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Credentials to be recognized

New agency will help newcomers
Landing fee to be cut, Solberg says

Toronto Star
March 21, 2006

LESLIE FERENC
STAFF REPORTER

A new agency will be created to «cut through the red tape» and recognize the foreign credentials of newcomers, says Canada’s citizenship and immigration minister.

«Canadians pride themselves on their fairness, but how profoundly unfair that a highly educated professional from another part of the world should be driving a cab because his or her credentials aren’t properly recognized,» Monte Solberg told about 300 people attending the Public Policy Forum conference in Toronto yesterday.

«It’s not fair that a foreign-trained doctor should spend years charting a course through a maze of rules and regulations before he or she can find suitable work, despite the growing shortage of doctors and nurses in Canada.»

Solberg also said he’ll cut the Right of Permanent Residence landing fee in half «to make it easier and more attractive for newcomers to come to Canada.

«Our efforts should be focused on welcoming newcomers and helping them fit in, not taxing them to death,» he said, adding that slashing the fee won’t mean less money for his department.

Solberg plans to introduce legislation to extend citizenship to foreign-born children legally adopted by Canadian parents, putting them «on an equal footing» with native-born kids.

He later told reporters he isn’t sure when the new agency looking at foreign credentials will be established, noting it will require co-operation from other levels of government, business, community groups and the academic community.

Solberg also said details of the cut to landing fees won’t be announced until after the throne speech. And he confirmed there are no plans to either increase or decrease the number of immigrants coming into the country.

Despite the lack of a time frame for the changes, it was welcome news to conference delegates, many from frontline agencies who work with some of the 230,000 immigrants who come to Canada each year.

The aim of the conference was to underscore the importance of immigration to Canada’s social and economic health. Newcomers establish businesses that create jobs, boost the economy by increasing demand for local goods and fill niches in the labour market, according to a Public Policy Forum backgrounder provided to reporters.

It also noted a growing number of newcomers are highly educated and skilled but have difficulty integrating for various reasons including language and cultural differences.

According to research by the Public Policy Forum, there’s a higher rate of unemployment and under-employment among recent immigrants compared with those who settled in Canada years earlier and native-born workers who have similar education and skills.

Though various levels of government and community agencies are working to help newcomers, Solberg admitted «the immigration program is under stress» and his department must do more to make transitions smoother. Reducing waiting times and processing applications more quickly is a must and will go a long way to reunifying families sooner, he said.