Feds not keeping track of foreign workers program: Fraser
By Elizabeth Thompson,
News lifted from Sun Media
2009, November

Opposition critics are calling for an overhaul of Canada’s immigration policy after Auditor General Sheila Fraser slammed the way the government is handling the immigration backlog and the temporary foreign worker program.

“The entire plan, the foreign workers plan is in shambles, including the skilled workers program,” charged NDP Immigration Critic Olivia Chow.

“This particular report is a wake-up call for the minister to really rethink his entire strategy when it comes to the immigration system,” echoed Liberal critic Maurizio Bevilacqua. “This is not isolated only to the temporary foreign workers program.”

But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the immigration system is working better than Fraser gives it credit for. His department has already moved to address some of the problems raised in her report such as tougher regulations to protect foreign workers.

The comments come after Fraser tabled a report Tuesday that sharply criticized the immigration department on several fronts, saying a number of key decisions in recent years weren’t properly assessed before they were introduced.

For example, Fraser said surveillance of the temporary foreign workers program is so lax that work permits could be issued for jobs that don’t exist and workers could be vulnerable to abuse by employers.

“There is no systematic follow-up by either department to verify that in their previous and current employment of temporary foreign workers, employers have complied with the terms and conditions (such as wages and accommodations) under which the work permits were issued.”

Speaking to reporters, Fraser said her staff were told some people were using the program to fast track family members into the country.

Fraser also found that there are still serious backlogs of applications to immigrate to Canada, despite steps taken by the federal government to reduce the backlog.

In 2008, before it changed the rules, the immigration department estimated that the backlog that existed as of February 2008 might not be eliminated for another eight to 25 years, Fraser said.

Now it doesn’t even hazard a guess.

“The department was ... unable to determine when this inventory will likely be eliminated nor has it defined what would be a reasonable timeframe to do so.”

Kenney, however, says the changes implemented last year have made a big difference.

“Before we brought in the action plan for faster immigration it was taking five or six years,” he told reporters. “So to go from a six-year wait to a six month wait is a huge improvement.”

elizabeth.thompson@sunmedia.ca