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| Monday, 16 August 2010 00:28 | |||||||
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Questions about the Nominee Program by Kevin Lamoureux, MLA for Inkster
On Friday, August 13th, I issued a press release on behalf of the Liberal Party asking that the Minister of Immigration provide clarification regarding some critical points on the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program. There is a sense of urgency and I would ask the minister to make a very clear and decisive response to the following two points:
How much settlement money should be in the Philippines?
Representatives from the Provincial Nominee office have told my office staff that applicants should have 80% of their settlement monies – which are required under the nominee program – located in the Philippines. This is a significant change in policy from a year ago when family members in Winnipeg could establish a trust fund here in Winnipeg for the applicant. The province seems to be saying that a trust fund is no longer acceptable. The Minister and her department head have not been as clear as they should be on this point. If someone were to ask me how much money does an applicant need to have in the Philippines in order to meet the provincial financial requirement for a nominee certificate, based on what I know, I would say the following: The principal applicant is required to have 10,000 plus an additional $2,000.00 for every dependant, and 80% of this total must be in the Philippines. My answer is based on what the Minister and PNP staff has told me. With the exception of a radio interview, which featured a senior staff person from the nominee office, I believe this to be the case. For the record I am still waiting for a formal response on this issue, something I requested months ago. The Minister of Labour and Immigration has not disagreed with my comments regarding the 80/20 split. Rather the minister seems to be more concerned about passing the policy change onto Ottawa. I would suggest to the reader of this article that this change in provincial policy is to the detriment of the Filipino community. A vast majority of applicants both current and past do nothave the amount of cash that the province now seems to want. As a result of this change in policy, more people in the Philippines will be exploited and, to a certain degree, the government is encouraging people to mislead. Are IELTS required? Recently I was on the CKJS radio program Afternoon Pasada, sharing with the listeners my concern with the province requiring more and more people to submit results from an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test. The Minister of immigration seemed to agree with my comments and tried to explain why IELTS results were important. I will mail copies of my newspaper articles about this issue to anyone interested. Having said that, within 15 minutes of leaving the radio station, Mr. Ben Remple from Labour and Immigration, was on the air trying to assure the Filipino community that there are other ways to demonstrate a person’s ability to speak English and that IELTS results were not required. Although I was initially concerned about that portion of his interview, if what he stated is in fact being practiced, that is a good thing. I realize the province is not saying that all applicants must provide IELTS results, but I do believe that was the direction that they were moving towards. The provincial government does need to make it more clear as to when IELTS results are required. Long appeals process On a positive note I was happy to see that the Government has committed to acting on the lengthy appeal process and will try to get it within 60 days over the next while. The Minister has also made the commitment to assure everyone that all appeals will be formally responded to in writing. I am most concerned about the department not being able to provide clearer answers. Their failure to do so led me to issue the press release that I sent out earlier this month. The primary demand in my press release stated, “The Department of Labour and Immigration must be clear on the issue of settlement money and if it is OK for sponsors here to establish a trust fund in Manitoba for PNP applicants. If yes, then what percentage of the settlement money can be held in trust here in Canada?” Copies of the press release are available upon request or you can visit my web site, www.4kevin.ca For more about this issue, see the following articles:
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