Immigration, I believe, is one of the greatest challenges our government had to deal with after taking office in 2006. The demands in the labour market, the backlog of applications and previous political interference when dealing with applications, was a frustration to applicants and those processing the applications for the Department of Immigration.

Our Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the Honourable Diane Finley, has announced the needed changes and our Minister of Finance, the Honourable Jim Flaherty, has budgeted the needed money to implement the needs of our country as our needs change. The $22M in this budget will go to fighting the immigration backlog.

The Opposition parties have suggested that the changes to the legislation will allow the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to overturn the decisions of the immigration officers and unilaterally make decisions about immigration policy. They say it puts too much power in the hands of the Minister. This is simply not the case. The Minister will have to consult with all the provinces and territories and key stakeholders; powers to be compliant with the Charter and laws of Canada and, be approved by Cabinet.

The new legislation would allow the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to select from among new applications, and choose those that best meet Canada’s labour market needs. The changes will allow visa officers to focus on Canada’s skills priorities, so people who meet those priorities can be brought to Canada more quickly. Those instructions would be public and reflect advice from provinces and stakeholders. To be completely open and transparent, they will be published for all to see.

Let me emphasize that the changes are intended to give us the flexibility to choose the skilled workers that best fit our needs, without affecting applicants in the family class, refugees, or those who ask for humanitarian and compassionate consideration. These people also stand to benefit. Our goal is an immigration program that would ultimately bring in newcomers in 12 months – not the 6 years it can take today.

Immigration policy should not be open armed to all applicants, but must be a fair and transparent process which discerns what is in the best interest of Canada. The political interference of the former government to this immigration process is unacceptable.

The former government allowed the backlog to balloon to 800,000 people with applications in the queue, waiting to immigrate to Canada. At the same time they did nothing to address the problem. We cannot let this continue. If nothing is done, the wait will be 10 years by 2012 with a backlog of over 1.5 million people. This is simply unacceptable.