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Immigration Fee Review Must Be Expanded |
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Written by NS Liberal Party
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Wednesday, 21 December 2005 |
Liberal Leader Francis MacKenzie is requesting government to expand its recently announced Immigration Fee Review to include a detailed audit of the fees paid to agents, as well as the amount foreign trained physicians pay for their clinical assessments.
Yesterday, the Province of Nova Scotia announced a review of fees paid by immigrants coming to the province. Currently they pay $130,500 ($20,000 of which is paid to an international agent and Cornwallis Financial) for the economic category. Skilled workers with a permanent job offer pay $5,500. ($5,000 of that is paid to Cornwallis Financial). Foreign- rained physicians pay an additional $5,500 for their initial clinical assessment under the CAPP program.
“It’s time for Cornwallis Financial and the international agent to be accountable for the amounts being collected. To date 231 immigrants have come to Nova Scotia, and Cornwallis and the agent have earned an obscene amount of money from this. This is the Tory governments’ most blatant example of patronage,” said MacKenzie.
MacKenzie believes this would be a good time for government to review the fee foreign-trained physicians must pay to write the clinical assessment exam. “We have had foreign-trained physicians in our province tell us the $5,500 assessment fee is too high.” How attractive does this fee make our province for skilled immigrants like Doctors to want to come here,” added MacKenzie. |
