Marshall: Biden gets real on immigration

2023/01/21 Leave a comment

One take:

No issue better illuminates America’s debilitating political stalemate than immigration. Everyone knows there’s a mounting humanitarian and law enforcement crisis on our southern border, but our political leaders find it safer to appease their most militant partisans than to work together to forge pragmatic solutions.

That may be changing. After ignoring an unprecedented surge of migrants for two years, President Biden has announced some modest steps toward restoring order. His reward for taking on this combustible issue is a fusillade of criticism from rightwing nativists who say he’s not serious and leftwing activists worried that he is.

Source: Biden gets real on immigration

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Alberta immigration program changes to prioritize those with immediate family in the province

2023/01/21 Leave a comment

Of note, combining economic and family class immigration:

Alberta is adjusting its immigration process in an attempt to make it easier for those with ties to the province to move to Canada.

The province announced Wednesday that they will allocate 25 per cent of express entry nominations to potential newcomers with skills in high demand who have immediate family members already living in Alberta.

It’s a move that Rajan Sawhney, Alberta’s minister of trade, immigration and multiculturalism said will help address the ongoing labour shortage while easing the process for potential immigrants.

“AAIP’s change will draw workers in high-demand sectors through Express Entry who have immediate family ties in Alberta,” she said in a statement.

“This approach will help ensure Alberta’s economy will prosper by dedicating a portion of provincial nominations toward in-demand workers who will have a great support network right from day one.”

The Alberta express entry stream allows the province to nominate a limited number of qualified candidates from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s express entry system.

The province said the change will apply to prospective newcomers who have immediate family in Alberta — such as a sibling, a parent, or a parent — and have the skills to work in high-demand sectors including tech, healthcare and agriculture.

In December 2022, Alberta gained more than 41,000 new full-time jobs for a total of nearly 94,000 full-time jobs in 2022 and 221,000 full-time jobs have been added in Alberta since the start of 2021.

It’s anticipated that a there will be a job shortage of 33,100 workers by 2025 across several occupations, skill levels and sectors in Alberta.

Alberta gets 6,500 nomination certificates each year and it’s expected that 815 of those will be used for the new stream in 2023.

“As an agency that works on the ground with newcomers, we know based on just the data and the stories that we hear from our clients that those that have familial supports here fare a lot better than those who don’t,” said Alka Merlin with Immigrant Services Calgary.

“We are excited to see that the government is responding to what the community has been saying all along.”

Merlin, however, says more can be done.

“We really encourage the government of Alberta, especially the Fairness for Newcomers Office to continue working with regulatory Bodies to simplify and accelerate the assessment of qualifications by eliminating the barriers to registration,” she said.

According to IRCC, there is currently a backlog of more than 2.15 million immigration applicants.

Source: Alberta immigration program changes to prioritize those with …

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Canada needs to get its act together on growth

2023/01/20 Leave a comment

Of note, focus on productivity. Main immigration and diversity indicator is: “Income parity across genders, races, & people with disabilities, Achieve equal employment outcomes for all racialized and non-racialized Canadian workforce,” a real outcome measure:
Canada’s economy has a lot going for it right now.
We are a human resource powerhouse and our openness to immigration also makes us one of the fastest-growing populations among advanced economies. Our natural resource wealth is acting as a buffer against the worst of global supply chain disruptions and higher commodity prices. Canada is also fortunate to share a very long border with the world’s largest and most dynamic economy, even if the relationship can sometimes seem challenging.

Source: Canada needs to get its act together on growth, Organization link: Coalition for a Better Future

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This pilot program makes it easier for newcomers to Canada to become permanent residents [Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot]

2023/01/20 Leave a comment

Of note. Positive feedback from some of the regional folks I know:

Felix Koros moved from Kenya to Sault Ste. Marie., Ont., with his family in early December, and thanks to an immigration pilot program, he says he is on track to become a permanent resident soon.

“We thank God that we are here in Canada,” said Koros, who was an engineer in his home country, and now works as an aircraft mechanic for a company called JD Aero.

