Stephen Harper’s Conservatives returned to power with a stronger, broadly-based minority and ready to implement immigration changes

The incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party has returned to power in Canada’s elections but will face another minority parliament after being denied a majority by Quebec separatists.

The results of country's 40th general election showed that the Conservative Party has strengthened lead everywhere except Quebec. The Conservatives won 143 seats in the House of Commons, up from 127 in 2006, while the Liberals won 76, a drop of 19 seats from the party's standing at dissolution. Bloc Québécois candidates were elected in 50 ridings, while NDP candidates were holding 37 seats, a gain of seven seats over the last election. Two Independents also held on to their seats.

The Conservative Party was in need of 155 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons to wield majority rule.

Before dissolution, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives were also in minority so faced a lot of resistance to their amendments to the Immigration Act this spring. However, this time Conservatives have returned to power with a stronger, broadly based minority, facing a weakened opposition leader and ready to address issues more easily and more quickly.

In the aftermath of his second-straight minority government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will now finally put their party’s sponsored immigration priorities into practice (which are, as yet unknown to the public), and all those Federal Skilled Workers whose applications have been accepted provisionally by the department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) since February 27th, will finally know their fate.

According to the Conservative’s immigration plans, Federal Skilled Worker applicants will now be selected based on whether their occupations are on CIC’s recently established list of qualifying occupations. Applicants whose occupations will be on this list and who will be securing minimum required points (under the Federal Skilled Worker category) will be qualified for permanent resident visa. Those, whose occupations will not be on the list, will either put into waiting list or receive their applications back with full refund, however, they will not be considered refused. These applicants, therefore, could re-apply or apply for a provincial nomination, if they can qualify.

According to Canada’s immigration agency, this list of qualifying occupations will not be made pubic until November this year.

The Conservatives have also pledged to work with provinces and territories to ensure greater standardization of workplace and professional credentials across the country and standards for assessment of foreign credentials, to place foreign credential on agenda of next meeting of First Ministers, and to make immigration consulting a regulated activity.

More from the results of Tuesday’s election shows that eight candidates from South Asian origin, including seven sitting MPs have been elected. Deepak Obhrai, Ruby Dhalla and Gurbax Singh Malhi, besides Navdeep Bains, Ujjal Dosanjh, Nina Grewal and Ratan Singh are the members who have been re-elected. Tim Uppal, won from Alberta, will join for the first time the other MPs from South Asian origin. Two sitting candidates from South Asian origin, Wajid Khan and Rahim Jaffer, lost their seats. In 2006, ten MPs were elected to the Parliament from South Asian origin compared with three Arabs and five Chinese.

Canadians have also elected a record number of women that is 68, up from 66 in 2006. All the party leaders, Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe, won their seats except Elizabeth May of Green Party who lost her seat. Voter turnout hovered around 59 per cent, appearing to be the lowest in the history of Confederation.

An online poll finds first-time foreign-born electors feel uninformed about the process and their voting rights

A majority of Canadian immigrants, who are either first-time voters or have not voted in the past, feel they don't have enough information to vote with confidence in the upcoming federal election, a new unofficial online poll concludes.

The poll, conducted by Canadian Immigrant Magazine, found that 70 per cent of newcomers who are ready to vote for the first time feel like they don't know enough about the electoral process. Almost half of all respondents — which include first-time and repeat immigrant voters combined — also felt that they are not given enough information about the voting process in Canada.

Though the Canadian government has issued election information material in nearly 30 languages, the results of the poll suggest that candidates should reach out to newcomers more effectively to explain the election process and encourage them to participate. This approach could help improve the voter turnout in Canada which has, according to Elections Canada statistics, been decreasing steadily since 1988, especially amongst immigrant communities. Based on the results of survey, conducted by Decima Research in April 2002, a report by Elections Canada noted that electors’ lack of knowledge and information is one of the reasons for this decline in turnout.

As for how parties rank with the participants, according to poll results, the Liberal Party and Conservative Party both had 25 per cent of participants choosing them. The New Democratic Party (NDP) followed in third place with a 23 per cent backing from participants. The Green Party came in last with four per cent. Interestingly, 22 per cent of participants choose none of the above parties.

In the poll, participants were also asked to rank the following issues in order of importance: law and order, childcare, family reunification, healthcare, jobs, economy and environment.

Considering the current financial climate in North America and across Europe, 106 mentions ranked the economy as their first selection the most. Healthcare came in second (105 mentions), job skills and recognition came in third (85 mentions), law and order came in fourth (49 mentions) and family reunification came in fifth (42 mentions) place.

Of the top five mentions, two are key issues for immigrants —job and skill recognition and family reunification.

