Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller visited Yellowknife late last month to meet with GNWT cabinet ministers and other local organizations about what needs Yellowknife and the NWT have when it comes to immigration.
Miller took some time to speak with SA国际影视传媒 about some of the issues that came up, such as the NWT Nominee Program. The program, which helps immigrants attain permanent residency, has already exceeded its cap of 300 applications this year in the territory. Education, Culture and Employment Minister Caitlin Cleveland previously said she would lobby the federal government to increase the availability of settlement services in the NWT.
Miller said the news is still pretty fresh to him, but both he and Cleveland did talk about the program and are looking to find ways to increase the cap.
"If it makes sense for the local economy, that's good," he said, however he said it's on the GNWT to retain people in the North.
Whether it's the mining sector or transportation, they've all benefited from immigration, Miller added, but immigration still has to be well-organized.
"We have to get our acts together when it comes to doing this the right way and not just have these programs that are the envy of other countries, but don't work as great as they should," he said.
One point of contention has been the affect on housing costs immigration could have. Miller said that's not something people can directly attribute one to another.
"We all share some responsibility in the shortage of housing that's occurred over the last 30 years," he said. "Governments have under-invested, whether it's provincial or federal (and) these are challenges I think we're up to, as a country. Making sure we have a manged immigration system is a really important part of that. You can't just turn the taps off overnight and assume the problem's going to be fixed. If we did that, you'd probably quickly see that the affordability challenges wouldn't go away."
Along with that, Miller said there also needs to be a functioning process in making sure some people leave this country regardless if it's voluntary, adding the most important part is making sure that people coming here have due process that's performed fairly and quickly.
When it comes to Ottawa's proposal to speed up the deportation process for rejected applicants from the country, it comes down to making Canada's immigration system credible, he said.
The federal government has also committed to bringing refugees from Gaza to Canada and MIller said that's proving to be tougher than anticipated.
He noted that the country's efforts to bring more Palestinians in have come with many challenges, a number of which are outside the country's control.
"We have advocated with Israel and Egypt to get people out. Those people who've been able to get out (and) who have family connections to Canada are eligible to come to Canada for a few years and get work permits," Miller said. "People have compared fairly and unfairly our reaction as a country to the war in Ukraine (but) there are some stark differences. One, in order to get people out, we are not dealing with a country that is controlling a border in the way that the Rafah crossing into Gaza is controlled."
Miller also said that with Hamas being listed as a terrorist organization by the federal government, it changes the security profiling and screening they do on individuals that are subject to that regime.
"If there are people fleeing war, we are doing our best to get them out and there has been intense work to get them out of the Gaza strip and we will continue to do that," he said. "The best way to do that is to get a ceasefire. In that case, there will be much better possibilities in advocating for the safe passage of folks."
