Aemma
09-28-2010, 04:30 AM
Policies 'Being Denied Rational Debate,' Says Consummate Canadian Insider Burney
By Peter O'Neil
A pillar of the Canadian establisment, brushing aside the risk he could become embroiled in one of the country's most sensitive political issues, is endorsing a new organization challenging Canadian immigration policy.
Derek Burney is a former senior corporate chief executive, ex-U.S. ambassador, the one-time chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, and served as the head of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's transition team after the Conservatives won the 2006 election.
Canadian society, he said, needs to stop treating immigration as an untouchable "third rail" that can't be debated without prompting allegations of bigotry.
So he's joined the advisory board of an organization being launched Tuesday on Parliament Hill. The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform will be headed up by Martin Collacott, a former ambassador who writes frequently on immigration and refugee policy at the Fraser Institute, and James Bissett, a former director general of the Canadian Immigration Service.
The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform argues that the benefits of high immigration aren't worth costs that include considerable government expenditures and higher housing costs, pollution and crowding in big Canadian cities.
"Unfortunately immigration and refugee policy is a bit like health care in Canada," Burney told Postmedia News.
"It's being denied rational debate at the political level, and this is despite the very clear evidence of abuse of the system, of fraud in the system and a lack of co-ordination in the country in terms of screening."
He says his major concern is that Canada's economy has been chronically plagued by relatively low economic productivity, yet the large number of unskilled workers and family-class immigrants weakens productivity further.
Burney said politicians of all stripes refuse to discuss such concerns because some immigrant communities that lobby for high quotas of family-class immigrants are "very active" in federal politics.
Source: The Ottawa Citizen, September 27 2010
By Peter O'Neil
A pillar of the Canadian establisment, brushing aside the risk he could become embroiled in one of the country's most sensitive political issues, is endorsing a new organization challenging Canadian immigration policy.
Derek Burney is a former senior corporate chief executive, ex-U.S. ambassador, the one-time chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, and served as the head of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's transition team after the Conservatives won the 2006 election.
Canadian society, he said, needs to stop treating immigration as an untouchable "third rail" that can't be debated without prompting allegations of bigotry.
So he's joined the advisory board of an organization being launched Tuesday on Parliament Hill. The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform will be headed up by Martin Collacott, a former ambassador who writes frequently on immigration and refugee policy at the Fraser Institute, and James Bissett, a former director general of the Canadian Immigration Service.
The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform argues that the benefits of high immigration aren't worth costs that include considerable government expenditures and higher housing costs, pollution and crowding in big Canadian cities.
"Unfortunately immigration and refugee policy is a bit like health care in Canada," Burney told Postmedia News.
"It's being denied rational debate at the political level, and this is despite the very clear evidence of abuse of the system, of fraud in the system and a lack of co-ordination in the country in terms of screening."
He says his major concern is that Canada's economy has been chronically plagued by relatively low economic productivity, yet the large number of unskilled workers and family-class immigrants weakens productivity further.
Burney said politicians of all stripes refuse to discuss such concerns because some immigrant communities that lobby for high quotas of family-class immigrants are "very active" in federal politics.
Source: The Ottawa Citizen, September 27 2010