Статья из газеты Toronto Star
Public outcry sparks six-month postponement
Allan Thompson
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Denis Coderre is responding to a public outcry by postponing some of the government's controversial changes to immigration rules.
Bowing to pressure from critics and backbench Liberal MPs, Coderre said yesterday he will put off the changes by six months, making them effective Jan. 1, 2003.
The delay will allow a number of applicants who were already in the system before Dec. 17 — the day the changes were announced — to either qualify under the old rules or get a refund of their application fees.
Meanwhile, Coderre said, he'll probably ease the new rules to allow more people to qualify to immigrate to Canada.
The proposed changes have come under fire for setting such high education standards that they'd bar many of the skilled trades and blue-collar workers Canada needs.
Coderre said he's willing to lower the pass mark in the so-called "point system" used to select skilled worker immigrants, and will make other changes to reduce the emphasis on higher education and language skills.
The new rules originally were to go into effect June 28. Coderre said he hopes the extra six months will allow many applicants in the backlog to be processed under the old rules.
And some applicants will be eligible for a full refund of their $500 processing fee if they don't like their chances under the new system and want to withdraw their applications to come to Canada.
"That is fairness," Coderre told the House of Commons, after a Liberal MP asked a question to allow the minister to make his announcement.
Coderre was responding to a torrent of criticism from immigration lawyers, the business community and ethno-cultural groups over his department's proposed overhaul of the point system used to select skilled worker immigrants — nearly half of Canada's newcomers each year.
"We have to find a way to make sure that we're sending a proper message to the rest of the world that we need some skilled workers. And for those who felt that it was not fair to apply with a new grid, well I'm trying to send a message that you have an extra six months," Coderre told reporters later.
Criticism of the proposed changes has focused on two key points:
- That it is unfair to apply the new rules retroactively to tens of thousands of applicants who would have qualified to get in under the old rules, already had files in the system before the proposed changes were announced but could now be disqualified.
- That the proposed new rules will set the bar too high and could keep out many of the skilled workers Canada needs.
Coderre said yesterday he is open to changing the rules
themselves by lowering the pass mark from the proposed 80 points out of 100, and by rearranging how many points are awarded for attributes such as higher education, language skills and Canadian experience. But he's not going to make a formal decision on the point system until a Commons committee finishes its study of the matter, in mid-March.
On the contentious issue of whether new rules will be applied retroactively to the hundreds of thousands of applicants already in the system, Coderre gave some ground, but did not back away from the plan to apply the new rules retroactively — albeit on Jan. 1, 2003, rather than this June 28.
And applicants who had files in the system before Dec. 17, but who still haven't been given an answer by Jan. 1 will be judged according to the new point system. But they will get an extra bonus of five points as compensation, Coderre said.
However, not everyone with an application in the system will be eligible for a refund, the minister said.
"We have to find a way to make sure that we're sending a proper message to the rest of the world that we need some skilled workers."
Immigration Minister
Denis Coderre
The processing fee refund will be available to applicants whose files haven't yet been actively considered by the immigration department — and in Coderre's view that means people who haven't been rendered a service by the government.
Those people will be allowed to withdraw and get a full refund of their $500 processing fee.
Coderre said about 70,000 applications from people who applied before Dec. 17 will be eligible for the refund, which he estimated could cost the government about $70 million.
"There will probably still be people who won't be satisfied," Coderre acknowledged. But he said he tried to find a balance between applying the new rules as soon as possible and avoiding administrative confusion, and being fair to people with applications in the system.
One of the loudest critics of the proposed changes has been the Canadian Bar Association, which represents Canada's lawyers.
Ben Trister, head of the immigration section of the association, said in an interview yesterday that Coderre's decision to insist on applying the new rules retroactively — albeit after a six month delay — will hurt Canada's reputation abroad.
Trister said changing the rules in mid-stream will deter future immigration applicants who won't trust Canada.
"When we make a commitment to apply certain rules to people who apply to come to Canada, we should live by it, otherwise people will never know where they stand with Canada," Trister said.
"The integrity of our immigration system rests on whether applicants can predict how they will be dealt with."
Trister also questioned the wisdom of Coderre's decision to offer applicants five bonus points if their applications end up being pushed through the new system.
"We don't know what the value of five points will mean until we know what the new pass mark is going to be," Trister said.
He and other critics say the simple solution would be to do what the immigration department has done in the past when the rules were changed: allow people who had files in the system before the rule change to be processed under the old system.
Coderre said he rejected that option because it would have required immigration officials to administer two separate systems for possibly years to come.
It can take five to seven years at some posts abroad for a file to be processed.
According to figures Coderre cited yesterday, there are more than 220,000 applications in the pipeline from skilled worker immigrants. That represents applications, not the number of people involved. When dependent spouses and children are added in, the outstanding applications could represent as many as 500,000 would-be immigrants.
The only applicants who will be judged entirely under the old point system are those who have already passed the interview stage by the time the new rules come into effect.
Right now, there are about 36,000 applicants in that category, people who have been through the interview or had the interview waived and are awaiting a formal response. And as files move through the system, the number of people in this category could grow by next January.
At the other end of the spectrum, prospective immigrants whose applications haven't even been opened yet, or who are still in the cursory "paper-screening" process — about 70,000 applications right now — will be eligible to pull out and get a full refund if they fear disqualification under the new rules.
In the middle, there are about 120,000 applications from people who won't be eligible for a refund because in Coderre's view, the immigration department has already done considerable work on their files and has provided a service.
