At any given time, lots of scams and misinformation are found on the Internet in the form of e-mails.

One of the more serious of these e-mails misrepresents the facts when it states that immigrants receive more money from our Canadian government than pensioners do through pension income.

Simply put, this is absolutely untrue.

I suggest it is important that people be made aware that immigrants who come to Canada are required to have Canadian sponsors who are financially responsible for them for 10 years and the federal government does not provide them any income support at all.

Under the Skilled Workers Program, Canada invited more than 240,000 immigrants came here last year and as part of our responsibilities to the international community through the United Nations. Over the past year, Canada also accepted 14,000 refugees.

Refugees often come from embattled parts of the world or from drought-stricken countries and upon arrival, they receive modest income support from our federal government which is equal to social assistance –but I stress this is for one year only.

Compounding the misinformation, this particular e-mail appears to intentionally try to confuse us on the differences between refugees and immigrants.

It previously circulated through Australia and by the time it made its way to here, the “author” simply substituted the word Canada for Australia but continued using the exact same dollar figures.

Another e-mail making the rounds tries to raise a stink about MP Ruby Dhalla’s Bill C-428. This erroneous e-mail suggests that Bill C-428, which is designed to allow immigrants access to Old Age Security after three years of working in Canada instead of the current 10-year requirement, would be a burden on our system.

As I believe it is important to clear up the misinformation contained in this e-mail, I want to be very clear – to qualify for OAS you must have worked in Canada for 40 years. If you have worked less than 40 years, your OAS monthly payment is reduced by 1/40 for each year you are short. In the case of immigrants, when they have worked for 10 years they would receive about $129 a month.

If Bill C-428 were enacted and the access requirements were dropped to three years, that person’s OAS monthly income would also drop to $38 a month.

Canada has reciprocal pension agreements with 57 countries where their pension credits count toward OAS, as our OAS credits would count for Canadians moving to their countries.

Please visit the Citizenship and Immigration Web site at www.cic.gc.ca , where in its media section you will find the official response to these racist and xenophobic e-mails.