Controlling immigration

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/04/2012 (5266 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For all its talk about giving immigrants a consistent level of service across the country and additional funding, the federal Conservative government has no interest in continuing the success of Manitoba’s Provincial Nominee Program.

Since its creation in 1998 by the Gary Filmon Progressive Conservative government, the program has helped more than 100,000 immigrants settle in Manitoba. It was the first program of its kind in Canada, one that lets provinces seek their own immigrants to meet specific labour-market needs.

It was so successful that eight other provinces and two territories soon followed suit.

But on Wednesday, the Winnipeg Free Press received confirmation that Ottawa will take back control over settlement services in Manitoba and British Columbia, the only two provinces where Ottawa funds the services and the province provides them.

More than 200 programs provide various services to new immigrants across Manitoba, ranging from language and job training to social services that help families enrol kids in school or even figure out public transit systems. Ottawa is spending $36 million this year on the services in Manitoba, up from $30 million last year.

In Brandon, thousands of workers and their families have been brought to the city and the Westman region through the nominee program, and a large majority of them have stayed here, put down roots and are raising their families. In other words, we have much to lose if the program ceases to be as effective.

Apparently, funding to the province will not change, though the nominee programs will be under federal control within two years.

In our opinion there was sufficient evidence that the federal government was getting tired of dealing with the whims and wants of Manitoba’s NDP government.

In 2010, Manitoba was initially allotted 4,600 federal certificates to bring people to Canada through the nominee program. When Manitoba complained it was less than the year before, the feds upped it to 5,000.

One year later, the federal Tories pressured the province to cap the number of new immigrants arriving in Manitoba at 5,000. Newcomers were needed in other, more prosperous provinces like Alberta, where worker shortages are a huge concern. That didn’t fly with Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard, who kept pushing for 5,500.

All of these new immigrants brought with them their spouses and families, making Manitoba’s growth rate the third-highest among all Canadian provinces and well above the national rate of 1.06 per cent. It’s a success rate that is the envy of other provinces.

And then, earlier this year, federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney released a report that said while Manitoba received the lion’s share of immigrants between 2005 and 2009 through its nominee program, these new workers earned less than they could have in other worker-starved provinces such as Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan.

Ironically, the CBC reports that Manitoba’s nominee program will eventually be run by a federal office in Calgary.

Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Merv Tweed toed the party line yesterday when he told the Sun that the Tories want to “create a balance and a fairness” across Canada.

“I’m not opposed to reductions as long as the service maintains and we’ve certainly been assured that will happen.”

Unfortunately, sir, there is nothing reassuring in the way in which the federal government has managed this decision.

Let’s have no illusions about this: Manitoba will never be a priority for Stephen Harper, even if the province wasn’t run by the NDP.

Wresting away control over how we run our nominee program has nothing to do with streamlining immigration services, and everything to do with funnelling new immigrations — i.e. labourers — further west to the Conservative heartland.