Alberta seeking immigration solution

Alberta Employment Minister Iris Evans has sought to establish special authority for his province to recruit foreign skilled workers in the light of ongoing labour shortages in that region. Although Alberta was seeking authority to establish an immigration system similar to that of the province of Quebec, its government has been advised that a Provincial Nominee program more similar to Manitoba and British Columbia should be expected.

Although the deal is expected to take time to sort out, the province is looking for a way to attract as many as 100,000 skilled workers in the next decade.

Canada's immigration backlog

The province of Ontario, together with Toronto legal representatives, are asking Canada's Immigration department to take action to reduce the present backlog of applications. The backlog of approximately 800,000 cases is causing some applications to take over 4 years to be processed.

"It is unfair to have 800,000 people waiting in line for so long," said Mike Colle, Ontario citizenship and immigration minister. "It is frustrating for these people and they're going elsewhere."

Omtario to promote hiring of new immigrants

Ontario's Minister of Immigration, Mike Colle, has announced plans to invest $1.75milliion in order to promote the hiring of skilled immigrants in that province. Such companies represent 97 per cent of Ontario businesses but may be reluctant to hire immigrants because they don't have the resources or expertise to evaluate their foreign education and job experience.

Immigration department eases foreign worker process

In the face of increasing shortages of certain skilled workers in regions, Canada's immigration department has announced a simplification of the process for certain foreign worker cases cases.

“Canada's new government has been listening to employers in Alberta and British Columbia, and they are truly having a hard time finding enough workers,” the Minister of Immigration said in a statement recently. “The improvements we are announcing today are making it easier, faster, and less costly for employers to hire temporary foreign workers.”

Improving the recognition of credentials of Canadian immigrants

A common complaint of new Canadians is that it can be an uphill battle to receive recognition of foreign credentials from Canadian employers and professional organizations. Ontario's government has recently tabled a Bill which would impose fines of as much as CAD$100,000 on regulatory organizations which unfairly dismiss foreign credentials.

"Let's make it possible for these people to work in their fields," Ontario Immigration Minister Mike Colle said, "and then we'll have a gain for the foreign-trained individuals but also for all the communities that need engineers, doctors, nurses."

Canadian immigration targets increase

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has announced that it will increase the 2007 immigration targets by 5.2 percent, the largest increase in the past 15 years.

In tabling its annual report in Parliament on Tuesday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada said it plans to admit between 240,000 and 265,000 permanent residents in 2007. The target this year is 225,000 to 255,000, and the government expects the final figure will be in the upper end of that range.

study on Canada's immigration point system discussed

Queen's University expert and economics professor Charles Beach has reported to a US Senate committee that Canada's immigration system is doing a better job of attracting educated and experienced immigrants.

"It appears that changing Canada's immigration policy to the point system had the desired effect of improving the quality of skill attributes of incoming immigrants," said Dr. Beach.

The point system has gone through many changes since it was introduced in 1967 and will likely change again to attract more skilled building and industrial tradespeople which are in short supply.

Immigration driving Canada's population growth

Statistics Canada reports that immigration continued to be the driving force behind Canada's growing population over the past 12 months, with the movement of people into Canada from other countries accounting for two-thirds of the growth during that period, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. It was the third straight year of an annual increase in immigration.

“International migration's role in Canada's population growth far exceeds its impact in the United States,” the agency noted. Compared with the United States, Canada's population growth rate was slightly higher than that seen in the United States.

Among the provinces and territories, Alberta had the strongest growth rate, coming in nearly three times higher than the national average. For the year, Alberta's growth rate was 29.4 people per 1,000.