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Landing fee will be halved: Solberg |
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By Ravi Mehta » The new Tory government will deliver on its
pledge to cut the landing fee by half,
Immigration Minister Monte Solberg has confirmed in his first major speech since taking charge.
The details and exact timing
will however only be known when the budget is presented sometime in the Spring.
Solberg, speaking at the
Public Policy Forum conference in Toronto:, outlined his three-point list of priorities:
- Credential Recognition: A new agency is being set up to address the
issue of recognizing foreign credentials, a major stumbling block for
immigrant professionals who cannot find jobs in their field of training.
-
Landing Fee: The $975 Right of Permanent Residence fee will be cut in
half. "Our efforts should be focused on welcoming newcomers and helping
them fit in, not taxing them to death. They’ll get enough of that
later," said Solberg.
- Foreign Adoptions: Foreign-born children adopted by Canadian parents
will be extended citizenship "provided the adoption is legal and in the
best interests of the child."
Solberg admitted "the immigration program is under stress" and his department must do more to make transitions smoother. Reducing waiting times and processing applications more quickly is a must and will go a long way to reunifying families sooner, he said. However he offered no specifics on what if anything his ministry was doing to resolve the issue.
He did however say there would be no change in the number of immigrants - currently around 230,000 a year - being accepted into the country.
Expanding on the issue of foreign credentials, Solberg said it was "profoundly unfair that a highly educated professional from another part of the world should be driving a cab because his or her credentials aren't properly recognized.
"It is not fair that a foreign-trained doctor should spend years charting a course through a maze of rules and regulations before he or she can find suitable work, despite the growing shortage of doctors and nurses in Canada," he added.
"As opinion leaders in this country I think we have an obligation, a duty, to knock down the barriers that prevent skilled newcomers from having their credentials recognized."
Solberg however did not give a timetable for any of his three initiatives, saying specifics would have to wait until the throne speech and federal budget.
He admitted success of the new agency to deal with foreign credentials will require co-operation from other levels of government, business, community groups and the academic community.
Solberg said that being new to the immigration portfolio, he had spent the last few weeks "learning about the department".
He said he had been deeply touched and learned a great deal from the many stories he had heard of the efforts newcomers made to build new lives for themselves in Canada.
But he also had a word of advice for new immigrants, saying that "in order to feel truly accepted in their cities and neighbourhoods... newcomers must step even further out of the familiar and become more fluent in English or French."
Likewise, "to feel truly accepted in the workforce newcomers will need to learn the customs and practices of the Canadian workplace. Finally... to feel truly accepted as citizens, newcomers will need to learn, and embrace the values that make Canada one of the most admired nations on earth," Solberg concluded.
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