In its recent release, the Statistics Canada has reported that immigration accounted for a spike in the Canadian population during the second quarter of 2008 — the largest increase in 17 years — with new second-quarter records being set in Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Considering the growing immigrant population, perhaps it is time for political parties and their leadership to address newcomers’ social and economic needs, and take the topic of immigration to its rightful place among Canada’s primary political issues.

Given its political and economic impact, the vote of a new immigrant would play a vital role in this election. A 2004 government-sponsored study entitled "Counting and Courting the Immigrant Vote" states that, given the concentration of regional votes, "at no other time in our country's history has the foreign-born elector been so fundamental to whether there will be a majority or minority government in Canada."

Over thirty South Asian candidates contesting in upcoming federal election across the Canada

The South Asian community seems quite active in the upcoming federal election, perhaps more than any other visible minority in Canada.

Both major parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, have nominated about two dozen candidates from the South Asian community. Third biggest party, the NDP, has alone nominated almost two dozen South Asian candidates. Green Party has also nominated two South Asian candidates.

Nearly two dozen South Asian candidates, from the three main contesting parties, are Sikh-Canadians. The Liberals were the first to recognize the poll potential of the Sikhs, while NDP have fielded the maximum number of Sikh candidates in the upcoming federal election. NDP members have nominated candidates for Brampton ridings who are all from the Punjabi Sikh community.

Three among the five constituencies in Mississauga are being contested by South Asians. A Pakistani descendant and a Bengali descendant are running for two Scarborough ridings. NDP candidates for Toronto Centre, St. Paul's and Etobicoke North are of South Asian background.

In demographic terms, the NDP has nominated more than half its candidates in the GTA who are from South Asian communities.

In 2006, there were ten Members of Parliament of South Asian origin. Three incumbent Liberal members of Parliament from Brampton, one from Toronto and two from British Columbia are also back in the race. Two incumbent Conservative MPs from Alberta and a sitting MP from Mississauga belong to the South Asian community as well.

In a broader perspective, South Asians are candidates for all political parties. Some local campaigners are worried that South Asian candidates could sway these snap elections and have derided all the parties for ‘ethnic pandering.’

South Asians are the largest visible minority and immigrant group in Canada. Nearly 1.3 million people — a 38 per cent increase over 2001 — identified themselves in 2006 census as South Asian, which includes Canadians who came from countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. They accounted for 24.9 per cent of the visible minority population and 4 per cent of the total population.

NDP also vows to reverse Conservative immigration changes, pledges to develop a credible and accountable immigration system

Running up their bill of election promises, New Democrats (NDP) have also vowed to completely repeal the controversial immigration amendments implemented by Conservative government this year, while pledged to develop a credible and accountable immigration system.

The Conservative-legislation, New Democrats are promising to reverse, was written into the 2008 budget bill C-50 in an attempt to tackle a backlog of nearly one million applications and, consequently, excessively long processing times. Critics have taken aim at the law for the authority it assigns to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to hand-pick immigrants.

New Democrats called these ministerial powers "arbitrary, secretive and restrictive". From the viewpoint of New Democrats, these immigration reforms mean increased exploitation of "guest workers", more delays and restrictions for family reunification, less effective strategic planning for labor market needs, and more secretive and arbitrary decisions by cabinet ministers.

Although defeated but NDP was the only party which not only brought motion in the Parliament to block budget bill to proceed for second reading but also suggested Finance Committee to split the budget bill into two bills by separating the budget reforms and proposed immigration reforms. NDP voted against the immigration reforms and wanted to force an election on this issue.

New Democrats also have a plan for an improved immigration system that will ensure fairness, boost Canada’s productivity and ease family reunification. They have pledged to significantly increase resources and support to deal with immigration backlog, reform visa program, create a more compassionate system for refugees, raise immigration quotas "significantly" and introduce a series of programs to help new Canadians learn one of the country’s official languages and have their professional credentials recognized.

The specific measures of New Democrats’ immigration plan will include:

• Implement "Creating Fair Opportunities" plan to accelerate and streamline the recognition of foreign credentials, overseas degrees and previous employment experience of newcomers with national standards, permanent training, bridging programs and international reciprocity agreements.


• Review current point system to match the labor market needs, including specific provisions for blue-collar workers and tradespeople.


• Increase funding to settlement support services for new Canadians to assist with literacy, community integration and orientation, including bridging, mentorship, English and French as a second language (ESL and FSL) programs and resource centers.


• Increase annual immigration level up to 1 per cent of total population.


• Establish firm targets for on-time completion of family class and spousal sponsorships.


