MONTREAL – Even though the immigration backlog has swelled to over one million people under the Harper Conservatives, they persist in exploiting so-called “very ethnic” multicultural groups for political gain with “ethnic costume” photo-ops, Liberal candidate Justin Trudeau said today.
“The Conservatives continue to divide Canadians along ‘very ethnic’ and ‘very Canadian lines – because they don’t understand that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian,” said Mr. Trudeau Liberal candidate for Papineau. “Their use of new Canadians as political props in ‘ethnic costume’ masks the reality that the immigration backlog has exploded under their watch.”
Yesterday, an email sent on behalf of Etobicoke Center Conservative candidate Ted Optiz, who was also Jason Kenney’s regional advisor, asked community groups in his riding to help create a “great TV photo-op” with Stephen Harper by dressing in “national folklore costumes which represent their ethnic backgrounds.” The email continued: “We are seeking representation from the Arab community. Do you have any cultural groups that would like to participate by having someone at the event in an ethnic costume?”
Speaking today, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff responded to this news:
“When I have meetings I don’t arrange people in ethnic costumes behind me as Mr. Harper is doing today. These are not costumes, for heaven’s sake… Canada isn’t Disneyland. These are ethnic groups who do not want to be treated in this way. They want to be treated as Canadians first, last and always. They take enormous pride in the dress that they bring from their homelands, but I think it’s entirely inappropriate for Mr. Harper to say, ‘show up at my meetings in your colourful costumes and we’ll have a little Canadian Disneyland for the purpose of the press.’ I find that insulting to Canadians because Canadians who come from other lands want to be recognized as Canadians first, last and always.”
Mr. Trudeau said that Stephen Harper needs to come clean with Canadians on his absolute failure to deal with the immigration backlog and his cuts to family reunification and settlement services.
“During Tuesday’s debate, Stephen Harper said Conservatives had been ‘working hard’ on the immigration backlog, but failed to explain why the immigration backlog has grown to more than a million people on his watch,” said Mr. Trudeau. “Despite changing the rules to shut out entire categories of immigrants, Mr. Harper has added more than 173,000 applications to the line.
“Mr. Harper has failed new Canadians on immigration by slashing settlement funding and family reunification numbers, while increasing family reunification wait times and the overall immigration backlog.”
Updated government immigration statistics, quietly released online on April 7th, show that the immigration backlog has grown to 1,003,012. The Conservatives have tried to hide this fact by playing with the numbers and excluding certain categories of applications from their totals, but figures clearly show a massive increase in the backlog of more than 173,000 on their watch.
This revelation comes as the Prime Minister also tried to run away from his record on family reunification during the debate. Stephen Harper claimed to be increasing immigration across all categories and that family class immigration will be the same next year as last year.
“Mr. Harper needs to tell new Canadians the truth about family reunification,” said Mr. Trudeau. “He has cut family reunification every year since 2006 and internal targets released under access to information laws show he is going to cut it again this year.
“A Liberal government will restore balance to the immigration system by reversing five years of Conservative cuts and return family class visas to the same proportion of overall immigration as in 2006”
BACKGROUND
Three years ago Stephen Harper used the immigration backlog, which he made worse, as an excuse to give the Citizenship and Immigration Minister sweeping discretionary powers to reject whole categories of immigrants. The Conservatives first use of these new powers was to cut the list of eligible skilled worker occupations and they have now decided to further shut the door on immigrants by limiting the number of new skilled worker applications they will accept to 20,000 per year. Despite picking and choosing narrow categories of skilled workers to fast-track processing at the expense of people hoping to be reunited with their families, the overall backlog continues to grow. More than one million applications were sitting in line as of December 31, 2010.
*CIC Permanent Resident Applicants Awaiting a Decision (updated April 7, 2011)
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/data-release/2010-Q4/index.asp
In December, the Harper government cut $53 million dollars – about 10% – from the 2011-12 budget for programs that offer support and integration services for new Canadians. This isn’t a rebalancing between provinces, this is a 10% cut to the overall budget.
In 2005 the previous Liberal government significantly increased family reunification targets for 2006, including tripling targets for parent and grandparent visas. Liberals also deployed temporary duty officers and hired additional administrative support staff specifically to accelerate the processing of parent and grandparent reunification. These changes resulted in 70,517 family class visas being issued in 2006, including 20,005 parent and grandparent visas.
When the Conservatives came to power they began cutting the number of Family Class visas each and every year. Last year there were 15% fewer Family Class visas than in 2006.
* Preliminary tables – Permanent and temporary residents, 2010
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2010-preliminary/01.asp
Government documents obtained under Access to Information laws show that the Conservatives are cutting overall Family Class immigration again in 2011 – down a further 8% from 2010. Conservatives are cutting parent and grandparent visas by 27% – from 15,322 last year to 11,200 in 2011. This would be a cut of 44% from 2006 levels.
The Conservatives have tried to claim wait times for parents and grandparents from key source countries have come down, but the Conservatives are playing with the numbers. Wait times are a combination of the processing times in Canada plus various overseas missions. While processing times in some overseas missions have nominally gone down, the delays in Canada have exploded on their watch – increasing overall wait times. With further drastic cuts, parents and grandparents from these countries could be waiting for more than a decade to be reunited with their families here in Canada.
