REPORT TITLE: RECENT FEDERAL IMMIGRATION POLICY CHANGES: POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON SENIORS IN PEEL

Transcription

1 P Region d Peel W tjttktllcf lt11t q tjtt REPORT Meeting Date: February 20, 2014 Aging Population Term of Council Priority Steering Committee For Information DATE: REPORT TITLE: RECENT FEDERAL IMMIGRATION POLICY CHANGES: POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON FROM: Janet Menard, Commissioner of Human Services OBJECTIVE To explore the potential impact of recent federal immigration policy changes on seniors in Peel, including recent immigrants aged 65 and over. REPORT HIGHLIGHTS The federal government has recently made key changes to immigration policies that will impact various people, including seniors. The immigration policy changes most likely to affect seniors include: strengthening the Minister's power with respect to immigration policy issues; and changes to immigrant selection criteria. The change to ministerial powers does not guarantee the conventional consultative approach to policy development and, consequently, seniors may not be consulted on policies that could address seniors' issues. Changes to immigrant selection criteria could affect some immigrants' decision to come to Canada, thereby leading to adverse policy and program implications for seniors. There is no overarching policy framework for seniors' focused programs and services in Ontario. Moreover, high growth communities, like Peel, are experiencing funding challenges. DISCUSSION 1. Background Since 2008, the federal government has made key changes to various immigration policies that have implications for all three streams of immigration (i.e., economic, family reunification and humanitarian). For example, the federal government implemented new rules for obtaining citizenship and temporary entry as a foreign worker. The federal government has also increased the powers of the federal immigration minister to affect immigration policy changes. These changes have been based on an economic rationale that focuses on welcoming younger immigrants to satisfy labour market requirements. This new focus has implications for how immigration reform is achieved and outcomes for various populations, including seniors. V /09

2 Yd-2 - The Region of Peel, through Term of Council Priority (ToCP) #11, continues to assess the impacts of the aging population in Peel on regional services, and how the policy environment impacts new and long-standing issues affecting seniors such as: language barriers, employment, income and economic security, housing, transportation, health and access to critical supports services. 2. Seniors in Canada, Ontario and Peel a) Demographic Context As the Aging Population Term of Council Priority Steering Committee is aware, seniors are the fastest growing age group in Canada. Peel's senior's population is expected to double over the next 20 years meaning that one in every five people will be 65 years or older in 2031 compared to one in every ten in In Canada, immigrants represent a considerably large group among seniors. In 2006, some 30 per cent of individuals aged 65 to 7 4 and 30 per cent of those aged 75 to 84 were immigrants; that is, they were not born in Canada and/or did not have Canadian citizenship at birth. In 2006, immigrants accounted for about 18 per cent of the nonsenior population in Canada. As previously reported to Council, 2012 data collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC} confirms that only a small proportion of immigrants arrive in Peel when they are over the age of 65. For instance, 4,815 immigrants over 65 entered Peel between 2006 and These 4,815 seniors represented just 4.1 per cent of the 117,830 immigrants that entered Peel over the same five-year period. On average, 963 seniors enter Peel each year as new immigrants. See Appendix A for information on landed immigrants by age and year of arrival. As is the case with immigrants in general, immigrant seniors traditionally arrive in Peel through three streams: as economic immigrants when they are of working age, as family class applicants or as people given protection in Canada (i.e., refugees). In general, the proportion of economic immigrants in Canada has been steadily increasing from 54.7 per cent in 2003 to 66.6 per cent in 201 0; in contrast, the proportion of family class immigrants declined from 26.6 per cent in 2001 to 21.5 per cent in Over the past five years ( ), the number of refugees and/or protected persons has also been shrinking, accounting for approximately six per cent of all new immigrants in Peel. b) Issues Identified priority issues for Peel seniors (including immigrant seniors) include health care, housing, transportation, income/pension security, and elder abuse. The issue of social exclusion among recent immigrant communities is also of growing importance in Peel Region. Social exclusion describes the structures and dynamic processes of inequality among social groups that create unequal access to resources that determine the quality of membership in society. These issues may be exacerbated by language barriers, sponsorship limitations and settlement issues. V / 11