• Implement "Once in a Lifetime" bill that will permit any citizen or landed immigrant to sponsor at least one family member from outside the "family" classification.


• Eliminate landing fees for new immigrants, as well as processing fees for refugees and people fleeing torture or domestic violence.


• Reform the visa program, so overseas family members of Canadian citizens or landed immigrants have proper visitation rights for important family events such as weddings, births and illness, and for the reunification of married couples.


• Abrogate the "Safe Third Country Agreement" with the United States so all refugees claimants are granted a hearing outside of Canada.


• Establish a special program to allow "Iraq War resisters" from the US to remain in Canada.


• Continue to ensure that all new Canadians have access to the "core" immigration system, rather than expand the Liberal-Conservative temporary "guest worker" and "live-in caregiver" programs. These programs deny basic employee rights, do not allow application for immigration, and result in longer delays in the entire system.


• Allow people without status who are living in Canada the opportunity to apply for legal status.


• Eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities in admission processes.


• Immediately implement the provision in the Immigration Act for a refugee appeal division to help facilitate a fair refugee hearing and determination process, and ensure that all vacancies on the Immigration and Refugee Board are filled in a fair and transparent manner.


• Properly regulate immigration consultants to stop abuse of immigrants and potential immigrants, and crack down on unscrupulous and illegal activities.

New Democrats believe that a successful immigration plan could be built by increasing Canada’s productivity, improving family reunification, establishing fairness and offering new hope to people fleeing persecution, violence and repression.

Industry coalition wants party leaders to debate acute skilled labor shortage in federal election

A coalition of business groups, unions and colleges has called on federal election candidates to debate solutions for the acute shortage of skilled labor in Canada, which is not only crippling the domestic economy but also reaching the point of a "national crisis" if not dealt with by the political parties aiming to form the next government.

The Investing in Skills coalition was officially launched few days earlier to bring the growing skills deficit to the attention of mainstream political parties’ leadership and demanded to get this issue on their agenda for the election.

The coalition, at a news conference and in a letter to all party leaders, urged them to respond to the issue that it said will need changes to policies governing immigration and the employment insurance system, and require increased spending on apprenticeship training and post-secondary education.

According to the coalition, the skills crisis affects all sectors of the
Canadian economy and is becoming an accepted part of life for many small and medium-size businesses, leading to companies choosing to operate with fewer employees and ignore growth opportunities.

To support its claim that crisis exists, the coalition cited, among other things:

• In a 2008 survey, the Bank of Canada found that over 40 per cent of firms surveyed were reporting that labor shortages were restricting their ability to meet demands.


• In a recent 2008 survey of 640 CEOs by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, 41 per cent said shortages of skilled workers are an important challenge for their business, while an additional 30 per cent said this issue has become critical and is a constraint on growth.


• The construction sector will need approximately 260,000 new workers over the next eight years.


• The Railway Association of Canada predicts the railway sector will need to hire 11,000 workers in the next four years (33 per cent of its total current workforce) to fill technical positions.
  
• A 2007 Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey of its members found that over 300,000 jobs were unfilled for at least four months in 2007.


• A 2006 Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey found that because hiring skilled workers was so difficult, 38 per cent of its members had chosen to function with fewer employees and ignore new business opportunities.


• The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) predicts unprecedented labor shortages in the tourism sector with a forecast of 348,000 unfilled jobs by 2025.


• The Canadian Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) Council predicts it will face annual shortages of between 4,290 and 7,380 skilled workers from 2005 to 2009 and between 4,450 and 8,050 skilled workers between 2010 and 2014.


• The Mining Industry Human Resources (MIHR) Council predicts a need for 10,000 people per year or 100,000 people over the next 10 years.


• Growth in manufacturing will require up to 62,000 skilled workers in aircraft maintenance alone by 2016.

The coalition says that while erasing the skills deficit will not happen overnight and will require a number of specific policy responses ranging from immigration to employment insurance to added investments in apprenticeship and post-secondary education, the scope, complexity and urgency of the issue require political will on a national scale.

Policy initiatives that Ottawa needs to address include a complete revamp of the immigration system, which has a backlog of nearly a million people and can take five years (or more) to process an individual's application; and additional investment in skills training and post-secondary education, especially at the community college level that focuses on trades where lengthy waiting lists of 2-4 years are common.

The Investing in Skills coalition includes 17 national organizations: Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), Association of Canadian Engineering Companies (ACEC), Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATAAlliance), Canadian Construction Association (CCA), Canadian GeoExchange Coalition, Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA), Canadian Labor Congress (CLC), Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME), Canadian Solar Industries Association (CSIA), Cement Association of Canada (CAC), Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGAAC), Certified Management Accountants (CMA), Hotel Association of Canada (HAC), Railway Association of Canada (RAC), Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).