“We are seeing that the environment is very good for us and for our children, and for the future.”

Source: This pilot program makes it easier for newcomers to Canada to become permanent residents

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Ottawa prepared to use ‘aggressive measures’ to clear immigration backlog, memo reveals

2023/01/18 Leave a comment

Hard to know where to start on this ridiculous proposal. Sign of desperation, but the impact of waiving visitor visa eligibility requirements would result in more visa overstays, increased number of asylum claims and perhaps most significantly, weakened public confidence in the integrity of Canada’s immigration programs.

Unfortunate demonstration of poor policy development and overall poor operational management, likely driven by short-term political considerations given that the policy memo correctly signalled the issues of such an approach. Sigh…:

The federal government is considering extraordinary measures to reduce its backlog of immigration applications, including waiving eligibility requirements for nearly half a million visitor visas, according to a policy memo reviewed by The Globe and Mail.

A draft document from December reveals that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is trying to significantly reduce or eliminate its inventory of visitor visa applications by February and is willing to use “aggressive measures” to do so. There were more than 700,000 temporary resident visa (TRV) applications in the system as of early December, a portion of the overall sum.

In total, there were more than two million immigration applications to be processed as of late last year, including from those seeking work and study permits, along with those who applied for permanent residence. IRCC is concerned that the stockpile is “eroding the public’s trust” in the department, the memo reads.

To reduce the number of visitor visa applications, IRCC was deliberating on two options, according to the memo. In the first, the department would process an estimated 195,000 applications in bulk. This could include a large number of tourists from countries that require a visa to visit Canada.

Under the second option, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser would waive certain eligibility requirements for roughly 450,000 applications. Because other efforts are under way to reduce the TRV backlog, this decision would apply to all remaining applications.

By waiving eligibility rules, foreign nationals would not need to establish that they will leave Canada when their visa expires.

Visitors would still be subjected to admissibility checks. This ensures, for example, that applicants are not a known threat to national security.

Two sources within IRCC said the government has chosen the second option and that an announcement could be made within days. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they are not allowed to discuss departmental policies publicly.

This would be a temporary measure to reduce inventories, and the final version of the policy could differ from what’s proposed in the document.

As a result of the change, one of the sources said, immigration officers would not assess whether visitors have sufficient funds for their stays in Canada.

In a statement, Mr. Fraser did not address questions related to the policy memo or the changes under consideration.

“Canada is now processing visitor visa applications faster than it did even prior to the pandemic,” he said. More than 260,000 visitor visas were processed in November, he said, compared with a monthly average of about 180,000 in 2019.

“Despite the progress we’ve seen, there is still much more to do in order to achieve prepandemic processing timelines,” Mr. Fraser added.

The memo raised the possibility of keeping these measures a secret, saying that neither would need to be communicated to the public.

However, immigration consultants would likely notice “large volumes of high approval rates,” while the measures would wind up being disclosed in access-to-information requests.

IRCC is under considerable pressure to reduce the inventory of applications. As of Nov. 30, there were roughly 2.1 million applications in the system, more than half of which were in backlog – meaning, they had been there longer than service standards for processing.

There has been improvement of late: Two months earlier than that, there were 2.6 million applications in the system.

Prospective visitors and immigrants have been extremely frustrated by the processing delays. This has led to reputational damage for IRCC and a flurry of legal cases against it. Some PR applicants have waited years for a decision, for example, while others are nearing the end of their work permits, but have yet to hear whether they can stay in the country and continue their employment.

IRCC says it has invested millions of dollars in its processing capacity and hired hundreds of new employees to speed up decision-making.

“We’re actually moving cases out of our system faster than they’re coming in, which gives me faith that we’re getting back on track,” Mr. Fraser said at a news conference in December.

Even so, the inventories are significantly larger than before the pandemic, and with the federal government pursuing record levels of immigration, a hefty volume of applications continue to flow in.

Mr. Fraser could use his authority under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to waive eligibility requirements. This was recently done to expedite processing of visas for attendees of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal.