3 4d Overview of Relevant Federal Immigration Policy Changes The federal immigration policy changes that may impact the seniors' population include: the strengthening of the Minister's power; changes to immigrant selection criteria (including placing a temporary moratorium on the sponsorship of parents and grandparents and the allocation of more points to younger immigrant applicants); and changes to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP). a) Strengthening Ministerial Powers In 2002, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and its regulations replaced the Immigration Act of 1976 and have subsequently formed the basis of federal immigration policy in Canada. In 2008, the IRPA was amended to enable the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism to issue ministerial instructions to immigration officers and make changes to immigration policies and programs without having to seek parliamentary approval. Prior to 2008, major immigration policy changes were typically supported by public consultation, task forces, discussion papers, committee hearings and submissions, and parliamentary debates. In 2012, the Budget Implementation Act further expanded the scope of Ministerial power to authorize the retroactive application of ministerial instructions to pending applications. These changes have strengthened the Minister's power to act unilaterally on immigration policy issues. The Minister has used these powers to introduce change as follows: i) Changes to Immigrant Selection Criteria Canada is one of the few countries to have a family reunification program for parents and grandparents. However in 2011, the federal government imposed a two-year moratorium on the sponsorship of parents and grandparents. At the same time the government introduced the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa which allows parents and grandparents to visit Canada for two years at a time over a ten-year period. The government also introduced new qualifying criteria for sponsorship, including increasing the financial criteria for sponsors to ensure they have the means to support the parents and grandparents they sponsor (including the cost of private health insurance). In May 2013, the Federal Skilled Worker Program was enhanced to better meet Canada's economic needs and ensure that skilled immigrants have a better chance at succeeding and reaching their full economic potential. The change included allocating more points to younger immigrant applicants versus older applicants. In January 2014, CIC reinstated the Parent and Grandparent immigration program to new applications. The new rules are stricter than before: 5,000 applicants will be approved each year; the financial threshold to qualify sponsoring parents and grandparents has increased; and the period to demonstrate this income requirement has increased from one to three years. V

4 L-lol- 4- ii) Changes to the Interim Federal Health Program Under the original IFHP, eligible refugees were provided with basic and expanded health care coverage including hospital services, doctors' services, prescription drugs and dental and vision care. In June 2012, the federal government made changes to the IFHP on the premise that not all Canadians had universal public health coverage for supplementary care like prescription drugs and dental care. The changes to the IFHP were aimed at: providing health care benefits to refugees that are comparable to those available to most Canadians; and reducing costs to the federal government. These changes resulted in the elimination of expanded health care coverage such as prescription drugs and dental and vision care. 4. Potential Implications of Federal Immigration Policy Changes a) General Implications The change to ministerial powers removes the previously required parliamentary oversight of ministerial actions and does not guarantee the conventional consultative approach to policy development. As a result, groups representing seniors and their issues may not be consulted on future policy changes affecting seniors; this may lead to policies that do not adequately address seniors' issues. We do not know the extent to which these changes may impact immigration interest and the families who choose to immigrate to Canada. Once the changes to the IFHP came into effect, anecdotal evidence and documentation by health care providers indicated an increase in refugee visits to local health service providers (including Community Health Centres) and refugees experiencing difficulties accessing care. The impact of this program change on seniors is expected to be minimal because the number of refugees and/or protected persons as a proportion of all immigrants is low, especially so for seniors. The impact of recent federal immigration policy changes on seniors is yet to be quantified; however, the changes have implications on how future policies relevant to seniors are developed and the entry and integration of seniors in the community. In addition, recent immigration policy changes have not reversed previous income and social security policies that have negatively impacted seniors, especially immigrant seniors. For example, immigrant seniors have to reside in Canada for a minimum of ten years to qualify for partial Old Age Security (OAS) benefits, resulting in a high percentage of immigrant seniors earning below the low-income threshold. This has implications for poverty among the seniors population and the consequent demand for regional programs and services. v 01-< /11

5 L{cJ b) Implications for the Region of Peel Municipalities have been required to play an increasing role in the integration of newcomers into the community. Although municipalities do not have a direct role in providing settlement services, they (along with various agencies and organizations within Peel) have a vested interest in seeing that adequate investments are made in programs and services so that people (including seniors) can successfully make the transition upon arrival and to fully contribute to Peel Region's community, economy and overall quality of life. As such, the Region of Peel and the United Way support the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group, our local immigration partnership table, which champions a coordinated and collaborative strategy for the successful integration of newcomers in Peel. Federal policies that negatively impact the seniors' population (including immigrant seniors) have implications for the health and quality of life of Peel's residents, and the demand for Region of Peel programs and services. CONCLUSION The recent changes to federal immigration policies have implications for the involvement of immigrant seniors in policy decision-making, the migration of seniors to Peel, and the quality of life of the immigrant seniors' population. The development of a seniors-specific advocacy strategy is expected to be further informed as the impacts of new and evolving federal immigration policies become better known. Staff will report back if the impacts of these policy changes on seniors, including immigrant seniors, can be quantified. Commissioner of Human Services Approved for Submission: D. Szwarc, Chief Administrative Officer For further information regarding this report, please contact Juliet Jackson at extension or via at juliet.jackson@peelregion.ca Authored By: Shannon Keats, Geoff Mcilroy and Junior Higgins c. Legislative Services V

6 - 1 - '-ld - ~ APPENDIX I Landed Immigrants by Age and Year of Arrival I 80% 100% 90% 70% 60% ~ SO% f 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Age Range V /11