Liberals vow to reverse Conservative immigration changes, promise a fairer and faster system worth $800M

Running up their bill of election promises, Liberals have vowed to reverse the controversial immigration amendments implemented by Conservative government this year, and pledged to overhaul country’s immigration system through an $800-million strategy.

The Conservative-legislation, Liberals are promising to repeal, was written into the 2008 budget bill C-50 in an attempt to tackle a backlog of nearly one million applications and, consequently, excessively long processing times. Critics have taken aim at the law for the authority it assigns to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to hand-pick immigrants. Although Liberals called these ministerial powers "unfair, sweeping discretionary" but they were abstained in the House of Commons at time of voting on this legislation perhaps to defeat Conservatives in Parliament that could trigger an election.

The Liberals also pledged to invest a total of $800 million in federal funding to deal with the immigration backlog, bring in a new business and visitors’ visa system, set up a new program for temporary workers and students to apply for permanent residence status, set up a more efficient refugee-determination system, raise immigration quotas "significantly" and introduce a series of programs to help new Canadians learn one of the country’s official languages and have their professional credentials recognized.

A breakdown of this investment, over four years, would be as follows:

• $400 million to modernize the immigration system, process applications more efficiently and support the admission of significantly more permanent residents to Canada.


• $200 million in New Beginnings Canada – an enhanced language training initiative designed to help newcomers master the language necessary to get jobs that match their qualifications.


• $200 million for a Bridge to Work plan – a new initiative that will better prepare newcomers for the workplace through the use of internships, special training and work placement opportunities.

Other measures will include (a) revamping the immigration points system to give greater weight to skilled trades, better aligning immigration policy to the Canadian labour market; (b) creation of an In-Canada Fast Track program that will accelerate the process for temporary workers, international students and live-in caregivers to apply for permanent residence within Canada; (c) direct financial assistance to help foreign professionals obtain recognition of their credentials; (b) introduction of Welcome Canada Pass – a five year renewable, multi-entry visitor’s visa for individuals sponsored by Canadian citizens and landed immigrants; (c) Creation of a so-called Canada Express Pass for frequent business visitors to reduce processing times and promote trade and commerce; and (d) strengthening provincial nominee programs.

Liberal party has declared immigration a "critical component" of its election platform and believed that a successful immigration plan is built on the sound principles of fairness, accountability and opportunity.

Canadians head to the polls next month for country’s 3rd national election in 4 years

On September 7, 2008, Canada’s federal government was dissolved the country’s 39th Parliament and October 14 was set as the date of next 40th general election.

The vote on October 14 is announced about a year earlier than the date Conservative’s minority goverment had specified in its electoral legislation after assuming power on January 23, 2006. It will be the third national election for Canada in just over four years.

The current Conservative Party government, like the Liberal one it succeeded, did not control a majority in Parliament. It was captured just 36 per cent of the popular vote in last election but successfully managed the longest uninterrupted minority government in Canadian political history. Conservatives are now chancing an early election to exploit their current strenghts and to face the voters before the negatives, mainly the economy, get worse.

However, critics and opponents retorted that the early vote was exactly the sort of political manipulation the prime minister had promised to eliminate.

Although the key focuses of this election campaign would be the economy and the environment but any formation in government after October 14 would certainly have to deliver a straightforward policy for overhauling the country’s immigration system. The issues of reducing the current backlog, modernizing the immigration system and standardizing the recognition of foreign credentials would be a top agenda for the immigration plan for 2009.

Moreover, the future of recent Conservative-sponsored immigration amendments is also directly related with the results of October 14 elections. Mainstream opposition parties have already pledged that they would repeal these new amendments should the Conservatives fail to win this election.

The Conservative-legislation, opposition is promising to repeal, was written into the 2008 budget bill C-50 in an attempt to tackle a backlog of nearly one million applicaitions and, consequently, excessively long processing times. Critics have taken aim at the law for the authority it assigns to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to hand-pick immigrants. However, it does not seem possible to throw this legislation entirely due to its idea to move away from a first-come first-served system to one that selects immigrants based on labor market requirements. Rather than scrapping it, the new government may improve transparency in it.

Before dissolution the Conservatives held 127 seats, the Liberals 95, the Bloc Quebecois 48, and the New Democrats 30 seats in the Parliament of 308 Members. Four seats were vacant while Independents held another four seats. To win the majority, any one party would be needed 155 seats but most pundits believe it will be difficult for a single party to win the majority and future government would be another coalition.

Opinion polls in the past year have suggested only a slight difference between support for the Liberals and Conservatives.