The memo outlines various pros and cons to this approach. On the plus side, it would help to reduce the inventory of applications, resulting in better processing times for incoming files.

However, the document says that not all applicants would be “genuine visitors.” This could lead to an estimated 8,600 asylum claims, otherwise known as refugee claims. The memo notes that India and Nigeria are the two largest sources of TRV applications, and both countries rank in the top 10 for asylum claimants in Canada.

The uptick in claims would subsequently put more pressure on all aspects of the refugee system, according to the document.

In addition, IRCC would be approving eligibility for people with past refusals and “derogatory information,” the memo said.

The two sources in the Immigration department characterized this as a rash decision that will lead to less scrutiny of applications. They said many employees in the department were dismayed with the approach.

The sources also questioned how effective this method will be in quickly reducing the backlog, given that immigration officers would still have to perform admissibility checks on the applications.

Source: Ottawa prepared to use ‘aggressive measures’ to reduce …

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A family’s death trying to cross the U.S. border hasn’t deterred others — and more are taking the risk

2023/01/18 Leave a comment

Interesting flow in the other direction, as well as the details revealed in court documents:

Almost a year after a family from India froze to death near the international border in southern Manitoba, similar cases of people walking over to the U.S. are on the rise — but they involve people from a different country.

Since the tragic deaths of the Patel family in January 2022, monthly incidents on the other side of Manitoba’s international border have risen from eight to 30 in November, the most recent month for which complete data is available from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That’s similar to the number seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deaths of three-year-old Dharmik Patel; his 11-year-old sister, Vihangi Patel; and their parents, 37-year-old Vaishali Patel and 39-year-old Jagdish Patel put a spotlight on human smuggling operations involving Indian migrants using Canada as a stopover before illegally crossing south. 

But a growing proportion of people caught walking over the border are now coming from Mexico. In November, Mexicans made up almost three-quarters of incidents in the Grand Forks sector.

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/IiFq5/4/

The number of Mexicans crossing into Canada to seek asylum has also spiked recently, as many flee their homes in search of jobs and safety. But statistics show most applicants from that country are rejected.

While flying to Canada just to walk back down into the U.S. is a long trip, some say it’s becoming more common for several reasons.

And in two recent cases involving Mexican migrants walking into North Dakota, authorities discovered the alleged smugglers before their trips were complete. Court documents revealed how those journeys mirrored the Patels’ — and the ways they turned out differently.

Fewer hurdles, more desperation

One advocate said the increase in Mexicans crossing the northern border of the U.S. may be partly due to increased security measures along the country’s southern boundary and a harsher detention system for those caught trying to cross in recent years.

“The Mexican border with the U.S. has been militarized for decades now…. I’m not surprised that people will try other ways to arrive [in] the U.S.,” said Maru Mora Villalpando, a community organizer and founder of La Resistencia, a grassroots organization that works with detained migrants in Washington state.

Those changes made it harder to cross certain parts of the southern border, she said, forcing people to instead travel through dangerous parts of the desert — or try their luck up north.

The increase in northern crossings may also be partly due to Canada lifting a visa requirementfor Mexican travellers in 2016, said Kathryn Siemer, acting patrol agent in charge of Pembina Border Patrol station in North Dakota.

“I think we’re still seeing some of the repercussions of that, where it’s easier to fly into Canada and then cross into the United States as opposed to trying to come north through the Mexico border,” Siemer said.

Matthew Dearth, a Grand Forks lawyer representing an alleged smuggler charged in connection with one of the most recent cases in North Dakota, said more people are getting desperate enough — as the U.S. government fails to act on immigration reform — to risk potentially severe criminal penalties for their vision of a better future.

“They’re going to do whatever they can do to try to get into the United States. Because they have family members here. They have opportunity here. It’s safe,” said Dearth, who’s originally from Winnipeg.

A call for help

Dearth’s client is charged in connection with a suspected smuggling trip that met its end after the man’s van got stuck in the snow in Cavalier, a North Dakota city just south of the international border, on the way to pick up a group of migrants, a U.S. court document filed in mid-November alleged.

