Thank you, Madam Chair, members and witnesses. Please accept my greetings. May Allah's peace be upon you.
I am an RCIC practising mainly in Saskatchewan for Guide Me Immigration Consulting Incorporated. Let me start with the SINP program with an employment offer, which I feel has been extremely affected by the racist behaviour of the IRCC, differentiating different countries and applicants from different countries in many different ways.
The economy of Saskatchewan is severely affected by the unreasonable, lengthy processing for the PR and temporary work permit applicants supported by the mentioned programs. The primary goal of the SINP program is to facilitate employers with international skilled workers to fulfill the immediate labour needs. However, considerable numbers of SNIP-supported work permit applicants, mostly from Bangladesh, India and a few Asian countries, are denied every month, mainly for a very common reason: “I am not satisfied that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay, based on your personal assets and financial status, or purpose of visit, or ties with the country of residence or current employment or travel history.”
Even though the applicants are dual intent and their primary goal is to become a permanent resident, refusing those applications based on those grounds is considered absolutely unreasonable and unfortunate by many Canadian employers. As a result, the helpless Saskatchewan employers and the economy continuously suffer from unpredictable labour supplies that have no real-time relevance to market needs.
I would like to bring your attention to the fact that the applicants who applied through the online PR portal outside Canada are not receiving the AOR, even 16 months after applying, while those who applied for PR applications from inside Canada or some European or western countries have already received their medical request, and are expecting in a few months to get their confirmation of PR, unlike those from Asian countries.
Let me focus a little bit the caregiver program, which can be an example of mistreatment of those foreign workers who work hard to protect the vulnerable in our communities. Unfortunately, the senior and child care pilot programs have become a humanitarian crisis for those helpless workers, who are separated from their families, out of a job, without medical assistance and with no clear pathway to becoming permanent residents. Some of them are outside Canada in the middle of nowhere, as the employment situation may have changed over this long delay.
International students are considered a quick fix for the economy. Many Bangladeshi students complain about the discrimination in their application process for not having the advantage of the student direct stream program despite Bangladesh and Canada having long and robust economic ties.
I also receive a significant amount of feedback from my clients that the study permit approval rates are higher if someone is applying to Ontario, British Columbia or Quebec. If we look at the statistics, we see that the number of students who get study permits in those provinces is much higher than in Saskatchewan. As a result, Saskatchewan is deprived of economic benefits from international students, and also receives significantly fewer post-graduate workers for the labour force.
Finally, I want to bring your attention to the entrepreneur programs. Entrepreneurs, investors and proven successful business people across the world wish to bring their own funds, skill sets and business knowledge to invest in our country. Of course, this program has an escalated growth in job creation, more than any other immigration program. Unfortunately, Canada offers only a few underperforming immigration programs, unlike other developed countries such as England, U.S.A. or Australia.
The Canadian entrepreneur programs are complicated, lengthy and absolutely full of policy barriers. The unfavourable situation is pushing away those investors and innovators to other countries. We are searching for jobs and we are trying to increase the job opportunities, but we are opposing those investors who can create those opportunities.
In my opinion, we need those entrepreneurs to have equal immigration priority, or even higher priority, to compensate for the unforeseen economic pressure from the other immigration programs.
Thank you, Chair.