Federal Government Proposes Changes to IRPA
March 25, 2008
On Friday, March 14th the Federal Government tabled changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) as part of the federal budget (Bill C-50). These changes would give the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration the power to narrow processing of immigration applications. They would put certain limits on the humanitarian and compassionate category which currently is the only channel for many who encounter challenges in the process of pursuing family reunification.
At the same time, the government announcements on Friday, March 14th further supported the current policy shift whereby immigrants are increasingly being understood and treated as economic units to be brought here through temporary visa arrangements.
Family reunification and permanent resident status are the key components of a successful immigration strategy for the future of Canada, and among the main objectives of IRPA. Our country’s commitment to refugee protection should be reflected in our legislation and budget.
Budget allocations to Citizenship and Immigration Canada should therefore be geared towards strengthening the capacity within the Department to effectively eliminate the backlog in processing family reunification requests and permanent residence applications.
OCASI expects that responding to Canada’s economic needs should not compromise Canada’s vision to build this country through the settlement and integration of immigrants as fully equal participants in society.
Proposed changes to IRPA
If the Budget passes with these measures, immigration applications made on or after February 27th 2008 would be affected.
Section 11 of IRPA currently says that an officer “shall” issue a visa if the applicant meets the requirements of the Act. With the proposed changes, it would say that the officer “may” issue a visa. It is in such a context that the Minister would have the power to issue instructions for processing applications according to her/his opinion on how to “best support the attainment of the immigration goals established by the Government of Canada”.
The Minister would establish categories of applications to be processed, establish an order to process them, set the number of applications to be processed in a given year and provide for the disposition of applications and requests. As a result, many applications would not be even processed. There is reason for concern about the sorts of instructions a Minister would issue and that would result in discarding applications.
As regards humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) applications, section 25 currently says that the Minister “shall” examine an H&C application. Under the proposed changes, the wording would be that the Minister “shall” examine the H&C application if the applicant is in Canada, but “may” examine the application if the applicant is outside Canada. This would have a negative impact on refugee children in Canada, who IRPA does not allow to sponsor members of their family to come to Canada, and separated family members abroad who are excluded by virtue of section 117 (9) (d). For these two categories, the sole option currently available is H&C.
The proposed changes to IRPA were tabled as part of Bill C-50, “An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 26, 2008 and to enact provisions to preserve the fiscal plan set out in that budget (Budget Implementation Act, 2008)”. Bill C-50 underwent first reading in the House of Commons on Friday, March 14th. See the parts of Bill C-50 related to IRPA here.
Shifts in immigration policy towards temporary permits
The government messaging in recent times underscores their intention to respond to labour shortages in certain industries. It stresses Canada’s economic needs. The government’s response is to increase the recourse to temporary arrangements that do not allow foreign born workers to obtain a permanent status in Canada.
The “increased” number of immigrants (429,649 individuals last year) mentioned in the government announcement on Friday, March 14th, is a composite of the usual categories (independent immigrants, family class immigrants and refugees) but now Minister Finley is adding temporary workers and international students into the mix. The numbers for independent immigrants, family class immigrants and refugees last year was roughly 251,000, very similar to recent years and, as is usually the case, below the projected target levels the government had set for the corresponding year.
The real increase in numbers has taken place in the area of temporary work permits. This trend in immigration policy steers Canada away from a main objective of IRPA. Section 3.1 clearly commits to support the settlement and integration of immigrants and their full participation in and contribution to all aspects of Canadian life.
Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Study of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) showed that immigrants who came to this country through the Family Class had better settlement outcomes than those who came as independent immigrants.
On the other hand, the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) category will provide for limited numbers of new residents (target levels for 2008 are between 10,000 and 12,000). In addition, only international students and certain types of temporary workers are eligible to get permanent resident status through the CEC category. That leaves out a large number of people already contributing to our economy and society.
Further concerns regarding the Temporary Work Permits program
Those in Canada under temporary work permits have reported situations of abuse at the hands of employers. This has been well documented in different areas of temporary work and the government so far has proved unable to ensure fairness for the workers. (See article in the Toronto Star with critical information from labour organisations).
This reality raises a number of critical questions. Are temporary work permits being used to fill a genuine labour shortage, or are they being used as an avenue to obtain cheap, temporary labour where the workers have few rights? Is Canada moving towards building stable and equitable communities, or creating a pool of workers who are treated as second class and disposable economic units? What are the long-term implications for proceeding in this direction?
OCASI will continue to monitor these developments arising from the federal budget to keep our membership informed.