Dearth’s client and the other man charged in the case then walked about a half hour in the early morning of Nov. 17, 2022, before they met up with the migrants, according to the affidavit filed on Nov. 18, 2022, in the United States District Court in North Dakota.

Much like when the Patel family tried to cross the border, freezing temperatures, snow and wind made it a difficult journey.

There were also two young children — in this case aged four and nine — among the group, according to the affidavit written by a Border Patrol officer involved in the case. But this time, someone decided to call for help.

In this remote part of the country, that’s not always possible, said Border Patrol agent Siemer. Cell phone towers are few and far between, and tall snow drifts can make it easy to get lost in the dark.

“If you’re out here for more than 20 minutes, and whoever you thought might be coming to pick you up isn’t there because they got stuck or didn’t show up, you are on your own and it’s very dangerous,” she said.

Following that call for help in November, a deputy arrived and found nine people dressed in heavy winter clothing. They asked officers to bring them to a hotel — which raised suspicions around smuggling. The group later admitted they were in the country illegally, the affidavit alleged.

None of the allegations against Dearth’s client, who is a U.S. citizen, or his co-accused have been proven in court. The Georgia man pleaded not guilty to conspiring to smuggle people across the border, which carries a maximum penalty of a decade in prison.

Financial woes

Dearth said there’s a general misconception that border smuggling is only carried out by organized crime groups looking to rake in cash.

Sometimes it’s done by people who made the crossing themselves and are trying to help friends or family make a better life. Other times, people are “down on their luck” and need the money, he said.

The affidavit claims Dearth’s client told authorities he worked in construction with his co-accused, and that’s how he first got the offer to make extra money smuggling people into the U.S. 

While he first turned it down, the affidavit alleged he changed his mind after a divorce and financial struggles.

The affidavit also claims the man said he and his co-accused smuggled four other groups over the same border in September and October and dropped them off at pre-arranged spots along the interstate highway. 

He said he typically made between $500 and $1,000 per person, and his co-accused was the one who made the arrangements, the affidavit alleged.

A cemetery meeting

In a case last month, two smugglers pleaded guilty after one of them hid in a ditch when Border Patrol agents pulled over their pickup truck full of migrants around a cemetery near Neche, another North Dakota community by the international border.

The Park Center Cemetery is surrounded by pine trees and visible for miles when the weather co-operates. It had recently been the site of other “illegal entry activity” when agents saw a truck approach the U.S. side of the border under cover of darkness early on Dec. 2, 2022, according to an affidavit filed Dec. 5, 2022, in the United States District Court in North Dakota.

The desolate site is miles away from any farms or houses on the U.S. side, and nearby creeks — some frozen, some still running — wind through farmers’ fields.

Agents said in the affidavit on that night, they watched another vehicle pull up on the Canadian side, and a group got out and walked toward the cemetery, then got into the truck.

When agents pulled the truck over, one of the people inside — Juan Pablo Huerta-Ramos, later charged as a smuggler — got out and ran. He was later found hiding in a nearby ditch filled with grass and snow, the affidavit said.

All nine people in the truck, including smugglers Huerta-Ramos and Martin Loyo-Estrada, later admitted to being Mexican citizens illegally in the U.S.

A broken leg, a family in Winnipeg

In an interview after his arrest, Loyo-Estrada said he’d lived in California for about nine years and had been a landscaper until a broken leg left him unable to work. A friend from Mexico then connected him with someone who offered him work smuggling people over the border.

Loyo-Estrada said that unknown person called him several times to give him directions during his trip from Los Angeles to Cavalier, which also included using Uber rides and hotels as he made stops in Minneapolis and Grand Forks. 

The few details investigators revealed about the Patels’ journey after arriving in Canada include similar elements — staying in several hotels and using a ride-sharing service to get around the Greater Toronto Area.

Loyo-Estrada said he was supposed to get paid $1,000 for each group of migrants he worked with and be reimbursed for his travel costs.

