For immediate Release

COMMITTEE TRAVEL TO CANADIAN POSTS ABROAD

“Competing for Immigrants”

OTTAWA, April 11, 2002 - Joe Fontana, MP (London North Center), Chair of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration today announced that the Committee will  travel to Europe (London-Berlin-Vienna and Paris), India (New Delhi), Asia (Hong Kong, Beijing and Seoul) to examine our overseas processing of business class and skilled worker applicants to identify strengths and weaknesses.  The Committee hopes to recommend strategies to improve efficiency and make suggestions on how to better market Canada. The issuance of visas for students and temporary workers will also be examined.  Many students seek to remain in Canada following their studies and various Canadian businesses have long expressed their need for specific classes of temporary workers, such as software professionals.

Globalization has not only led to the greater mobility of capital, it has also resulted in the increased mobility of skilled labour. Just as Canada competes for international investment, so too must we strive to attract the immigrants who will support Canadian industry and create new business opportunities.  Other countries have immigration programs for entrepreneurs, investors and highly skilled workers that are similar to ours.  We must be able to compete with them to ensure our future prosperity.

The Committee expects that visits to Canadian posts abroad will provide important information that would simply not be available using other means.  As the Committee learned in preparing its recent report on border security (tabled in the House of Commons on December 6, 2001) direct contact with front-line workers is essential when assessing program delivery. 

Issues that are to be examined include, inter alia:

·        Priorities in processing;

·        Human resource concerns, including training and staffing levels;

·        Use of technology;

·        Medical, criminality and security screening;

·        Causes of delay (e.g. language issues, recognition of foreign credentials, validation of relationship of dependants);

·        Effect of implementation of the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act;

·        Potential role of the provinces in expediting processing;

·        Interviewing procedures of visa officers;

·        Role of immigration consultants; and,

·        Use of locally engaged staff.

The Committee also intends to examine the programs of other countries, such as the United States and Australia, to ascertain how they pursue targeted immigrant groups.  This can best be done by visiting their missions in the cities where Canadian posts are also located.

The last time that such an overseas study was undertaken was in 1986 when the Standing Committee on Labour, Employment and Immigration examined the issue of family reunification.  That Committee divided into three groups with each group visiting four visa posts abroad.  Our Committee intends to do the same on April 13 to April 25, 2002.

Committee E-Mail Box = CIMM@parl.gc.ca                               Fax: (613) 947-0307

-30-