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Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Immigration targets unrealistic, lawyers say
Plan for attracting highly educated people could backfire

Andrew Duffy
Southam News

OTTAWA - Canada cannot attract enough highly educated people to meet its current immigration targets and raising the eligibility bar will only heighten the problem, immigration lawyers say.

Ben Trister, treasurer of the immigration law section of the Canadian Bar Association, said yesterday a federal proposal to make education even more important in the selection of skilled workers will make it unlikely Canada can ever fulfil its immigration goals.

Last year, the Liberal government said it wanted to attract 225,000 newcomers to Canada, but only 174,100 immigrants and refugees arrived. It was the lowest immigration level since 1988.

As part of its policy, the government had hoped to attract 106,000 skilled workers and their families -- people with engineering, computer and technical skills -- but only 81,146 arrived.

"It's not helpful to the people of Canada if they're told a number is to be produced every year when there's no commitment to deliver that," Mr. Trister said in an interview. "It's not honest, it's not transparent and it doesn't have any intellectual backing," he said.

Mr. Trister said the government's latest proposal for remodelling the skilled-worker program will exacerbate the shortfall since skilled tradespeople who do not have a university or college degree will find it difficult to qualify.

"We should either get rid of the targets," said Mr. Trister, "or else we should have a system where you adjust the bar to reach the number. It means if you have fewer people applying, you accept those with community college instead of university degrees: they're probably still going to be good enough to make it."

Mr. Trister plans to deliver that message to Elinor Caplan, the Immigration Minister, in a meeting later this week. Ms. Caplan, who took over the portfolio in an August cabinet shuffle, is on a national consultation tour to discuss the federal government's long planned changes to the Immigration Act.

Among the alterations being contemplated is a new assessment scheme for skilled workers.

A government discussion paper, distributed to immigration lawyers and consultants, says the government should stop trying to fill vacant jobs and instead recognize that the most successful immigrants have advanced education and language skills.

The conclusion is based on federal research that shows immigrants with university degrees pay more income tax and rely less on welfare than less-educated newcomers.

The discussion paper recommends the government no longer assess an applicant's intended occupation, but instead examine "the knowledge and skills that the applicant can bring to the Canadian labour market."

Under the existing points system used to judge applicants, education accounts for 16% of the total. Language, occupation, age, personal suitability and Canadian-based relatives are also considered.

The new system would give education 30% of the weight, job experience 25%, language 15%, adaptability 15%, age 10%, and arranged employment 5%. Maintaining immigration levels is not the primary purpose of the new program, but it will not "necessarily" reduce them, the discussion paper says.

Mr. Trister, however, believes the proposal would put up impossible barriers to less-educated, but still-needed, workers like truck drivers and tool and die makers.

The Canadian Trucking Association confirmed yesterday there's an increasingly serious shortage of qualified drivers, more than 2,000 in Quebec alone.

In Western provinces, drivers are flown in from Newfoundland and put up in hotels during harvest season, said Massimo Bergamini, association vice-president.

The association has recently approached federal immigration officials to discuss how it can attract foreign drivers.




RELATED SITES:

(Each link opens a new window)

  • Citizenship and Immigration Canada

    The brand-new white paper on immigration policy

  • Statistics Canada: Immigration and Citizenship

    Statistics from the 1996 national census that look at where Canadians came from.

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