Open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
Short-sighted and unfair visa policies are causing serious damage to Canadian businesses and communities. The number of visa rejections for International Gateway Kelowna (Kelowna’s oldest language school est. 2002) has increased by 100 per cent since your government has been in power.
In the past year alone, we have had 17 Colombians (mainly teens), seven Indians (mainly teens and two travel agents), two Russians, seven Chinese (mainly teens), two Mexicans, two Pakistani (teens), one Vietnamese and one Czech student rejected.
Numerous international travel agencies, colleges, universities and schools who previously promoted Canada first to their clients, now sell Canada far down the list after Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the USA, Belize, South Africa, Malta, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cyprus and Singapore.
The main reason for this is the high rate of visa rejections, followed by the strong Canadian dollar. Many of these agents and representatives no longer believe that Canada is the best place in the world for language travel, education and tourism. There are many other options available to their clients and they feel selling Canada just isn’t worth the hassle. I have specific testimonials to back this up.
In the past we have asked Kelowna-Lake Country MP Ron Cannan for assistance with these matters and to look into visa rejections on our behalf. We gave up asking since he answered all of our visa related questions incorrectly. He actually said he doesn’t understand what the problem is as “all international students need a visa to study in Canada.” Actually, there are at least 30 countries that can visit Canada on a tourist visa and study for up to 24 weeks.
Moreover, he never mentioned that he could check a student’s rejection status with the bar code on their rejection letter. Jinny Sims (NDP) brought this matter to our attention recently during her visit to our school. This begs the question: Is Ron Cannan incompetent, ill informed or just plain doesn’t care about local business matters or concerns?
To combat the increase in visa rejections due to your government’s policies, we opened a new campus in Belize in 2010. To date, we have never had a visa rejection for Belize and most visas are approved in less than 10 days.
We were considering opening another Canadian location but there is no point at this time so we are now looking at the USA and/or Malaysia. This means a further loss in revenue and jobs for Canadians directly as a result of your policies.
Our marketing team has traveled to more than 60 countries in order to promote our school and Kelowna. This is likely more than you and most of your party combined. We know a thing or two about international tourism. Did you know that Australia receives approximately 20 per cent of its GNP from international students? Canada is far down the list on this one including New Zealand (population four million). Isn’t it time for Canada to catch up, to create jobs for teachers, staff, and communities? We will never catch up if you keep imposing and increasing these draconian visa laws.
Dale Lockhart,
International Gateway,
Kelowna
