During the last election campaign one of the promises the Harper team made was to lower the bar for entry into Canada by immigrants. Right now there is a $550 processing fee for permanent resident applications, which groups worried about refugees say is an insurmountable obstacle for many people seeking refuge here.
So, like so many other groups, they took to Parliament Hill this past week to make their case, lobby for support from MPs and troll for media interest. MPtv was there, not so much because this is a burning issue for most of us, but rather because it is a study in the only way some people in this society believe they have a hope in hell of ever being noticed.
To view the video, click here.
18 comments ↓
Garth,
Didn’t the fee used to be $975?
“On May 2, 2006, the Government of Canada announced a reduction of 50 percent in the $975 Right of Permanent Residence ”
http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGlish/applications/fees.html
Looks like the fee is $475 for the principle applicant and $550 for other family members. There’s a whole bunch fees for different scenarios.
I guess Harper keep his promise
“During the last election campaign one of the promises the Harper team made was to lower the bar for entry into Canada by immigrants”
At the risk of sounding heartless, these groups who come to the Hill (some from outside of Ottawa) to rally in support of their cause (usually not their own personal cause but for some other group) may wish to put their money where their mouths are; namely, contribute to the cost of coming to Canada.
True refugees can be treated seperately. Others who wish to come here or bring family members should be required to pay for the paperwork. My grandparents paid their way here, paid for the process to become Canadians and did not for a moment think of complaining or putting out their hands for funds. This was the price they paid to come here.
Today, this amount may seem insurmountable for a true refugee, but for a non-refugee, it is a small price to pay for a health system, security, opportunity etc.
At the moment, it seems that we have a great number of phony refugees clogging out system. Treat real refugees differently – and, yes, require that the amount be repaid at some future date without interest if paid within a set period of time. That seems fair to me.
Judy, however, will stomp all over this idea and tell me that religion should have no place in our refugee and immigration system.
Of course, Olivia Chow was there. I stopped the video at that point. I cannot stand to listen to her – she believes in nothing but shooting off her mouth. Whatever the issue, she does love to be in front of a microphone. If I had a cause to promote, the second last person I’d have speaking for me would be Olivia Chow. Taliban Jack is the very last person I’d have speaking for me.
Over to you, Judy. I know that you’re itching to jump all over me and my fellow Christians.
I wonder if Flaherty would consider this a priority over his tax reduction promises, in particular the income-splitting they promised. This for the seniors who have contributed so much to the country and are still being taxed to death. Those of us who have already built your hospitals, schools, roads and bridges. Or are these new comers more important to be able to come here free and partake of all our benefits, health care, jobs and a free society to live without fear as they had in their homelands only to end up with dual citizenship and go back as we recently experienced with the Lebanese.
Just wondering.
Morris Lewicky
I should have also mentioned “IF THEY BECOME CITIZENS” and many don’t and then demand the right to vote.
Morris Lewicky.
Ok – I’ll be the first one to bite.
It’s amazing that the Liberal MP was out there, as it was the Liberals who imposed the 975$ fee in the first place!
The refugees are complaining that during the five years that they are here, they could not save the less than 50cents a day fee, while at the same time, the refugees have access to our health care system, our schoolings, our social housing, etc the minute they step off the plane onto our soil. I find this a bit astounding. I can also say that many of these refugees, while waiting to come up with their fees, are sending money back home to their native countries – one just has to go to any money exchange places and see this. How about asking what these refugees can do for us? BTW: my parents came after WWII, and they didn’t get anything from the government – they went to work on farms, as cleaning staff, as housekeepers, as labourers. They worked hard without asking for handouts. They integrated into the Canadian society and truly adopted this country as their own.
Having said that, Mr. Harper did as he promised and cut the fees in half. So why are they still complaining? It’s not some magical tree that funds all their programs and services.
And another thing why did our immigration judge release a non-Canadian citizen pedophile (a US citizen)?
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061026/watson_arrest_061027/20061027?hub=TopStories
I’m really getting fed up with these judges! They are non accountable to us and are forcing us to put up with their decisions. Maybe we should start suiting these judges personally. Afterall, we do have a right to live without fearing for our lives or our childrens lives.
On a different topic – Saskachewan has lowered its PST from 7% to 5%!!!!
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2006/10/27/pst-cut.html
And it’s a NDP government that did this. So, is Jack Layton going to say that “it’s just the wrong thing to do”? I do recall TJ (Layton) lambasting Stephen Harper on the GST reduction.
http://jojourn.blogspot.com/2006/10/go-garth.html
just to let you know many are still very supportive!