Huerta-Ramos told agents he was also living in California and had travelled from Los Angeles to North Dakota to smuggle over his wife and daughter, who were supposed to be in Winnipeg. He said his wife gave him a phone number for someone named Antonio, who he agreed to pay $2,000 to help get his family across.

He said he met two of Antonio’s associates in front of the Fargo airport and went with them to a Mexican restaurant, where he got a call from Antonio telling him his family was already in California — and asking if he’d help smuggle a different group across the border anyway. 

Both men pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport illegal aliens and re-entering the U.S. without permission after previously being deported.

A year later, questions remain

While a year has passed since the deaths of Dharmik, Vihangi, Vaishali and Jagdish Patel, many details about their journey are still unknown.

Investigators haven’t publicly released details about who they believe sheltered and shuttled the Patels around the Greater Toronto Area before they travelled to Manitoba to cross the border.

And it’s still unclear, even to police, what happened after Jan. 15, 2022, when the family left their Toronto-area hotel, up until their bodies were discovered four days later.

It is clear, however, that they were sent on a dangerous journey — and it’s the kind of story migrant advocate Mora Villalpando hears too often, as many who can’t wait for changes in the U.S. immigration system are forced to take risks to get there.

“What it tells us is that the U.S. is just increasing the danger for people that are trying to come,” she said.

“When you intentionally for decades created a funnel to a dangerous path through the desert, it means you don’t care about human beings.”

Source: A family’s death trying to cross the U.S. border hasn’t deterred others — and more are taking the risk

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Stéphanie Chouinard and Andrew Parkin: The CPC needs to get back to bilingualism

2023/01/18 Leave a comment

Of note:

Over the last 20 years, only two of the past seven federal elections have produced majority governments. Governing and opposition parties alike have struggled to grow their popularity with Canadians. It is now Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre’s turn to try to break the logjam. 

To break through, the new leader needs to play both offence and defence. The attack comes more naturally for Poilievre, and concerns with the rising costs of living provides an ideal focus. Poilievre’s stinging criticisms align with the public mood: over the past year, inflation has surpassed COVID-19 as the top issue on Canadians’ minds. 

To win the next election, however, criticizing the Liberals’ handling of the economy won’t be enough. Poilievre should also address his own party’s weaknesses. Chief among these is the prolonged hangover from the 2015 election, when Conservatives engaged in what many saw as anti-immigrant dog-whistling. This undermined the party’s previous outreach to new Canadians and hampered its efforts to pick up seats in the country’s diverse — and seat-rich — cities and suburbs.

Poilievre now seems set to change course. His rhetoric calling for greater opportunities for Canadians regardless of their ethnicity is reminiscent of Diefenbaker’s push for a bill of rights. His disdain for gatekeepers is aimed partly at the roadblocks faced by immigrants seeking to settle in Canada. And his own family story — featuring his wife Anaida, an immigrant herself — cements his credentials as a leader who genuinely appreciates newcomers’ contributions to the country.

On immigration, CPC supporters are at least trying to meet him halfway. It is true that Conservative voters, on average, are less favourable to immigration than Liberal or NDP supporters. But this difference shouldn’t be misinterpreted. A slight majority of Conservatives currently disagree with the claim that there is too much immigration to Canada, and agree that we should be taking in more refugees fleeing conflicts. Three in four think immigration has a positive impact on our economy. Poilievre’s championing of struggling entrepreneurial newcomers is hardly going to tear his party apart.

Making progress on this front, however, should go hand in hand with rebuilding the party’s reputation on another key issue: official bilingualism. Much has been made of how well Poilievre himself speaks French — something that places him well ahead of his recent predecessors. But to make real gains in French-speaking areas of the country (both inside and outside of Quebec), it is the party’s personality that will count, not just the leader’s.

When it comes to language policy, this personality has been shaped by the CPC’s provincial counterparts. In 2018, Doug Ford announced he was shutting down the Ontario French-language commissioner’s office and cancelling funding for the Université de l’Ontario français — a decision that was met with public demonstrations the likes of which had not been seen since the Mike Harris era. In Alberta, both Jason Kenney’s budget cuts to Campus St-Jean and Danielle Smith’s failure to appoint a minister responsible for Francophone Affairs have cemented the UCP’s reputation as a government unfriendly to Franco-Albertans.

