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Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
LILLEY: Ford changes tune on call for asylum seekers to get work permits
WARMINGTON: Driver allegedly almost runs over cops and public but released without bail hearing Two fans seemingly caught in sex act at Yankee Stadium in viral video LILLEY: Ford changes tune on call for asylum seekers to get work permits Article content Doug Ford both walked back and doubled down on his call for asylum seekers to get work permits. Last week, Ontario's Premier said that he would not wait around for the federal government and would start issuing provincial work permits for asylum seekers. Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account or Sign in without password View more offers Article content Under Sec. 95, of the Constitution Act, any province has the ability to pass legislation in this area, but few provinces do. Last week, Ford said that he was willing to start issuing such work permits despite the high unemployment rate in the province. Article content tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or LILLEY: Ford changes tune on call for asylum seekers to get work permits Back to video tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video Article content On Monday, Ford was less strident. 'I don't want to take the responsibility off the federal government, but in saying that, if you have a pulse and you're healthy, you need to be working,' Ford said. His viewpoint on this is understandable even if it is wrong. Ford's view is that the federal government is letting people into the country, including thousands who claim asylum under questionable circumstances. He'd rather see them working than drawing on the welfare or social services system. Your Midday Sun Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Article content Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content In Toronto, more than 50% of the 9,000 plus beds in the city's shelter system are taken up by asylum seekers. There are thousands more in hotel rooms across the GTA, in Hamilton, Niagara, and in Ottawa. Still, Ford's plan announced last week would only lead to more people making illegal and illegitimate asylum claims in the hope of getting a work permit. 'I don't want to take the responsibility off the federal government, but in saying that, if you have a pulse and you're healthy, you need to be working,' Ford said. Recommended video tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video That's an understandable point of view, especially for an MPP who represents an area where many of these asylum seekers are housed in hotels. Ford interacts with people stuck in these federal hotels on a regular basis in his riding. Despite his compassion for these people, Ford is wrong to want to start issuing provincial work permits to these people. Over the last decade, most of those claiming asylum are actually economic immigrants looking to game the system. 'We've got to protect our workers,' Ford Minister for Labour and Immigration David Piccini said. 'That means having systems with integrity.' Piccini noted that he was the grandson of immigrants from Italy but that today, the system is too often abused. Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Doug Ford's idea of handing out provincial work permits to more than 100,000 asylum seekers may seem compassionate, his heart may be in the right place but... It's a horrible idea that must be stopped. Here's — Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) July 28, 2025 'We want Ontario to succeed; we want this economy to succeed. To do it, you've got to ensure that people are working, and people are contributing to the economy,' Piccini said. Ford pushed back against claims that the federal government issues work permits within 45 days of people arriving. 'Go up Airport Rd., pull over at the Tim Hortons by the Congress Centre, start talking to people, ask them how long they've been there. Ask them if they want to work. They all want to work, but instead we're paying them to sit in a hotel room,' Ford said. 'I just want people working if they're here.' It's an understandable position, but it is also the wrong position. If people can work it is better than them drawing on welfare, but making it standard operating procedure that asylum seekers will get a hotel room, money for food and a work permit will only see more people arrive in this country illegally. The policy Ford is putting forward will only make things worse, not better in the long run. Thankfully, he is quietly walking this idea back; while still saying the people the federal government allows into the country should be able to work rather than just draw welfare. We need to clamp down on our out-of-control immigration system rather than making things worse. Article content Share this article in your social network Read Next
Toronto Sun
5 days ago
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
LILLEY: Ford's plan to give asylum seekers work permits a huge mistake
Ford's plan will encourage a flood of people declaring asylum to get work permits in Canada. Get the latest from Brian Lilley straight to your inbox Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to the media during the meeting of Canada's premiers in Huntsville, Ont., on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette Last year, more than 90,000 people made asylum claims in Ontario, and it seems Premier Doug Ford wants that number to go up. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account That will be the result, intended or not, of Ford's declaration that he wants to have the province start handing out work permits to asylum seekers. Ford made the comments at the close of the meetings he and other premiers held this week in Huntsville. 'We will be issuing our own work permits. We aren't going to sit around and wait for the federal government,' Ford said. At a time of high unemployment, it seems puzzling that Ford would be pushing for more workers in the system, but that's what he is doing, and the unintended consequence will be to encourage more people to come to Canada illegally and declare asylum. Ford says his government will use Section 95 of the Constitution Act to grant work permits. His reasoning, according to his staff, is that the federal government is allowing large numbers of people to come into the country this way — they are ending up on social assistance and costing the system money when they could be working. Ford's riding of Etobicoke North is home to one of the hotels that houses many asylum seekers, and he's heard from several that they would rather be working. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His position is understandable from a compassionate point of view and from the perspective of letting them work rather than being a drain on the system. It's a horrible idea from the perspective of what it will do to our system. Ontario's unemployment rate currently stands at 7.8%, that's well above the national average of 6.9%. Youth unemployment stands at 15.8% and many of the jobs that the asylum seekers would be able to get with a work permit would be the same entry-level jobs that young people would be seeking. Regionally, Toronto's unemployment rate stands at 9.6%, Oshawa at 9.1%, Kingston at 8.4%, Hamilton at 8.1%, and Windsor at a staggering 12.3%. Into this, Ford wants to unleash more than 100,000 people who have sought asylum over the past few years and have yet to be granted work permits? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. How about he puts pressure on the federal government to fix their broken system? We had an average of 1,500 people per month last year showing up at airports in Toronto and Ottawa and declaring asylum. We've designed a system where we've let in millions of temporary foreign workers and international students, and thousands of them are now declaring asylum rather than leaving the country when their permits expire. We are encouraging an abuse of our asylum system, which is supposed to be there for legitimate refugees who are fleeing war or persecution. If Ford, or any of the other premiers, begins handing out work permits to asylum seekers, then word will spread around the world — don't follow the system, just go to Ontario, declare asylum, get a work permit and never leave. However well-intentioned Ford's idea is, it's also wrong and has to be stopped. If the premier won't listen to reason, then his cabinet and caucus should push back against the idea and tell him that they simply will not support it. This has to be stopped. blilley@ Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA World Sunshine Girls
Hamilton Spectator
6 days ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Ford and other premiers want provincial work permits for refugee claimants. It may not solve anything
With refugee claimants now getting work permits fairly quickly and housing being less of a pain point, why do Canada's premiers want to seize power from Ottawa to issue work permits? This week, the provincial leaders emerged from the premiers' meeting united in seeking the powers under the Constitution to issue work authorization to asylum seekers, which is currently under the federal government's jurisdiction. The reason behind the move, Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday, is that a lot of asylum seekers living in hotels would like to work and be self-sufficient, but can't because it's taking too long for Ottawa to process their work permits. While any initiative that would help claimants to get on their feet and start working as quickly as possible is positive, Toronto refugee lawyer Adam Sadinsky isn't sure if that push is based on 'outdated information.' (The Immigration Department's website shows work permit application processing for non-refugees currently takes 181 days.) 'It was an issue a couple of years ago,' said Sadinsky, whose clients in Canada generally now receive their work permits in about six weeks. 'In my practice, I haven't seen that it is really a significant issue anymore.' Section 95 of the Constitution Act outlines the concurrent jurisdiction of the Canadian Parliament and provincial legislatures including immigration, education and health care. It states that both levels of government can make laws in these areas, but in a conflict, federal laws prevail. In fact, the two levels of governments have already shared jurisdiction in some areas of immigration. The provincial nominee immigration programs, for example, allow provinces to select prospective permanent residents for Ottawa's stamp of approval. Currently, the only provincial-based work permits are those related to the provincial nominee program, where the province can approve the work authorization of a selected candidate, who will ultimately get the permit from the federal government. 'The provinces and the feds have worked together,' said Toronto immigration lawyer Rick Lamanna on behalf of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association. But could it be just a bluff from the premiers? 'We'll know more if or when you start to see things coming out, whether it's from Ontario or Alberta or other provinces, putting more meat on those bones,' Lamanna said. 'When you start to see logistical plans, if they start opening up stakeholder consultations, if they make announcements like expansion of Service Ontario to facilitate the issuance of these permits, I think that's when we'll know.' In a statement to the Star, the Immigration Department said claimants must submit a completed application, including a medical exam, and are determined to be eligible to seek protection before they are issued a work permit. On average, it now takes 45 days to process. 'The Government of Canada will continue to work collaboratively with provinces and territories to achieve our shared economic immigration objectives,' it said, adding that the department cannot speculate about future immigration agreements with provinces. While it's too early to say if granting work permits to asylum seekers would open the door for provinces to bypass Ottawa in bringing in foreign workers and giving international students work authorization, Lamanna said there are competing visions and interests between the two levels of governments. Faced with public outcry over Canada's capacity to accommodate soaring population growth, Ottawa has reduced admissions of both permanent and temporary residents , axing the annual permanent resident quota under the provincial nominee immigration program by half. With their post-secondary education institutions struggling with significantly reduced international student enrolment and tuition revenues, provinces are also concerned about securing a strong labour pool to ease pressure on wages and fill skill shortages to make employers happy. Immigration lawyer Barbara Jo Caruso said she's not surprised provinces are trying to wield more control over immigration with so much at stake, but raising the argument about asylum seekers is questionable. 