April 29, 2008
The intent behind Conservative legislation to address Canada's broken immigration system has been clear: Re-uniting families faster and giving newcomers a head-start. Tackling the bloated Liberal backlog is the way to make this happen. Today the Liberal Party of Canada has given Canadians a sneak preview of their plan. One that would slam the door shut on newcomers.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record has reported that Liberal MP Andrew Telegdi said "there can be a temporary freeze on applications so that the rest can be cleared." Under this Liberal plan no one would be welcome to submit an immigration application for an undisclosed amount of time. Apparently Mr. Telegdi and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion are comfortable with causing families to wait longer to be re-unified and labour market demands to go unmet.
Such a plan shouldn't be unexpected from the Liberal party. For 13 years in government they took newcomers and their families for granted: The Liberals imposed a $1000 per person head-tax on immigrants, froze settlement funding and allowed immigration application processing times to bloat to an average of six years.
The Stéphane Dion Liberals have no new ideas or policies, no plans for the future and no leadership. On the other hand the Conservative Party is getting it done for newcomers and their families: In just two years the Conservative government cut the Liberal head-tax in half, invested $1.4-billion more in settlement funding and has a concrete plan to reduce the backlog, re-unite families faster and meet labour market demands.