Garth: At the beginning of your webcast, you show a young man who says he has been in Canada for five years, but has been unable to raise the money to pay the fee to become a landed immigrant. EXCUSE ME? Has he been working? Has he been earning an hourly wage or salary of some description? That fee, 550.00, amounts to $9.16 per month over five years. Unless he’s been homeless, and living out of dumpsters all this time, there is really no excuse for that, if he is at all serious about becoming a Canadian landed immigrant and, eventually, a citizen. Had he arrived just last week, I could understand his being uanble to raise the fee immediately. However, taking him at his word, I cannot and do not sympathize. Canada and its taxpayers do not owe it to the world to take in all the refugees of all the mindless conflicts throughout all the world. If somebody, freely and of their own will, comes to Canada, to live, work and be part of Canadian society, then that someone must prove that that someone is serious. The fee is not a punitive deterrent to immigration — it is a filter, a benchmark, a means by which the immigrant proves that immigrant’s intent to live here, work here and be a part of Canadian society.
What, are we not nice enough anymore? Have we not opened our doors wide enough? Has the Lebanese Exodus not taught us anything? Do we have to be the world’s biggest suckers forever?
So, okay, drop the fee…but if they don’t have a job waiting for them, or they don’t speak English and/or French, or they do not have an immediately marketable skill, why, in heaven’s name, should we make them all that much more welcome?
Garth, you have demonstrated that you value common sense, as well as compassion and tolerance. Where exactly do we draw the line, beyond which it reads, “Sugar Daddy’s — Everybody Welcome!”
No wonder the word, Kanata, translates from the Huron as “There goes The neighbourhood.”
OCTJMO — ICBW — think I’ll move to Australia
Richard, No where in your comments about immigration fees did you mention religion? Why should I?
You hate the sound of Olivia Chow before a microphone. For me its John Baird or Jason Kenney.
I guess we all have different tolerances for voices at different decibell levels?
Garth to hell with party politics, start up an Independant Party of Ontario and go from there as party politic groups are nothing but sheep to Power Hungary individuals and George Bush connected at the ass twins
How stupid were the organizers in allowing a young dead beat to awkwardly lie, “I’ve been here 5 years and can’t raise the money.”
Let’s put a rifle in the hands of that young man and ship him out to Afghanistan. There he can earn the money he needs while protecting the new country he loves.
Get real Olivia, and keep your knickers on Judy. A future PM can make an apology and restitution to his grandchildren on our behalf. Then all will be right in the cosmos.
If any of the new loyal Canadians are looking to me for sympathy, it can be found in a dictionary between shit and syphilis.
Welll, I love to hear Jason Kenney, Peter McKay, Stephen Harper..for they represent our new government, hardly in office a year… they do and will make mistakes..but they are going to have to go a very long way indeed in a very short time to come even close to the mistakes and outright fraud committed against us as citizens and taxpayers by the liberal government over 13 years.
There seems to be little patience for a new government to hone their skills at doing what we sent them there to do.
Garth’s situation is a glaring example of how they can put their foot wrong.
That is not to say that a liberal or ndp alternative is preferable. Hardly.
Olivia Chow almost always knows not of what she speaks but it doesn’t stop her from speaking.
Again, the point is well made that the government has lived up to it’s promises with so little time already.
It is a very good point to make that the fee has been reduced and it is also a good point to make that if these people wish to be Canadian there is a price to pay. Both in money and effort.
Quit whining and get on with your effort to become Canadian without, once again, the taxpayer being expected to pay your way. We already have people coming to this country and immediately going on the welfare roles. That paid for by the very citizens who now are waiting for the kind of tax cuts and measures they have long deserved.
Let’s get over the special interest groups and start paying attention to the largest interest group: US. ( And you thought I was going to say Native rights!)
NO ,, US the Canadian. Beleagured by liberal crime and corruption and in danger of having a new government de-railed completely by these very factions attempting to divert focus to other more wishful and mundane efforts.
We owe ourselves to keep our government focused and that means taking to task the liberals for their belinda gate bs, their ludicrous leadership campaigns in which all manner of outrageous promises are again made to ‘special interest’ groups.
We have serious matters that need immediate attention. These folks can sink or swim on their own as far as I am concerned and if they don’t like it they can go back where they came from and start again.
Perhaps next time they will be confirmed in their resolve to appreciate what it takes to become a Canadian.
Certainly lap dancing isn’t it!
I landed 2 years ago and happily paid $975 with a BIG thank you. For God’s sake, if someone visit other’s house, he should bring a little gift as a common courtesy. In this case, he comes to Canada to stay permanently, and don’t even expect to pay for the paperwork cost. The first thing Canada should teach is Responsibility
As usual the NDP is only looking at one side of the issue.
What about all the support that the government provides, both financially and educationally to new arrivals? Is that a heartless thing to do Olivia? How about the welfare we give them while they look for work? Is that heartless? How about the clothes we give them so that they do not freeze their asses in the winter? Is that heartless?
Hanh Nguyen,
Welcome to Canada.
Geography alone means that anyone arriving in Canada has spent an enormous amount on getting here. How does it follow that a relatively low one-time $550 is likely to be a massive burden? This isn’t a case of someone walking over the border, folks! How much lower will we set the bar to become a citizen of Canada? Should we have any expectations?