Oakville North—Burlington's candidates' promises on Immigration & Refugees

Administrative Backlogs

We don't have any Liberal policies on Administrative Backlogs.

We don't have any NDP policies on Administrative Backlogs.

Conservative

Create an efficiency mechanism, where those waiting for their applications to be reviewed can pay a fee for expedited processing, with revenue collected going to hiring additional staff for processing.
Attempt to identify unutilised resources.
Simplify and streamline the application process and eliminate duplication.

We don't have any Green policies on Administrative Backlogs.

CBSA

We don't have any Liberal policies on CBSA.

We don't have any NDP policies on CBSA.

We don't have any Conservative policies on CBSA.

Green

Revise all CBSA practices, including operation of immigration detention centres, family separation, & developing an oversight mechanism, including a Civilian Complaint & Review Commission.

Credential Recognition

Liberal

Work with provinces, territories, & regulatory bodies to improve foreign credential recognition.

NDP

Improve foreign credentials recognition.

Conservative

Immediately launch a Credential Recognition Task Force to develop new credential recognition strategies.

One area this task force will study is credential pre-qualification – allowing people in other countries to acquire Canadian-standard proficiency through accredited institutions overseas or distance learning with Canadian institutions.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Green

Review & update accreditation policies & licensing programmes.
Work with accreditation institutions to recognise foreign training & education.
Allocate more funding to provide training language & employment skills, & accreditation recognition for any newcomers legally eligible to work in Canada.
Incentivise employers to hire newcomers & refugee claimants.

● Review and update accreditation policies and licensing programs to better and more accurately reflect the current needs of our Canadian society.

● Collaborate with accreditation institutions in Canada to recognize foreign training and education.

● Allocate greater funding to provide training language skills, employment skills. and accreditation recognition for any newcomer legally eligible to work in Canada.

● Create incentives for employers to hire newcomers and refugee claimants.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Family Reunification

Liberal

Reduce processing times to under 12 months.
Introduce electronic applications for family reunification.

NDP

End caps on applications to sponsor parents & grandparents.
Treat caregivers brought to Canada with respect & dignity, provide them with status, & allow them to reunite with their families without delay.

Conservative

Scrap the lottery system for family reunification.
Create a first-come-first-served system with weighting to prioritise applicants on criteria such as providing child care or family support, and language proficiency.
Invest additional resources in processing applications.

Green

Increase the number of accepted applications for parent & grandparent sponsorship by IRCC.
Review adoption bans for Muslim majority countries.
Remove visa requirements for most parents visiting their children.

● Increase support for parent and grandparent sponsorship by IRCC by increasing the number of accepted applications and decreasing processing times.

● Review adoption bans from Muslim majority countries so that adoptive parents can remain together through their immigration process, as well as allowing adoption from these countries by Canadian citizens.

● Lower barriers for convention refugees to reunite with their children and bring them to Canada by making the process more accessible

● Remove visa requirements for most parents visiting their children - including international students, temporary workers, Canadian citizens and convention refugees.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Immigration Process

Liberal

Make the citizenship application process free for permanent residents who have fulfilled the requirements needed to obtain it.
Implement a program to issue visas to spouses & children abroad while they wait for processing of their permanent residency application.

Reduce processing times that have been impacted by COVID-19 to under 12 months.

Introduce electronic applications for family reunification.

Implement a program to issue visas to spouses and children abroad while they wait for the processing of their permanent residency application, so that families can be together sooner.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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NDP

Regulate the immigration consultancy industry.

Conservative

Record all interactions between immigration officers & applicants to ensure oversight, fairness, & accountability.
Use technology to speed application vetting.
Increase cultural awareness training.
Use remote meeting technology to match applicants with immigration officers who best understand their cultural context.
Let applicants correct simple application mistakes within a set amount of time.

• Moving the technological infrastructure of immigration online and recording all interactions between immigration officers and applicants to help ensure oversight, fairness, and accountability.

• Introducing technology to speed application vetting by immigration officers.

• Increasing cultural awareness training and using remote meeting technology to match applicants with immigration officers who best understand the cultural context of the applicant.

• Letting applicants correct simple and honest mistakes in an application within a set amount of time.

° Currently, if a person makes an error in an application, the application is rejected, and the person is required to re-submit the application entirely.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Green

Update the citizenship guidebook to include a more accurate history of Canada & Turtle Island, including residential schools & the Indian Act.
Address all forms of hate & xenophobia in all aspects of settlement in Canada.
Introduce exceptions for permanent residency & citizenship application costs based on household income.

1. Update the citizenship guidebook

● Update the citizenship guidebook to include a more accurate history of Canada and Turtle Island that includes the harms of residential schools and the Indian Act.

2. Address all forms of hate and xenophobia in all aspects of settlement in Canada

● Address xenophobia in all aspects of settlement, including temporary visa liberalization, issuing of temporary permits (study, work, visit, etc.) and family reunification (including increasing capacity for family sponsorship and revision of adoption processes)

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

Introduce exceptions for permanent residency and citizenship application costs based on household income (for many refugees, the $1,000 application fee for citizenship is unaffordable).

