Canada's immigration system has been the envy of many other countries!

In this day and age of political correctness, it has become extremely difficult, if not outright impossible, to have a reasonable debate on immigration-related issues. No matter what the argument, someone will be offended.

Europeans fret the influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, and even the US presidential race might hinge on the candidates' stand on immigration. Canada, by contrast, has always been fairly calm and docile. It was not really until last year when a heated debate on reasonable accommodation broke out in the province of Québec that the issue of immigration and certain problems stemming from it moved more into the limelight of public debate and consciousness than ever before.

Canada's immigration system has been the envy of many other countries that take in a large number of immigrants. Its points system, to weed out unsuitable applicants, has been copied and adopted by other countries. But over time, a backlog of applications for landed-immigrant status has built up, holding at around 900,000 applications. Canada's annual quota calls for 250,000 immigrants, but what is supposed to take eight to twelve months has now become a slow process that finds many applicants waiting for several years before their files are finalized one way or the other.

Enough is enough, decided Stephen Harper's Conservative government, and has called for a reduction in applications so as to allow the system time to catch up with its backlog. In addition, Harper wants a "just-in-time" system, which would allow for a quicker and more accurate selection process for potential immigrants, so that shortages in certain areas of the labour markets can be addressed more quickly.

The Liberal opposition fears that this would spell the end of the "popular" family reunification program, a source of an exorbitant number of regular votes for the Liberal Party. The problem with this program is, however, that those who come into the country on those terms do not have to meet the strict requirements for "regular" immigrants – that is, they do not have to speak English or French, and they can be as unskilled or frail as they want to be. In other words, in terms of tangible benefits, Canada gets absolutely zero out those "immigrants".

Immigration is supposed to benefit both parties – the host country as well as the newcomer – but if tough decisions become necessary, the host country and whether or not it benefits from admitting certain people must become the overriding criterion.

Canada does not have an abundance of wealth, and there is only so much it can do to help those who are worse off. Charity begins at home, as the old saying goes, and more and more Canadians are becoming frustrated when they see the growing number of homeless people in the streets of their cities. In Calgary, for example, a city of barely a million people, there are now anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 homeless people. Relative to the total population number, Calgary probably has the highest share of homeless people in the country.

What Canadians also observe is that those homeless people are not immigrants, but "native born Canadians". Yet they do not receive the assistance that is due to them, while at the other end, the government brings in 250,000 immigrants each year (not counting refugees) and lavishes housing and other amenities on them.

The reason why Canada takes in immigrants is that its birth rate is below the replacement level. In a few decades down the road, therefore, its expensive social, welfare and pension schemes would run out of funding. Since Canadians do not multiply like rabbits, it is necessary to bring in able-bodied and skilled workers from other countries who can contribute to the country's finances.

The problem is, though, that only 23 per cent of immigrants in Canada actually pay taxes, while the rest of them cost the taxpayers over $18 billion a year. So, the gaping hole in public funding for health care and pensions is widened at a disastrous pace of $18 billion every single year. At this rate, Canadians will not have to worry about pension funding in, say, 2030, because the system will have become unaffordable even sooner.

Instead of using immigration to fix the problem of funding for public programs in the future, successive federal governments have botched the issue and actually enabled it to make things even worse. At that rate, Canada's funding situation with respect to health care and pensions will be much, much worse than it would have been if there had been absolutely no immigration at all to compensate for the shortfall in its fertility rate.

Anne McLellan, while still serving as deputy prime minister in Paul Martin's cabinet, told a fundraising crowd in Calgary: "Immigrants must be able to hit the ground running." Unexpected words from a Liberal, for sure. What she meant, and also elaborated on subsequently, is that immigrants must be able to speak at least one of the two official languages, have skills that are in demand in Canada and have the necessary credentials to work in Canada.

Most of the immigrants who cost Canadian taxpayers $18 billion a year do so because they are not really fit to be in Canada. But the number of tax-paying and contributing immigrants could be considerably higher if their foreign credentials and qualifications were recognized. Currently, too many professionals and tradespeople cannot work in their chosen fields because they lack the necessary accreditation, even though many of them have practised their professions for years or even decades in their home countries. But that does not seem to be good enough for the Canadian job market, where foreign doctors, professors and other professionals end up driving taxis or cleaning toilets for the rest of their lives, instead of being allowed to contribute to Canada in the way they know best.

Harper's plan to cut back on new applications, however, makes perfect sense. It is best to work off the backlog first before tossing even more files into the to-do tray. This should give the system a much-needed breather and a chance to make some changes to ensure that Canada accept only those who can and will contribute to their new home.

Immigrate to Canada in the Fast Lane!