New Minister

 Managing Risk

On November 4, 2015 we will have a new Immigration Minister.

The Minister’s first job will be to open the envelope which contains his marching orders from the Prime Minister. The instructions will be an innocuous rehash of past political promises and political correctness. 

Hopefully, the new Minister will have the wit to go beyond the party line generated by folks who know little about immigration as an economic engine..

My only bit of unsolicited advice is that while the Minister considers goals and aspirations that she/he come to terms with the level of “risk” that he/she believes the nation, and not his/her career, should accept.

The new Minister may wish to consider the risk management fate of two predecessors.

Jason Kenney, the last definer of Conservative immigration policy was totally risk aversive.

Kenney had one paradigm. His career. Kenney’s political agenda drove his immigration agenda.  No immigration challenge could be allowed to interfere with  personal ambition. If a program had potentially controversial implications then the program was killed. If people were complaining, then call centres would dismiss the complaints. If a program could not be justified by facts, it would be defended with lies. 

Kenney killed or hobbled every economic and most other programs. He replaced programs with goulash administration.He contracted out a big chunk of Canada’s immigration administration process to hustlers in Mumbai. He forbade Canadians to speak with Immigration officers. All contact is “online” and fruitless. There is no quality of service.

Kenney trusted the West not to derail his career .The West got what it wanted.

Kenney told me that he did not trust GTA business people. The GTA got nothing except 300,000 illegal workers.  

       

On October 19, 2015 Kenney paid the price for his risk aversion. He lost the GTA and all other large urban areas.

Joe Volpe was the last Liberal Immigration Minister.

Joe was a risk taker. Like Clifford Sifton, he saw immigration in terms of demographics, not narrow programs.

Joe’s experience and knowledge of immigration was both intellectual and bred in the bone. He trusted that Canadian families and the market place were better suited than politicians or bureaucrats to select and integrate new immigrants. The state was there to weed out the bad, not select the good.

Volpe used the power of the state to open the door to people selected by families and business and vetted by competent officials. The goal was to grow the country. 

  

Joe was not bound by fear of quotas or devotion to programs. He knew that they were made by man, not God. 

I didn’t always agree with Joe. But I never doubted that he understood what he was doing. And what he did was to manage risk in an aggressive manner. He was focused on demographic growth. A little risk could go a long way.  

Volpe’s legacy was solidified on October 19, 2015, when voters in urban Canada rejected Kenney’s pathological nonsense and elected a returned to Joe’s growth model.  

On November 4, 2015, the new Minister will be inundated with requests and demands. By Christmas, the Minister may be able to come up for air. That’s when, he/she, will come face to face with risk.

Good luck.  

Richard Boraks, October 30 2015