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Refugees

Liberal

Work with employers & communities to welcome 2K skilled refugees to fill labour shortages in sectors like healthcare.

Build on the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot and work with employers and communities across Canada to welcome 2,000 skilled refugees to fill labour shortages in in-demand sectors such as health care.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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NDP

Get rid of the backlog for asylum seekers.
Work with Canadians to resettle refugees in communities.
Ensure refugees are given the support they need to build successful lives & new homes.
Establish a clear & permanent path for resettlement of LGBTQI2S+ refugees.

Conservative

Replace all public, government-assisted refugee places with more private & joint sponsorship places, except for special cases.
Make the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Project a permanent program.
Allow private sponsorship of the most vulnerable victims of persecution directly from their country of origin.
Create a program to allow direct private sponsorship of persecuted religious & sexual minorities.

• Replace public, government-assisted refugee places with more private and joint sponsorship places. All refugees arriving in Canada will do so under private or joint sponsorship programs, with exceptions in cases of emergency or specific programs (such as the human rights defenders program discussed below).

° This does not mean a reduced financial commitment to refugee sponsorship or lower overall numbers of protected persons. It means that public dollars will be directed through joint sponsorship programs where newcomers benefit from community support and the better outcomes associated with private sponsorship.

° Moving from “private” and “public” sponsorship streams to “private” and “joint” sponsorship streams ensures every refugee family arriving in Canada will do so with a group of dedicated and motivated Canadians, ready to make them feel welcome.

° This also ensures that private sponsors will not always have to bear the full costs of sponsorship, allowing them to help more refugees.

• These changes will revolutionize the experience of compassionate organizations conducting private refugee sponsorship. Sponsors will spend more time helping people in distress with more government support and less government hassle.

When it comes to financial allocations for joint sponsorships, Conservatives will prioritize the following categories:

• Support delivered to the most vulnerable.

• Support delivered through sponsorship agreement holders with a demonstrable track record of successfully integrating refugees.

• Support delivered through a new, specialized, “human rights defender” stream, welcoming human rights advocates such as notable Hong Kong protestors who are particularly vulnerable in their home country as a result of their willingness to stand up for the rights of others.

Canada’s Conservatives have a proud record of assisting the world’s most vulnerable refugees, including our pioneering assistance to LGBTQ+ people, especially from Iran, who would otherwise face a death sentence.

• Canada’s Conservatives will make the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Project a permanent government program. We will work with LGBTQ+ organizations in Canada to encourage and facilitate greater participation by these organizations in refugee sponsorship, and we will lead a global network of free countries to assist the world’s persecuted sexual minorities.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

• Allow private sponsorship of the most vulnerable victims of persecution directly from their country of origin.

• Work with Canadian communities to create a specific program to allow direct private sponsorship of persecuted religious and sexual minorities.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Green

Terminate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the US.
Address processing time & unaffordable application fees.
Eliminate status-based service requirements.

Temporary Foreign Workers

Liberal

Reform economic immigration programmes to expand pathways to Permanent Residence for temporary foreign workers & former international students through the Express Entry points system.
Create a Trusted Employer system with a streamlined application process for Canadian companies hiring temporary foreign workers to fill labour shortages that can't be filled by Canadian workers.

We don't have any NDP policies on Temporary Foreign Workers.

Conservative

Create a trusted employer system so companies don't have to reapply.
Work with provinces to harmonise federal & provincial systems.
Set clear standards & timelines for Labour Market Assessment processes, including options for fee-based expedited visas when needed.
Revise how regions are zoned to ensure rural areas & tourism hotspots are not coupled with urban hubs.
Establish a path to permanence.

Green

Introduce low-barrier, more accessible pathways to permanent residency for temporary foreign workers.
Develop safe strategies for temporary foreign workers & whistle blowers to report abusive employers without losing their status.

● Introduce exceptions for permanent residency and citizenship application costs based on household income (for many refugees, the $1,000 application fee for citizenship is unaffordable).

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

● Develop safe strategies for temporary foreign workers and whistle blowers to report abusive employers without losing their status.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Visas

Liberal

Implement a program to issue visas to spouses & children abroad while they wait for processing of their permanent residency application.

Implement a program to issue visas to spouses and children abroad while they wait for the processing of their permanent residency application, so that families can be together sooner.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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We don't have any NDP policies on Visas.

Conservative

Increase the capacity of the Immigration and Refugee Board to hear asylum claims.
Strengthen integrity and enforcement overall.
Explore requiring more enforceable commitments for visitors to abide by.
Allow family members of citizens to come & live in Canada for up to 5 years without permanent status, renewing their stay for additional time, where appropriate, if they purchase health insurance.

• Allow family members of Canadians to come and live in Canada for up to five years without permanent status, renewing their stay for additional time, where appropriate, provided that they purchase health insurance.

• Allow those coming to Canada on a super visa to purchase health insurance from the government of their province or territory on a cost-recovery basis where the provincial or territorial government wishes to offer this option.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Green

Remove visa requirements for most parents visiting their children.

Remove visa requirements for most parents visiting their children - including international students, temporary workers, Canadian citizens and convention refugees.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

Read less