The federal government said Wednesday it will crack down on unscrupulous immigration consultants. Immigration Minister Denis Coderre says the business will soon be controlled by a new regulatory body. Coderre referred to some immigration consultants as "vultures" for charging exorbitant fees and then failing to provide promised services. "We have to make sure that the people when coming here, it is to fulfil their dreams, not empty their pockets to those vultures who enjoy themselves too much," he told a news conference.

A federal report last year called for action against the unsupervised legion of non-lawyer immigration consultants. It said the worst in their ranks were tarnishing Canada's name. An expert panel told the government that some consultants are involved in smuggling people, while others produce fraudulent documents to get foreigners into Canada.

RELATED Filipino Women in Canada Denounce Auction of Filipino Domestic Workers A national organization of Filipino women in Canada expressed outrage at the “racist on-line auction" of Filipino women domestic workers

Coderre says the regulations will be tabled by the end of April or beginning of May 2004. "The plan is to regulate in a very specific manner the way that immigration consultants operate," he said. He has reallocated $700,000 in his department budget for an action plan, a framework and a presentation he hopes to discuss with the provinces at a federal-provincial meeting in Victoria on Oct. 15. The plan will ensure "a regulatory body with teeth," Coderre said, to deal with offshore consultants as well as those in Canada. "Those vultures are not just domestically, they're also offshore," he said.

Last March The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) denounced the ads placed by Diva International and published in the Montreal Gazette, which valued three Filipino domestics at $800 each, soliciting bids for their services. The organization also called on the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre to immediately close down the agency that placed the ads.

"We deplore these ads that degrade and peddle Filipino women as mere commodities for sale to Canadians for a minimum bid of $800," says Cecilia Diocson, chairperson of NAPWC. "These ads attack our basic human rights to dignity and equality. They promote hatred and racism."

The organization wrote letters protesting the ads to the Montreal Gazette and CanWest Global. The group also wrote a protest letter to Minister Coderre, who oversees Canada’s foreign domestic worker immigration program known as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

Canada is staring at a shortage of up to one million skilled workers within five years and Ottawa plans to work with provinces and territories to figure out how to attract replacements from abroad, Immigration Minister Denis Coderre said Saturday. Coderre said Canada needs to honour foreign credentials for professionals such as doctors, dentists and engineers so they are not forced to take menial jobs once they arrive here.

"I have nothing against taxi drivers," Coderre told a meeting of the Canadian Bar Association. "I like them very much because probably every time I'm picking up a cab I have the greatest conversation. Why? Because they're foreign doctors and they're not recognized."

Coderre said Ottawa may produce lists of countries that meet Canadian standards in various professions. "What we're looking for is a process," he said after his speech. Canada's immigration strategy also has to fan out from the three major centres of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in order to satisfy the skilled labour needs of less populated areas, Coderre stressed. He said 60 per cent of immigrants choose to settle in Toronto, followed by 15 per cent in Vancouver and 13 per cent in Montreal. That would leave 12 per cent of immigrants for the rest of Canada. "There is a situation where we will find two different Canadas," Coderre told the meeting, "the three major cities and the others."

Coderre said this could be fixed by extending the temporary foreign worker program, with a promise of permanent resident status after three to five years, in exchange for a professional agreeing to settle in a smaller city. "You will work as a doctor in Flin Flon, or in Rimouski, and after three to five years the incentive is we will provide you as a permanent resident, that is the starting (point) of the process to become a Canadian citizen," Coderre told reporters.

To implement these strategies, Coderre said he will hold a meeting with provincial and territorial officials in Ottawa this fall. He said the last time a similar meeting was held was 107 years ago, with the goal of populating western Canada by offering lots of land for $10 apiece.

"It was a major reason why western Canada is what it is today, because of immigration strategy," Coderre said. "So we have to do the same thing." However, Coderre said the new immigration blitz will also have to be weighed against Canada's and North America's security concerns. "We have to find a balanced approach, with openness and vigilance, meaning we don't want to jeopardize the economy at the same time," he told reporters.

He mentioned the possibility of using permanent resident identification cards and biometrics -- a system of fingerprint and iris recognition -- to increase security at entry points while allowing commerce to flow freely. Coderre said these security concerns would be discussed at the fall meeting.