GILMOUR: Ford’s sympathy rings hollow for suffering OINP applicants

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism Alexa Gilmour (Parkdale—High Park) is continuing her call for Premier Doug Ford to fix the broken Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).

Ford attempted to shift the blame to the federal government yesterday, offering no more than “sympathy” to the thousands of skilled workers whose lives have been destroyed by his own government’s process. MPP Gilmour says the Premier’s words ring hollow in the absence of real action.

“Doug Ford passing the buck is a tale as old as time,” said Gilmour.

“The Premier can feign as much sympathy as he likes, but if he truly cared about the OINP applicants that are suffering, he would reinstate their applications and ask the federal government for work permit extensions to give them their lives back.”

The Conservatives suspended the OINP application process in November, resulting in an estimated 2,600 skilled applicants desperately needed in Ontario — and their employers — cruelly being informed by email that their applications would be returned.

“These are human beings. People who followed every rule, paid fees and taxes, and built a life for their families in Ontario. Every day this remains unresolved shows just how little sympathy the Premier actually has for them.”