But without a doubt, the Conservative brand has been damaged most by New Brunswick’s premier, Blaine Higgs, a former member of the overtly francophobic Confederation of Regions (CoR) party. Since his re-election in 2020, his actions on official bilingualism have gone from dismissive to destructive, from his appointment of the former leader of the People’s Alliance (a party largely seen as the CoR’s heir) to the committee in charge of the review of the province’s Official Languages Act, to the cancelling of French immersion. In the country’s only officially bilingual province, these decisions are more than ill-advised; they are divisive. 

Poilievre thus has his work cut out for him if he is to re-brand his party as a safe choice for Francophone voters. He has already lost the CPC’s biggest asset: former official languages critic Alain Rayes left the party after the last leadership race. But the party’s base poses a bigger problem: fewer than three in ten CPC supporters think that bilingualism is a very important part of the Canadian identity. This is the lowest proportion since Environics first polled on this almost 40 years ago. While on multiculturalism, the party has decidedly become more supportive, on bilingualism, it has become less.

It is thus perhaps unsurprising that the proportion of Quebecers who sense that their language is under threat has never been higher. Canadians from the ROC tend to blame the province’s nationalist premier for fuelling Quebecers’ angst around language and culture. But as provincial governments outside Quebec erode rather than expand French-language services, and as commitment to bilingualism fades within the federal official opposition’s membership, a little less finger-pointing on the subject might be in order.

A leader’s ability to speak French is essential in Canadian politics, but it offers no short-cut to victory. To again form a majority government, CPC supporters, from coast to coast to coast, need to take a hard look at their vision of Canada and articulate a serious recommitment to official bilingualism as a modern value of Canadian society.

Stéphanie Chouinard is an associate professor in the Department of PoliticalScience at Royal Military College and at Queen’s University in Kingston. Andrew Parkin is the executive director of the Environics Institute for Survey Research. Find them on Twitter at @DrSChouinardand and @parkinac.

Source: Stéphanie Chouinard and Andrew Parkin: The CPC needs to get back to bilingualism

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Poilievre veut miser sur l’immigration pour renflouer le système de santé

2023/01/18 Leave a comment

Of note, the general messaging (Chantal Hébert has a good analysis of CPC prospects Pierre Poilievre is unpopular in Canada’s second-largest province — and so are his policies):

Un gouvernement conservateur sous Pierre Poilievre reconnaîtrait les compétences des travailleurs étrangers en santé dans un délai de 60 jours, et ce, afin de désengorger le système de santé.

C’est ce qu’a affirmé le chef du Parti conservateur du Canada, lundi après-midi, dans le cadre d’un point de presse tenu à l’occasion d’une mini-tournée québécoise, où il a rencontré plus tôt dans la journée des familles dont un membre est touché par un trouble du spectre de l’autisme et des représentants de la Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec.

Ces déclarations font écho à un engagement précédent formulé par M. Poilievre, qui souhaitait faciliter et accélérer la reconnaissance des compétences des travailleurs immigrants.

« Seulement 43 % des médecins immigrants et 37 % des infirmières immigrantes ont le droit de pratiquer leur métier, a déploré M. Poilievre. Pour ces candidats, les coûts de formation n’entrent même pas dans l’équation. Il suffirait d’attester de leurs compétences sur la foi de ce qu’ils sont en mesure d’accomplir, le tout dans 60 jours, plutôt que de se fier sur leur pays d’origine. »

Le député de Carleton, en Ontario, souhaiterait également que le programme de reconnaissance des acquis soit accessible aux candidats avant même leur arrivée au Canada, afin de raccourcir le processus le plus possible. Son gouvernement s’engagerait par ailleurs à soutenir 34 000 prêts pour tout autant d’immigrants établis au pays afin qu’ils puissent reprendre leurs études pour se mettre aux normes canadiennes.

