By: Surjit Singh Flora
LMIA fraud is widely discussed in Canada’s immigrant communities. The LMIA, which stands for “Labour Market Impact Assessment”, is a certificate issued by the Government of Canada enabling foreign workers to obtain a work permit.
The certificate issued states that:
There is no Canadian available here to do that job.
There is therefore a need to hire a foreign worker; and that
Hiring a foreign worker will not impact Canadian workers or the labour market.
The employer applies for an LMIA after completing a few pre-conditions, such as advertising that job on various sites specified by the Government of Canada and waiting for a specific period, generally around 90 days. On having no applicants, the employer will be eligible to apply for an LMIA on behalf of whomever they want. There are a few other conditions as well.
These LMIA work permits are a hot business in the Canadian market nowadays. Each LMIA permit sold for $5,000 two years ago; today it costs upwards of $50,000. Recently, unconfirmed reports recently even had an LMIA selling in Canada’s Chinese community for $1.5 million.
The incidence of LMIA frauds are increasing day by day, with its cost rising. The authorities are now cracking down. But as is typical with this Trudeau government, the promised action misses the forest for the trees… and after the horses have bolted the stable.
The Canadian Immigration Department is asking people for tips while offering anonymity. The more effective action, IMHO, would have instead been to change this blatant immigration policy that is giving birth to such fraud.
Nor is it now a case of LMIA fraud alone; there is fraud every step of the way, in many immigration categories. The abuse of marriage for PRs has always been high, it’s big business.
According to a report this week, Manjot Singh, 29, allegedly committed suicide by jumping into the Fraser River in Vancouver, on January 23. His father, Maninder Singh and mother Surinder Kaur, have alleged that their son took the extreme step due to harassment by his wife. This is not the first suicide and will not be the last.
Take the issue of foreign students studying in our fake colleges. The fake colleges are open, with no classrooms. International students receive a letter from the college which enables them to get a visa. Then they land here and do cash jobs.
Then take Foreign Driving Experience fraud. Because of that today, our roads are unsafe. Are all these frauds less than the LMIA? Now a huge housing problem has also arisen. All of these frauds and attendant problems are the result of the Canadian Government’s poorly thought out immigration policy.
Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Research, and Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains has said that immigrants of all kinds, including students and workers coming from abroad, are respected in the country. He said that students arrive in Canada at a great expense and work hard and contribute to Canada from day one.
A massive plundering of many students and workers in Canada has been happening through the LMIA system. Bains said selling corruption cannot be accepted. Bains also noted that in Canada, keeping the faith of the people of the world is very important, so that no one can be allowed to play with the government system.
But when will this government accept that the very system it has created is itself the genesis of all its problems?
Meanwhile the public suffers. Immigrants trying to get here while dreaming of a better life also suffer.
Recent months have exposed many instances of sad news involving students from Punjab. Prabhleen Kaur Matharu’s suicide in Surrey in late November was in the headlines for several days. In December, news of the death of Punjabi girls from the cities of Brampton and Mississauga came to light. Another incident occurred in Mississauga, where the body of Komlpreet Kaur was extracted from the cold waters in the adjacent lake.
The girls were about 21-22 years old and had arrived in Canada as students. And our minister Navdeep Bains says keeping the faith of the people of the world is very important, so that no one can be allowed to play with the government system.
Good luck with that, given this Liberal Government’s policies being the way they are.
