Immigration protesters enter 4th day of hunger strike in Charlottetown

Dozens of foreign workers protesting changes in P.E.I.'s immigration strategy have entered the fourth day of a hunger strike in downtown Charlottetown.

The provincial government is cutting back on the number of workers it is nominating for immigration this year, from about 2,100 to about 1,600 — with a big drop in the number of hospitality workers in particular. More than 800 were nominated last year, and the plan is to nominate just 200 this year.

Jaspreet Singh Sivia, one of the people who have been speaking for the protesters, accuses the government of changing the rules for people already in the process of working toward permanent residency in Canada. If the province doesn't make changes, he said the protest will be stepped up.

"There have been no actions taken. It looks like the government has become deaf," said Sivia.

"We will be doing a 24-hour dry hunger strike effective Tuesday if we still don't hear from the government officials. We will be there 24-7 every day."

A dry hunger strike usually means people do not ingest liquids, which accelerates the danger to their health more than if they stop taking in solid food.  

Sivia said the protesters are concerned about how their health will fare in the hunger strike, but they are more concerned about what's fair.

There were about 20 people on the protest site early Monday, Sivia told Wayne Thibodeau of CBC's Island Morning.

The protests began May 9. There are now about 60 people involved overall, demonstrating in shifts with posters in hand in front of the Coles Building on the grounds of the P.E.I. Legislature. Starting Tuesday, Sivia said, all 60 protesters will move full-time to that site.

When it announced the changes in February, the P.E.I. government said it needed to cut back on immigration to moderate the record population growth the province has been seeing in recent years from both within and outside Canada.

The Dennis King government said that growth has been contributing to a housing crisis that dates back to 2019, and to severe pressures on the health-care system. In another change to the program designed to help deal with those issues, the province said preference would be given to future PNP applicants in the health care and construction fields, along with some other in-demand occupations. 

While immigration is ultimately a federal decision, the provincial nominee program can give prospective immigrants a huge boost, almost guaranteeing approval of their permanent residency applications.

The protesters want people who arrived before July 2023 exempted from the changes. They say PNP draws should include service sector workers, and people already here whose work permits are expiring should have them extended to allow them time to deal with the changes.

The protesters have found support from opposition politicians.