Pour soulager le système de santé, le chef conservateur propose aussi de réduire les listes d’attente et d’accélérer l’approbation canadienne de traitements d’avant-garde éprouvés dans d’autres pays industrialisés.

Moins d’inflation et de paperasse

M. Poilievre a profité de sa brève allocution pour rappeler trois promesses que son parti s’engage à respecter s’il est porté au pouvoir.

Il propose d’abord une « loi du 1 $ pour 1 $», où son gouvernement retrancherait toute somme nouvellement investie d’un autre programme afin d’éviter d’endetter davantage les Canadiens, ce qu’il reproche à son homologue libéral.

« Les Canadiens sont en train de souffrir, nous sommes face à un taux d’inflation parmi les plus élevés des quarante dernières années », a déclaré M. Poilievre, qui plaide pour un meilleur contrôle des dépenses. « L’augmentation des coûts du gouvernement Trudeau, avec ses 500 millions de dollars de déficit inflationniste, a entraîné une augmentation du coût de la vie », a-t-il ajouté.

Le chef conservateur a par ailleurs promis de « rendre le travail payant » plutôt que de le punir, notamment en allégeant la fiscalité et les différents programmes gouvernementaux, le tout afin de remettre davantage d’argent dans les poches des travailleurs.

Enfin, le chef de l’opposition officielle à Ottawa s’est engagé à réduire la bureaucratie et la « paperasserie » imposées aux entreprises afin de les rendre plus productives, notamment dans les secteurs minier et hydroélectrique, pour planifier la transition écologique.

M. Poilievre sera de passage à Trois-Rivières et à Québec plus tard cette semaine pour « entendre le gros bon sens des Québécois et des Québécoises » dans l’optique de préparer le programme conservateur en vue de la rentrée parlementaire, plus tard ce mois-ci.

Source: Poilievre veut miser sur l’immigration pour renflouer le système de santé

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Klassen: Canada, a superpower? Here’s how the country might one day fit the bill

2023/01/17 Leave a comment

I am always sceptical of such long-term forecasts, given that none of us will be around to see how accurate, or likely how inaccurate, they will prove to be, 100 years from now, let alone Klassen’s 200 years.

In comparison, Century Initiative’s goals of a large increase in population, are modest and more realistic (even if I have fundamental disagreements).

For the foreseeable future, the United States will probably remain the world’s most powerful nation. Yet, like any champion, it must watch for challengers and head them off. At present, China’s rise on the global stage troubles Washington. A few decades ago, it was the Soviet Union.

But will future contenders for superpower status be much closer — specifically, north of the U.S. border? The British Empire ended in the mid-20th century when it was outmanoeuvred not by one of its longtime rivals, France or Germany, but rather by its ally, the U.S. Could Canada do the same?

Canada’s population is just a fraction of its southern neighbour’s, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has announced an ambitious plan to bring in 500,000 immigrants each year by 2025.

The vast majority will be young and selected via merit-based criteria that give priority to education and workplace skills. Canada’s population in relation to the U.S. has also been slowly increasing for decades and is growing at a faster pace.

Canada and the U.S. are roughly the same size, both accounting for 6.1 per cent of the world’s land mass. Much of Canada’s land at present is cold, barren and largely uninhabitable. But climate change has made Canada’s landscape more temperate and suitable for agriculture and other activities, a trend expected to continue in the decades to come.

Economic powerhouse

In some ways Canada is already a superpower. Its economic output is the eighth largest in the world. The seven countries with larger economies have bigger populations than Canada. Even with a short growing season and relatively small area devoted to agriculture, Canada is the fifth largest exporter of agri-food and seafood products.

But economic strength is only one measure of a global power. Another is having the resources that others need. In that regard, Canada is extraordinarily rich in natural resources, including clean water. Regardless of future economic, environmental and technological trends, the country will be an energy and natural resources superpower.

Two other elements are needed for superpower status: a political system that provides strong governance and a national culture that’s appealing to its own citizens and to people around the world.

Canadian politics prizes stability and moderation, both hallmarks of a superpower. Social change occurs with few ideological battles. For example, becoming the first developed country to legalize the use and sale of recreational cannabis happened with scant controversy or social division.

