Narrowing pathways to citizenship in northeastern Ontario concern new Canadian voters

Following a swell in newcomers to Canada that helped boost the population to 41 million people last year, candidates in the federal election are now campaigning on capping immigration and targeting recruitment for skilled workers.

In northeastern Ontario, the Liberal candidate for Sudbury East-Manitoulin-Nickel Belt Marc Serré defended his government's move to reduce the number of study permits for international students and cap the number of permanent resident applications.

"We have to ensure that Canadians, the existing Canadians that are here, are filling in those positions and the employers need to show that they've made all attempts to hire Canadians before we bring in newcomers," he said.

"So definitely because of the economy right now the way it is, there has been an adjustment that  I think that's healthy to make sure that we adapt to the certain circumstances of the economy of today."

To a certain degree, all the parties are campaigning on some form of targeted recruitment of skilled immigrants.

The New Democrat candidate for Sudbury East-Manitoulin-Nickel Belt Andréane Chénier says immigration is vital to the health care system, where one in four workers came from outside Canada. 

"Right now we're not able to recruit doctors because we're not recognizing their credentials appropriately," she said.

"So we have some skills shortages in labour that we could be filling through responsible, fair and dignified immigration."

Targets and caps for immigration a theme among party platforms

The Conservative candidate for Sudbury, Ian Symington said in a statement that his party would restore immigration levels similar to those under the Harper government.

"Housing costs have doubled, as Liberals inflated demand with out-of-control immigration and blocked homebuilding with bureaucracy," he said in a statement.

"The current failure to control population under the Carney/Trudeau government is directly attributed to the ongoing housing and affordability crises."

The Green Party have said immigration levels must be established in co-ordination with the provinces according to their ability to support them

As for reaction to the restrictions on pathways to citizenship, one immigration consultant said Canadians may not necessarily see an impact, but those in the immigrant community are concerned.

North Bay immigration consultant Don Curry in North Bay said many newcomers in the north are concerned about the political shift toward further restrictions on the pathways to citizenship. 

Curry said a pilot program that helped recruit workers to the north has been made permanent, but has narrowed in scope.

While the previous Rural and Northern Immigration pilot program allowed people who were employed in fast food, retail and security to eventually become permanent residents, it's successor, the Rural Community Immigration program, does not, leaving some newcomers in limbo.

Instead, the new program continues to target people in skilled trades such as health care, and shifts some emphasis to Francophone immigrants as well.

Curry said competition is fierce for the 255 positions allotted to North Bay this year.

But he says for those who may have to return to their home countries because of the change of rules, their opinions of Canada may damage the country's reputation abroad.

"The people who have to go back to India or the Philippines or wherever it is, they're going to be pretty upset and they may be telling their friends back home, 'Hey, don't go to Canada because they changed the rules on you,'" he said. 

Those concerns are echoed elsewhere in northeastern Ontario. 

David Javier is the president of the Sudbury Filipino Association in Sudbury and a cardiologist who came to Sudbury about a decade ago.

He said newly arrived Filipino immigrants are worried about their losing their status because of the cap on immigration. 

"These are the people that have taken quite a huge risk of relocating, selling all that they have probably back home, and have nowhere to come back to," he said.

"And you know, it will have a huge impact on their plans and their life overall."

While Javier says the community of 300 has a diverse array of political opinions, he himself is leaning toward voting Liberal.

In Sault Ste Marie, Guisela Benitez will get to vote for the first time, having taken her oath of Canadian citizenship in February.

Originally a teacher in Mexico, she met her husband in Canada, and now works in a deli in grocery store.

She said she wants to vote for the party that helps immigrants, and would like to see a loosening of restrictions on the kinds of jobs they can do.

She says she thinks she will vote Liberal as well.

The vote of new Canadians will be powerful, and increasingly so in years to come, said Anthony Lawley.

He is the executive director of Ivey Group which sources skilled workers for northern Ontario employers as well as being a licensed immigration consultancy firm.

Lawley, however, says he's had many questions from his clients about the political process, because they see the party leaders and think they're casting a vote directly for them.

He's frustrated that there doesn't seem to be much education for new Canadians on how to get involved.

Lawley said the political parties ignore new Canadians and immigrants at their peril, because they are here in sizeable numbers.

"At Ivy group, we have over 3,000 people in Canada right now and that's a pretty significant amount of people," he said. "We have more than 300 in Sudbury. We have close to 300 in Timmins for example," he said, adding that he does see encouraging signs from politicians. 

"People that are running for office have asked questions like, 'How do I tap into this group so I can share our vision and how things work," Lawley said.

"And they want to, talk to the temporary farm workers that are here. Even though they can't vote right now, they will eventually. And I think that's actually quite interesting."