'It's interesting and a little bit sad that (Ford) made the refugee claimants the focus here,' said Caruso, a cofounder of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, who calls the manoeuvring 'a power play.' 'I don't think that's Mr. Ford's end game here. It was deliberate because he can generate public support for what he's trying to accomplish, because people are not going to be happy to hear about folks in hotel rooms and being fed and a roof over their head and not out working.' Offloading work permits to provinces could save Ottawa some administrative costs but also create potential processing chaos and jeopardize the integrity of the process. 'Any time you deal with a decentralized structure, things can get lost between one level and another,' said Lamanna. 'That's why co-ordination is very key.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Ottawa Citizen
6 days ago
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Carney tells Inuit leaders his new major projects law ‘fully respects treaty rights'
Article content OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney told Inuit leaders that his government's major projects bill 'fully respects treaty rights' a week after several Indigenous leaders left a recent meeting with him in a state of frustration , saying their treaties were being undermined. Article content On Thursday, Carney was taking part in a meeting of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee, co-hosted by the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Natan Obed, in Inuvik, NWT, to discuss Bill C-5, known as the One Canadian Economy Act. Article content Article content In his opening remarks, the prime minister said he wanted to make 'absolutely clear' in the context of this forum on what the legislation could do and what it doesn't do. Article content Article content 'I want to be clear, up front, that the act fully respects treaty rights, including modern treaties, the modern treaties with Inuit treaty organizations. It fully respects treaty-based environmental assessment processes,' he said. Article content 'In fact, those will be essential for anything that we move forward,' he added. Article content Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty added: 'At the end of the day, treaties are above this law. They have to be respected, and that's always been the case with this bill.' Article content According to the government of Canada's website, treaties are agreements made between the Crown, Indigenous groups that define rights and obligations. They include historic treaties and modern treaties, also called comprehensive land claim agreements. Article content Article content Treaties are enshrined in section 35 of the Constitution Act. In 2021, the Liberal government passed legislation to make sure all federal laws are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which relates to treaty rights. Article content Article content Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak had raised some alarm bells about C-5 before it was tabled and passed in June, saying that the proposed bill suggested 'a serious threat' to the exercise of treaty rights by First Nations. Article content The legislation, which was fast-tracked in Parliament to become law in late June, gives Carney's cabinet the authority to designate projects, such as pipelines, ports and highways, in the 'national interest' and speed up the federal approvals process. Article content In response to criticism from Indigenous leaders who said they had not been properly consulted on the bill, Carney announced he would be holding three summits.
Calgary Herald
6 days ago
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Carney tells Inuit leaders his new major projects law ‘fully respects treaty rights'
Article content OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney told Inuit leaders that his government's major projects bill 'fully respects treaty rights' a week after several Indigenous leaders left a recent meeting with him in a state of frustration , saying their treaties were being undermined. Article content On Thursday, Carney was taking part in a meeting of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee, co-hosted by the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Natan Obed, in Inuvik, NWT, to discuss Bill C-5, known as the One Canadian Economy Act. Article content Article content In his opening remarks, the prime minister said he wanted to make 'absolutely clear' in the context of this forum on what the legislation could do and what it doesn't do. Article content Article content 'In fact, those will be essential for anything that we move forward,' he added. Article content Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty added: 'At the end of the day, treaties are above this law. They have to be respected, and that's always been the case with this bill.' Article content According to the government of Canada's website, treaties are agreements made between the Crown, Indigenous groups that define rights and obligations. They include historic treaties and modern treaties, also called comprehensive land claim agreements. Article content Article content Treaties are enshrined in section 35 of the Constitution Act. In 2021, the Liberal government passed legislation to make sure all federal laws are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which relates to treaty rights. Article content Article content Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak had raised some alarm bells about C-5 before it was tabled and passed in June, saying that the proposed bill suggested 'a serious threat' to the exercise of treaty rights by First Nations. Article content The legislation, which was fast-tracked in Parliament to become law in late June, gives Carney's cabinet the authority to designate projects, such as pipelines, ports and highways, in the 'national interest' and speed up the federal approvals process. Article content In response to criticism from Indigenous leaders who said they had not been properly consulted on the bill, Carney announced he would be holding three summits.
