Some of B.C.’s top ethnic community leaders have accused the Fraser Institute of being ‘out of touch with reality’ in the wake of its recent report that blames immigrants for receiving more benefits than they pay in taxes.
According to the report - “Immigrants and the Canadian Welfare State 2011” – The Fraser Institute said that  in the fiscal year 2005/06, immigrants on average received an excess of $6,051 in benefits over taxes paid, and that they created a fiscal burden of up to $23.6 billion.
It concludes that Canada’s immigrant selection process needs to be revamped to focus on admitting people with Canadian job offers and skills needed by employers.
The Fraser Institute, which describes itself as an independent non-partisan research and educational organization is seen by many, especially New Canadians, as a right-wing organization pushing a particular political and ideological agenda.
“The conclusions are flawed,” said Leo Valdes, Executive Director of Vancouver-based Multicultural Helping House Society or MHHS.
“The authors used a narrow balance sheet approach on what residents’ give and take from the government.”
The report concluded immigrants get comparatively more breaks because they do not pay as much in taxes. “Anyone can use the same data and conclude that low-income earners - immigrant or not - get more tax breaks,” Valdes added.
Thomas Tam, CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. observed that the report does not consider the social benefits and contributions of immigrants to Canadian society. “There are many bright, highly educated immigrants that did not cost Canada anything in education. If [the authors] are economists, why didn’t they quantify the social benefits?”
According to Tam, non-recognition of qualifications or credentials hampers immigrants from properly using their talents; most times forcing them to take on entry level jobs.
Charan Gill, CEO of Progressive Intercultural Community Services or PICS pointed out that new immigrants were more willing to accept survival jobs during the labour shortages in 2006-2007.
“No amount of incentive could economically help small businesses in Calgary get labour from their own population. Immigrants and temporary foreign workers saved the day.”
Gill also noted that the report’s suggestion that market forces would have driven innovation and replaced labour with automation is “out of touch with reality. You cannot automate 2-3 person shops and small businesses so that they are run with less or no employees.”
All three heads of the immigrant groups are concerned about the recommendations for removing reunification, and for treating all new skilled workers as temporary.
Tam said: “Canada has invited the best and brightest of the world. This [recommendation] would not even allow them to see their families for years.”
“This suggestion only encourages desperation - immigrants will have to take on any job because they could face deportation after two years,” said Valdes.
“Our immigrants deserve better than what this report reveals,” added Gill.
“Immigrants contribute to and integrate into Canadian society much faster than in the past; alienating them with a report like this is pointless.”
S.U.C.C.E.S.S., MHHS and PICS serve immigrants from all over the world, and specialize on Chinese, Filipino and Punjabi-speaking newcomers - the largest growing ethnic populations in Metro Vancouver.
John Sebastian, a hospital worker in Surrey, feared the Fraser report would increase tensions against new Canadians.
“They seem to have an a right wing genda…what do you expect from these guys.”
Using publicly available government statistics, the report, Immigration and the Canadian Welfare State 2011, calculates that the difference between immigrants’ tax payments and the value of government services they absorb was about $6,051 per immigrant in 2006, representing a total cost to Canadian taxpayers of $16.3 billion to $23.6 billion annually.
“This is a substantial amount and is expected to continue to grow for as long as the present immigration policies remain in place,” said Patrick Grady, economic consultant and co-author of the report.
 “Recent immigrants earn incomes that are, on average, just 72 per cent of those earned by other Canadians and pay only about one-half of the income taxes paid by other Canadians. At the same time, they absorb nearly the same value of government services and transfers as other Canadians,” said Herbert Grubel, a co-author of the study and a Fraser Institute senior fellow and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University.
“As a result of Canada’s welfare-state policies, our progressive income taxes, and universal social programs, these immigrants impose a huge fiscal burden on Canadian taxpayers.”
As an example, the report notes that in 2009, family-class immigrants made up 22.1 per cent of all immigrants who entered Canada that year. Those who were selected by the federal government on the basis of their occupational skills and other characteristics contributing to their economic success accounted for only 16.2 per cent.
“With the aging of Canada’s population and the growing unfunded liabilities of social programs, Canada simply cannot afford to absorb the growing cost burdens imposed by poorly selected immigrants,” Grubel said.
The Grubel and Grady recommendations include:
• Issuing temporary work visas to obtain entry into Canada for applicants who have a legitimate job offer from an employer in Canada, paying at least the median wage prevailing in the province in which they will be employed;
• Work visas will be valid for two years and may be renewed for two years upon the presentation of evidence of continued employment;
• Spouses and dependents of the holders of work visas may enter Canada under a program of family work visas, which allow them to accept employment;
• Holders of work visas who lose their jobs must find new employment within three months or leave Canada, unless their spouse is employed under the family-work-visa provision;
• After four years in Canada and continued employment, the holders of work visas can obtain permanent immigrant visas. Landed immigrants will be eligible to apply for citizenship two years later; and
• Immigrants may have their parents and grandparents join them as landed immigrants in Canada after posting a bond to cover payments for health care and other social benefits.
“Our proposed system would eliminate the misguided attempt by government to determine the number of immigrants that should be allowed to enter Canada and the skill set of those people. These are determinations best left to employers and the job market,” Grady said.