Campaigns
August 11, 2010
Victory! PSAC campaign against cuts helps new Canadians
Thanks to push-back from PSAC members, immigration applications will continue to be processed in a timely manner, saving families months of delays and anxiety.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) recently announced it will be hiring up to 160 term staff to address the centre's backlogs at CIC Sydney's Case Processing Centre, Permanent Resident Card Centre and the Federal Skilled Workers Project.
In the spring, Citizenship and Immigration Canada said that it was terminating 147 term and casual employees at its application processing centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
This caused further delays in the processing of citizenship applications. Applicants to Canada's Foreign Skilled Workers program were already facing a seven year wait.
The combination of political action by PSAC members and a crushing workload at CIC Sydney forced the government to change its plans. The 160 new term positions will contribute to cutting the wait times for new Canadians and improve their integration into Canadian society.
“People immigrating to Canada, new Canadian citizens and Canadian citizens in general should be entitled to prompt service from their government," said CEIU President Jeannette Meunier-McKay.
Processing applications for citizenship is a key public service provided by the members of the Canadian Immigration and Employment Union, a component of PSAC.
“This victory proves that political action makes a difference,” said John Gordon, National President of PSAC. “We will continue to fight for permanent employment for workers at CIC, so they can continue to serve immigration applicants and all Canadians.”
Read more on the CEIU's website.
Date Modified : 2010/08/11
