OTTAWA, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Green Party of Canada condemned on Tuesday afternoon the Conservative government's latest increase in citizenship application fees, calling it "shocking".
"While (Canadian Prime Minister) Stephen Harper claims to be supportive of immigrants, he continues to create policies based only on how much money a person has. This clearly has never been the Canadian way," said Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, in a statement.
From February 2014, the government has raised citizenship application fees from 100 Canadian dollars to 300 Canadian dollars (one Canadian is about 0.96 U.S. dollar)
Then again on Dec. 23, 2014, the Conservative government quietly announced that the 300-dollar application fee would be further increased to 530 Canadian dollars per adult applicant as of Jan. 1, 2015.
The increase does not include the costs of the 100-Canadian dollar Right of Citizenship fee, bringing the total to 630 Canadian dollars for each adult who applies for Canadian citizenship after Jan. 1, 2015.
"Canada used to be a welcoming country, where immigrants were based on the quality of their character and not the size of their wallet," said Daniel Green, deputy leader of the Green Party.
"In their own analysis of the changes, Citizenship and Immigration Canada found that the fee increase would impose an additional and unwarranted financial burden on families and individuals," May added.
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