Auditor General’s report on immigration programs a “scathing indictment” of cynical mismanagement

OTTAWA- With the release of the Auditor General’s report on immigration programs, Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal Member of Parliament for Newton-North Delta, has called Fraser’s study a scathing indictment of Conservative mismanagement in the most crucial portfolio for Canada’s long term economic success.”Ms. Fraser’s findings on the administration of immigration under Minister Kenney’s stewardship suggests cynical, deliberate mismanagement of the temporary foreign workers program in particular, leaving a whole class of newcomer vulnerable to abuse and poor working conditions - if they even break through the masses of red tape to enter the country,” Dhaliwal said earlier today. “To fail this badly, you would actually have to work at it. It all suggests this government views these potential citizens as ultimately transient and disposable in Canada’s labour market.”

Dhaliwal listed just a few of the Auditor General’s findings to support his claims. They include:

• A failure of Citizenship and Immigration to follow up on genuineness of job offers for lower skilled temporary workers, with limited oversight of working conditions, accommodations or cases of abuse;

• A severe reduction in the number of occupations that would qualify for the foreign workers’ program with the clear intention of reducing applicants, with long term effects for all of the current streams of applications, and

• A backlog of more than a half million would-be immigrants, with an average processing time of 63 months.

“What we are talking about when we discuss temporary foreign workers are caregivers, skilled trades people, a broad spectrum of bright talented people from many developing economies around the world”, Dhaliwal added. These are precisely the people that could assure that Canada has a place at the table among the key global trading partners in the years ahead. This Conservative government is not only failing them; it’s failing all of us.”

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Office of Sukh Dhaliwal
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