Will push for affordable housing and skills accreditation
The Conservative Party vows to work for both a rational and efficient pathway for immigrants to receive accreditation for the skills they brought, and for affordable housing, the former which is a key issue for the Filipino community that the Liberal Trudeau government did not bring to the table during their term. In a dialog with a segment of the Filipino community, held August 13 in Surrey, during the launch of the Conservative Community Engagement Council (CCEC), Opposition Deputy Whip, MP John Brassard pointed to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s “My Vision for Canada” speech on immigration to affirm his Party’s commitment to skills accreditation.
MP Brassard quoted the conservative leader saying in that recent speech, as follows: “I will improve credential recognition and make it easier for new Canadians who have existing skills that meet our standards to ply their trades here. We all lose out when doctors and engineers are not able to practice their profession. I want them to come to Canada to do what they were trained to do.”
Asked about the immigrants that are already settled, he assured that they will also be covered.
The lengthy dialog, organized by Filipino Conservative Party supporter, Amy Sundberg, came just before the CCEC launch program started. The Filipino dialog partners, taking advantage of the exclusive attention of MP Brassard, readily shared three radical problems facing Filipino Canadians. These are the aforementioned credentials recognition, housing affordability, plus low average income.
In the keynote to the event delivered later to the general audience, MP Brassard shared the Conservative’s belief that Canada’s best values are hard work, entrepreneurship, personal industry; family, faith, religious freedom; sacrifice, risk-taking; and individual freedoms and respect for the rule of law, He offered that these are shared also by newcomers. He also underscored the Conservatives willingness to safeguard and emphasize economic immigration and to stand up for families that want to have reunification with spouses and children. He shared the party’s conviction that there is no room in a peaceful and free country like Canada for extremism of any kind. He also suggested that Canadians are losing confidence in the fairness of the immigration system and that the Conservative are ready to stem this waning of confidence. (Arnedo Lucas)(Photos by Raymund Correa)