"Richard Boraks BA,
LLB
Barrister & Solicitor
55 Brown’s Line, Etobicoke
Ontario M8W 3S2
Tel: 416-588-8707 Fax:
416-588-8785
Email: boraks@workercanada.com
December 22,
2014
Cristina
Martins
Parliamentary
Secretary
|
Ministry of Citizenship,
Immigration and International Trade
6th Floor 400 University Avenue Toronto, Ontario M7A 2R9 |
|
Dear Cristina:
I am
addressing you in your capacity as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of
Citizenship Immigration and Trade.
As you know,
I act for a number of Ontario trades employers and their successfully
economically established foreign workers.
Many of my
clients are your constituents. Your riding contains the highest number of
illegal workers, and their employers, in the country. You understand the issues.
The purpose
of this letter is to assist your office by reflecting the unreserved hostility
which Ontario’s trades employers are expressing towards your government’s
unconscionable mishandling of the trades worker file.
The hostility
is understandable.
There is no
justification for your office abandoning both its constitutional obligations
and your responsibility not to engage in systemic misrepresentation.
Specifically,
you and your government are aware that:
- Our province refuses
to use its extensive Constitutional powers pursuant to Section 95.
Unlike every
province in Canada, Ontario stands alone in sacrificing the foreign worker
needs of its small and mid sized trades employers.
Rather than
protect this province’s trades economy, your government has, quite improperly,
become a passive agent of the federal government’s immigration policies.
Your
constituents deserve better than to be told that Queen’s Park can merely
reflect Ottawa’s agenda.
The Constitution
and your constituents should not be told that Queen’s Park has to back stop any
immigration related nonsense that comes out of Ottawa.
You well know
that you lack the authority to support Ottawa’s pie in the sky policies with
regard to skilled trades language skills and fairy tale labour market
information.
Ontario
successfully manages trades site safety in 10 languages.
Meanwhile, you
allow successful, tax paying concrete finishers and butchers to be deported
from our community because Ottawa feigns concern that workers, already here on
work permits and provincial safety certificates, will become safety risks upon becoming
immigrants.
Ontario
acknowledges a severe shortage of commercial roofers and ethnic pastry chefs.
Meanwhile,
you allow successful, tax paying pastry chefs and commercial roofers to be
deported from our community because Ottawa has cooked the books on labour
shortage statistics.
Were you not
concerned when Ottawa said that it may have good labour data in mid 2015 but
that it would deport workers today on the basis of its non existent data?
Were you not
concerned when Ottawa refused to hand over its Stats Canada EI applicant
numbers on a specific skills set basis?
Don’t you get
concerned when Ottawa denies Ontario employers the services of foreign workers based
on the lie that George Brown College trains master butchers and Portuguese
pastry chefs?
Please don’t
tell me that you are now working with Ottawa in order to come up with better
data. This type of consultation should have taken place before you drove the
worker’s underground and turned employers into co-conspirators.
Ontario
employers know the facts. Please treat them with respect.
The
Constitution was not written for your convenience. Please treat it with
respect.
- Your government’s
proposed Immigration Act is a blatant denial of your responsibilities and as such,
constitutes a shameful document
The proposed Immigration
Act would force Ontario to adjust its economic priorities to Ottawa’s agenda.
Again, you
have no authority to hand over Ontario’s jurisdiction.
It appears
that your panic in passing bad legislation is a direct reaction to the recent
Auditor General’s report into the PNP program.
The Auditor
General is concerned with your lack of policy direction, your poor administration
and the influence peddling.
The AG did
not tell you to justify your ongoing behavior by denying your responsibility to
come up with good policy, good administration and no influence peddling.
Rather than simply
admit past mistakes and start afresh, you seek to wash your hands of your responsibility.
You are
taking cover by passing the buck to Ottawa.
This hardly
constitutes good policy, good administration and hopefully, no more influence
peddling.
More to the
point… passing the buck on the Constitution is both serious and illegal.
I don’t
recall the AG suggesting denial and breach of obligation as a remedial course
of action.
- Your response to
Ottawa’s Express Entry program is a betrayal
You are well aware
that, as of January 1, 2015, a PNP certificate has no more significance in the
Express Entry program than an LMIA issued to a donut shop.
Under your
watch, a PNP certificate has become useless document for 99% of Ontario’s
trades employers and their existing staff.
You have
failed to advise your constituents that as of January 1, 2015, a PNP certificate
will be a useless document for over 99% of skilled construction workers, ethnic
food service staff and mechanics presently in Canada as temporary workers but
aspiring to become immigrants.
In return for
nothing from Ottawa, you have bartered away Ontario’s ability to serve the
immediate skilled worker needs of Ontario employers.
Instead, you
have turned legal, tax paying members of the community into even more illegal,
exploited folks fearing arrest at the Dufferin Mall.
It took years
for Ontarians to understand and trust the PNP program.
For no explicable
reason, you have given it all away.
- Your recent policy
change granting PNP certificates to undergrads may have crossed the line
into behavior constituting fraudulent activity
Rather than
deal with immigration policy in a serious manner, your office is engaging in
bazaar style PNP fire sales.
The Auditor
General told you to stay away from this sort of thing. What are you thinking?
You are bartering
away marginally useful /useless PNP certificates on behalf of schools as they
peddle their need to make student visa’s more attractive. Schools need the
money. Consultants need the fees.
You are
encouraging gullible students to pay schools and consultants big fees all of
which will be lost when Ottawa clamps down on this phony cash cow.
You came up
with a third world scheme that would grant PNP certificates to 20 year old
students whose only claim to fame is that they have spent daddy’s money for two
years.
You do not
require the students to have a college diploma. You do not require any work experience.
You do not require any history of paying taxes .You do not require an LMIA.You
do not require any proof that they are able to establish themselves in Canada.
Not even cash
strapped African jurisdictions sell out permanent residency at such bargain
basement prices.
Do you
actually think that Ottawa will go along with this nonsense?
Given
Ottawa’s decimation of hundreds of thousands of FSW applicants and over 50,000
investor applicants, do you actually believe that Ottawa will bat an eye as it
refuses the applications of the students that
have been misled by your government into believing that a PNP
certificate is a ticket to becoming a landed immigrant?
I fear that
your PNP response to the education industry is indicative of your reacting to hit
and run pressure, not focused policy or even respect for the AG.
Again, what
are you thinking?
Conclusion
Given that
Express Entry is days away, there is no likelihood that you will step away from
the abyss.
Instead, we will
all suffer directly and significantly as the province joins Ottawa in forcing
trades workers and employers to pay the heavy price of the Express Entry 2015
election train.
Despite all
the above, please be assured that there are people prepared to work with you in
establishing the post Express Entry world.
If it is your
government’s choice to continue denying its responsibilities while trades
workers and their employers suffer the consequences, then so be it.
Yours truly,
Richard
Boraks
cc: Rocco
Galati "
December, 22 2014
