are changing the way prices are set, and what everyday people can do to fight back.
*Scan QR code, click the image or this link to register your attendance - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/your-data-their-price-a-town-hall-on-surveillance-pricing-tickets-1998495899032
IRCC taking 33 months to process applications in wake of 'lost Canadians' law
When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their first child, the choice seemed simple.
Smith would give birth in her home country of Jamaica where she had family support, and then they would together return to Montreal three months later.
At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their daughter, Sofianne, needed to fly back to Canada was between four and six weeks.
But more than eight months later, they're still waiting.
Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica.
"It's been very frustrating," said Sud. "I was lucky to be there for three months … but I've been missing every step since, and it's been very difficult to be apart from them."
He's not alone.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications — many of them from a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply.
That backlog is preventing Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from coming home.
According to the department's most recent update on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those applying for a citizenship certificate now face a wait of 33 months.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called on the government to restore staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing delays "simply unreasonable and unacceptable."
*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-lost-canadians-c3-backlog-9.7366981