Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said that if his government is elected then the government would scrap the recent changes to the immigration system of Canada; changes that his party abstained form defeating during the spring.
Dion made this important announcement when he was speaking at a rally in Richmond, B.C., and pledged that the federal government would fund $800 million in order to help the new Canadians to settle in Canada and also reduce the log jam of immigration applications.
He stated that of the new funding, $400 million would be used to clear the 900,000 person backlog; another $200 million would go towards language training for immigrants and the rest $200 million would be used on courses to prepare new Canadians for the workplace.
Under the new legislation passed by the conservatives this spring, the immigration minister will have more power to fast-track certain groups or professions.
In his remarks, Dion said that the approach of Stephen Harper towards immigration is clearly the one that can respond to only short-term demand of the labour market. He termed their policy of letting fewer immigrants into the country as ‘a mistake’.
He said that we need to do better job to help the new Canadians succeed and at the same time there is no need to give arbitrary power to the minister of immigration.
It was the second successive day that the Liberals made promises that are aimed at the immigrant voters, which is considered as one of the main demographics of traditional Liberal support.