Last year, a Canadian newspaper revealed official numbers that proved that Canada had been attracting the wrong immigrants. Of all immigrants in the country, only 23 percent were “net tax contributors”, with the other 77 percent posing a burden on hard-working taxpayers – to the tune of $18 billion. (The paper, unfortunately, did not specify whether that amount was meant per year or as an overall cost, but it is logical and plausible to assume that it referred to the annual cost to the taxpayer.)
That amount, $18 billion, includes welfare, housing and healthcare expenses, among other things, but does not include the immense cost to society created by the crimes committed by immigrants.
Immigration has always been touted as a quick-fix solution to our problems: filling jobs that Canadians supposedly don’t want to do; providing a future tax base to pay for Canada’s ever-increasing Big Government programs. Why, then, do we bring in mostly people who add to the cost, instead of selecting those from whom the country can actually benefit?
Almost half of the 250,000 immigrants Canada admits a year enter the country under the family reunification scheme. This has swelled the ranks of the elderly and infirm – a group that is growing among native-born Canadians and a source of future affordability bottlenecks when it comes to social programs and health care – and is one of the main reasons why Canadians have to wait for months, or years, for crucial medical procedures. If you have ever wondered why emergency rooms are always clogged, and some people die before staff can attend to them, look around: the majority of patients are elderly aunts, uncles and grandparents or cousins brought in under the family class – none of whom will ever learn English and contribute even a penny in taxes. In other words, they are completely useless and are dragging Canada down into the gutter.
Australia probably has the best immigration system in the world. The ability to speak English must be demonstrated before arriving in Australia, and foreign credentials must be upgraded and validated for the Australian job market before the applicant sets foot on Australian soil. Consequently, newcomers hit the ground running, find work relatively easily and are much quicker to integrate with mainstream society.
Canada would do well to copy the Australian system on a one-to-one basis. Proven language skills and professional qualifications must become our top priority in selecting immigrants. Importing welfare cases – not to mention criminals and even terrorists – is a great disservice to Canada. It is not helpful either that we keep adding to our illiteracy rate, and become the laughing stock of the world, by bringing in people who have absolutely no interest in doing the right thing by learning at least one of Canada’s two official languages. Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski would still be alive today, instead of having been tasered to death at Vancouver airport, if he had been obligated to speak English before landing in Canada. This laxness in enforcing our immigration rules to the letter have cost Dziekanski his life (this and his bull-in-a-china-shop behaviour).
This imported illiteracy is costing taxpayers billions, with six in ten newcomers being illiterate and uneducated. With the federal budget deficit nearing $60 billion dollars, we cannot afford $18 billion for the 77 percent of immigrants who are unproductive, billions more spent on fighting crime and terrorism in immigrant communities, and again billions wasted on dealing with literacy issues that shouldn’t be ours in the first place.
To these amounts, one must add substantial costs stemming from industrial accidents and lost productivity that are the direct consequences of employing uneducated and illiterate immigrants (including in municipal, provincial and federal government positions).
Canada has played global welfare service to the world for far too long. Charity begins at home, and it is high time Canadians looked after themselves and their own future for a change. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, should study the Australian system and bring it to Canada – the sooner, the better.
Werner,
I toedally ugree with u. I wuz a skool teecher for ateteen yeers and I saw lotsa kids hoo culdnt right wurth a dam and most of there parunts were... uh... them immigrunts. Sum of them came from urup and sum came frum uthur places. write hear in my own vulluj thers lotsa peepul what cant eeven right.
Yup, wee nead better imugrunts.
What do you think accounts for all the brain-dead, illiterate folks whose families have been in this country for generations?
Hey, did you hear of the analysis of the range of supporters of political parties in Canada. The party with the highest percentage of post-secondary educated supporters was the Green Party. Next were the Liberals, then the NDP.
Hoo vootes for yoo cunsurvutives anyway?
D'oh!
Posted by: Will Munsey | October 01, 2009 at 11:28 PM
That those with post-secondary education (obtained in Canada) vote for the parties you mention proves two things:
(a) They went to universities where students were corrupted and brainwashed with left-wing ideology.
(b) The only (current) choice for common-sense thinkers is the Conservative Party.
Posted by: Werner Patels | October 02, 2009 at 12:12 AM
... I'd rather go to the opening of a Tim Horton's Doughnuts than join the current Conservatives.
Hey, wait... maybe I should be a cabinet minister!
I went to a Canadian university (and then a British one) and I don't think I've been brainwashed with left-wing ideology, but I do have the ability to question, analyse and synthesise ideas. But perhaps someone without those skills just finds it easier to look at the surface of issues and buy the veneer solutions... much like the stuff shovelled by the current Conservatives.
I always find it amusing that one of their arguments against more analytical thought and addressing 'root problems' is simple name calling: leftist, pinko, socialist (see Peter Van Loan).
Another (personal) funny thing is that my leftist, pinko, socialist friends think I'm a right-winged fanatic. It might just be that I see positives and negatives on both sides (not so much from either the current Cons or Libs... and never the NDs). But there is much of conservatism to be valued, as there is in liberalism. I have simply chosen to pick and choose. This idea that either conservatism or liberalism is ALWAYS right has never made sense to me.
Ideologues who choose one side while ignoring the rational parts of the other side are frightening to those of us in the middle and why so many have lost faith in Canadian politics.
The thing is... those of us who aren't ideologues don't have the compulsion to try and change the way other people think... or name call... or take extreme views (sides) and never get involved in the process.
Moderates don't seem to have the zeal of you zealots. I guess that's why you're zealouts. "Moderouts" doesn't sound very dangerous, does it?
I continue to enjoy reading your blog because at times you almost sound rational... that is before you blame someone like Robert Dziekanski for his own death.
Geez, I hope all those damn foreigners who come from other countries for the Olympics next February start learning English now. Either that or the RCMP stocks up on Tasers.
Or, gee... maybe it would be good to have a full supply of translators in an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT to assist people who have been travelling for 24 hours facilitate the process of getting out of Customs and Immigration.
Oh, right, that would cost money... and if there is no profit in it, then it can't be done and the consequences of what follows (cost and all) can all be blamed on the individual in question (stupid Polack).
Signed...
Leftist, pinko, socialist berry farmer, railroader, taxpayer, community volunteer....
Sigh... whatever happened to men like Mike Pearson or Robert Stansfield? Bob would be soiling is family garments if he could see the crop of morons that pass for leaders these days.
Posted by: Will Munsey | October 03, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Will, in case you don't know, being a lefty is a notifiable mental disease. So, please go and see a professional ASAP.
As for Dziekanski, he should have never been cleared for immigration, because he didn't meet any of the requirements for immigrants to Canada. Not only could he not speak English, but he was also a retard (and his behaviour proves that). The idiot couldn't even find his way out of an airport. How was he supposed to survive and make a living in Canada? He would have lived off hard-working taxpayers, of course, and it is for that reason I'm glad he's not our problem anymore.
Will, in your left-wing derangement, you compared apples and oranges. There is a big difference between tourists and the criminals/terrorists/welfare bums that come as "immigrants" (or "refugees"). In fact, most tourists come better prepared (i.e., the speak English) than the vast majority of bozos posing as immigrants.
Posted by: Werner Patels | October 03, 2009 at 05:23 PM