Even on expanding the scope of medical assistance in dying legislation, Canadians have remained civil, with all stakeholders willing to listen to each other.

Providing inspiration

Superpowers are not only countries that dominate in various spheres, but also countries that command the aspiration of — and provide inspiration for — people around the globe. For two centuries, the U.S. has made its national dream one that others around the world sought to attain. American-style democracy was the gold standard.

This is now less and less the case. The “city on a hill” acting as a beacon of hope for others has morphed in recent decades into a selfish “America-first” environment.

American citizens have grown disillusioned by their polarized politics, while outsiders question the excesses that drive U.S. capitalism. Donald Trump’s years in the White House have left many dismayed about the future of their country and widened the divisions between Republicans and Democrats.

As neighbours, Canadians shake their heads in wonder at the inequities, lack of public health care, lax gun control and debates over abortion and immigration that dominate and divide American politics.

Canadian culture, shaped by the country’s history of being a fragment of both the British and French empires, has aspired to promote equality, both between individuals and groups, although it’s failed in its abysmal treatment of Indigenous Peoples.

Nonetheless, in an age of globalization and demand for greater personal freedoms, Canada’s multicultural policies are a beacon of hope in a world often scarred by religious, ethnic and tribal battles.

Where will Canada be in 2223?

Much like when the U.S. steadily assumed the role of unchallenged superpower from Great Britain during the first half of the 20th century, it might be that Canada gradually becomes a great power this century — perhaps first as a partner to the United States, but then increasingly supplanting its neighbour.

For many around the world, such a transition would be preferable to other scenarios, such as China or Russia assuming more dominant roles in global affairs.

A shift in global power relations would occur at a leisurely pace and with minimal disruption.

In 1776, with a population of 2.5 million, few imagined that within two centuries, the U.S. would become the dominant superpower. It’s not inconceivable that Canada could perform the same feat by 2223.

Source: Canada, a superpower? Here’s how the country might one day fit the bill

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Safe Third Country Agreement is ‘working’ despite surge in irregular crossings: minister

2023/01/17 Leave a comment

Of note (not sure its perceived as working by the public):

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) is “working,” despite the massive increase in migrants using unofficial border crossings last year compared to previous years.

Mendicino told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, Canadian officials and their American counterparts continue to work together to modernize the agreement. Still, he insists the system is functioning.

“To be clear, that agreement remains in place and it is working,” he said. “The RCMP are doing the job of intercepting those who are coming into the country, which obviously underscores the integrity of our borders and the investments, which are backstopped by the federal government.”

The STCA was first signed 20 years ago, and there have been talks of modernizing it since 2018, with some changes made in 2019. Under the STCA, people seeking refugee status in either Canada or the U.S. must make their claim in the first country they enter.

The loophole that the agreement applies only to official land border crossings means asylum seekers who manage to enter a country via an unofficial crossing — such as Roxham Road along the Quebec-New York border — are not returned.

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the number of RCMP interceptions and asylum claims at unofficial border crossings between Canada and the U.S. hit a six-year high in 2022. There was a drastic drop in the numbers as of spring 2020 and throughout 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the border.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re going to be able to land it,” he said. “In the meantime, we’ll continue to make historic investments and work with provincial and territorial partners, so that asylum seekers who have a basis on which to make those claims in Canada are able to do so, but do so in a safe and orderly way.”

“It’s important that we recognize that we have an immigration system that works, and that fosters safe and orderly flow both when it comes to asylum seekers, as well as economic immigrants,” he also said.

Conservative Leader Poilievre Poilievre said this week that the Liberal government should renegotiate the agreement “in order to close Roxham Road,” adding he understands why people try to use it, because the Canadian immigration system is “now so slow and so broken.” He blamed the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada application backlog, and said the prime minister should “renegotiate the deal with the Americans, and speed up the processing of immigration generally.”

Source: Safe Third Country Agreement is ‘working’ despite surge in irregular crossings: minister

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