IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION: A NEW BILL: OPPOSING VIEWS

Businesses applaud proposed immigration law

Opposition, lawyers, advocacy groups overwhelmingly oppose bill and the broad powers it grants to immigration minister

OMAR EL AKKAD AND BILL CURRY AND DANIEL LEBLANC

March 28, 2008

OTTAWA, MONTREAL -- With the Olympics coming to town and a massive building boom, British Columbia will have about one million job openings over the next five years.

But during that same time period, only about 650,000 students will graduate from the province's high schools, said Philip Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of British Columbia.

And it takes about five years to process applications for the immigrants expected to fill the gap.

"We don't have a need five years from now, we have a need right now," Mr. Hochstein said.

Immigration groups and lawyers may be overwhelmingly against proposed changes to Canada's immigration laws, but Canadian businesses say fixes are needed, and soon.

"I take heart in the fact that politicians have realized that the [immigration] system is just completely broken," Mr. Hochstein said. "And using old ideas to solve the problem isn't going to work any longer. It takes a more dramatic approach."

Under a proposed new law, Canada's immigration minister would have the power to issue instructions to immigration officers about the type and number of immigration applications to process. It is unclear what these instructions may contain, although Citizenship and Immigration Canada would no longer be required to process all applications.

The government has said the changes are aimed at getting more skilled immigrants to Canada faster. Immigration groups and lawyers have largely condemned the proposed changes, saying they give the minister broad power and would create a fundamentally unfair system.

But Mr. Hochstein said the government is moving in the right direction by focusing on Canada's economic needs. "We need strong, young, willing workers to come, much like the people who built this country," he said.

Last year, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business issued a report on immigration and labour shortages in Canada that called for a reduction in immigration waiting times and more emphasis on skilled workers.

Dan Kelly, the federation's senior vice-president of legislative affairs, said his organization hasn't taken a position for or against the changes proposed by the Harper government. However, he said serious changes are needed to fix the current system. "A lot of applications are caught in a massive backlog," Mr. Kelly said. "A lot of more recent applications are stuck behind huge, huge glut."

Citizenship and Immigration Canada estimates a backlog of more than 600,000 in the "skilled worker" category.

However, it is unclear how long it will take before the changes actually make a dent in that backlog - if implemented, the new law would apply to applications received after Feb. 27, 2008.

Still, as another in a long line of issues that may yet trigger a federal election, the proposed change remains a political hot topic.

In Montreal yesterday, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said the growth of Canada's work force depends on immigration, and that the Tory project is unpalatable. "It's unacceptable in terms of procedure, and even more unacceptable in terms of content," he said. "We'll take all available means to ensure that it's studied adequately at the [House of Commons] immigration committee."

He refused to say how far the Liberals were willing to go, or whether they would force an election over the issue. The changes were part of a budget implementation bill, which means any vote on the bill would be considered one of confidence in the government.

Mr. Dion's immigration critic, Maurizio Bevilacqua, echoed his party's desire to have the bill debated and changed when it is studied in committee. Mr. Bevilacqua said feedback to the bill has been overwhelmingly negative and offered a clear sign that the Liberals may defeat the government this spring over the proposal.

"We're obviously not supportive of the bill," he said. "There's a menu of issues for us to pull the government down and this is certainly one of them."