TORONTO (CP) - Ottawa will forge ahead with a promise to halve immigrant-landing fees, but more intractable problems such as speeding up the landing process will have to wait, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg said Monday.
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In his maiden speech as minister, Solberg said newcomers will pay half the current $975 fee to become permanent residents, with the $83-million fiscal hit to the treasury to be covered by surplus general revenues.
"Our efforts should be focused on welcoming newcomers and helping them fit in, not taxing them to death," Solberg told a conference on immigration hosted by the Public Policy Forum.
"They'll get enough of that later."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is also working to set up a new agency to streamline the assessment of foreign credentials, he said, noting the injustice of a foreign-trained doctor having to drive a taxi despite Canada's growing shortage of physicians.
The government's third immigration priority will be to bestow citizenship on children adopted abroad by Canadian parents to "help put them on an equal footing" with children born in this country, he said.
Solberg offered no timetable for implementing the initiatives, saying specifics would have to wait for a throne speech and federal budget.
After a speech in which he played up his Norwegian roots, Solberg said the government had no plans for radical changes to immigration policy, including the number of immigrants Canada takes each year.
Solberg said he understood the long-standing frustration newcomers feel when it comes to family reunification or the years it can take to process the two million applications the department receives each year, but offered no solutions.
He also said the government has no immediate plan to deal with the thousands of illegal workers in cities such as Toronto.
"This is not an issue for us for us in the sense that we're not going to do anything dramatic," Solberg said.
Earlier, nine protesters calling for a meeting with Solberg assembled quietly behind Ontario's Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle as he addressed the forum.
They held banners deploring the deportation of foreigners to countries where they might be tortured and the indefinite detention without charge of suspected foreign terrorists.
Matthew Behrens, of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials, received polite applause when he took the microphone after Colle had finished.
Before the protesters left, Behrens managed to get a few moments with Solberg.
"He will not commit to a meeting," Behrens said. "(That) concerns us given the fact his ministry is responsible for violating international law."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/2006...GNvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
ADVERTISEMENT
In his maiden speech as minister, Solberg said newcomers will pay half the current $975 fee to become permanent residents, with the $83-million fiscal hit to the treasury to be covered by surplus general revenues.
"Our efforts should be focused on welcoming newcomers and helping them fit in, not taxing them to death," Solberg told a conference on immigration hosted by the Public Policy Forum.
"They'll get enough of that later."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is also working to set up a new agency to streamline the assessment of foreign credentials, he said, noting the injustice of a foreign-trained doctor having to drive a taxi despite Canada's growing shortage of physicians.
The government's third immigration priority will be to bestow citizenship on children adopted abroad by Canadian parents to "help put them on an equal footing" with children born in this country, he said.
Solberg offered no timetable for implementing the initiatives, saying specifics would have to wait for a throne speech and federal budget.
After a speech in which he played up his Norwegian roots, Solberg said the government had no plans for radical changes to immigration policy, including the number of immigrants Canada takes each year.
Solberg said he understood the long-standing frustration newcomers feel when it comes to family reunification or the years it can take to process the two million applications the department receives each year, but offered no solutions.
He also said the government has no immediate plan to deal with the thousands of illegal workers in cities such as Toronto.
"This is not an issue for us for us in the sense that we're not going to do anything dramatic," Solberg said.
Earlier, nine protesters calling for a meeting with Solberg assembled quietly behind Ontario's Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle as he addressed the forum.
They held banners deploring the deportation of foreigners to countries where they might be tortured and the indefinite detention without charge of suspected foreign terrorists.
Matthew Behrens, of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials, received polite applause when he took the microphone after Colle had finished.
Before the protesters left, Behrens managed to get a few moments with Solberg.
"He will not commit to a meeting," Behrens said. "(That) concerns us given the fact his ministry is responsible for violating international law."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/2006...GNvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--