heureusement, ici, c'est james

"OTTAWA — Canada's backlog of refugee claims is soaring to record numbers due to the government's failure to appoint sufficient adjudicators, the chairman of the Immigration and Refugee Board says.

The backlog has ballooned along with the number of board vacancies since Prime Minister Stephen Harper took office in February, 2006.

The number of vacant positions has more than quintupled – to 58 from 10, according to the board. At the same time, the number of claims waiting to be heard has more than doubled, to 42,300 from just over 20,000.

In its recent report to Parliament, the board projects that the number of pending claims will reach 62,300 this year. That is more than triple the line-up when Harper took office and well beyond the previous record of 52,325 pending claims in 2002.

Moreover, the numbers are expected to escalate to 73,300 next year and to 84,300 the following year."

The government's minister responsible, Diane Finley, responded to this the same way she had for the better part of a year, with a cute distraction - saying that the 58 vacant positions would eventually be filled, but that the new board members are now required to pass exams, unlike their Liberal-appointed predecessors.

"But those changes have been in place since last July and the vacancy rate continues to hover about 33 per cent," quoeth the Globe. The conservatives will soon start blaming applicants for their perpetual stupidity. Why else would the vacancy rate hover like that?

NDP and Liberal critics both suspect the government of creating the crisis in order to scrap the board entirely. After all, it's more efficient and effective to have the immigration process run right through the minister's office.

In fact, why don't we politicize every government department. Eventually, we can run everything through Stephen Harper's office, including the RCMP. One giant chaotic room of hackneyed government monkeys delivering us from the sin of bureaucracy.

***UPDATE

This post by Runesmith articulated what a more than a few others must be thinking at this point: if we already have so many highly-skilled foreign-trained professionals filling low-skill positions, why do we need even more highly-skilled foreign trained workers?

Look to Alberta for the answer. This point should be front-and-centre as the debate, um, "continues."

Labels: conservative doublespeak, Diane Finley, immigration