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AUG 16 - SEPT 15, 2016 VOLUME 7 ISSUE 4
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Canada’s Immigration Minister Wants to “Increase Substantially the Number of Immigrants” Cheryl Posadas-Guinsatao EDITOR IN-CHIEF
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John McCallum, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, has stated his goal of significantly increasing immigration to Canada beyond its current record level as a way to fill the country’s labour needs and rise to the demographic challenges faced by an aging population. McCallum made the comments in Manila, Philippines during a speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce during its last leg of Asian tour. “So why not substantially increase
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the number of immigrants coming to Canada? And that is, I think, I hope, what we are about to do . . . the direction in which I would like to go is to increase substantially the number of immigrants,” McCallum said. Earlier this year, the Liberal government of Canada unveiled its immigration plan in 2016 which projected that Canada would welcome around 300,000 new permanent residents this year. This marked the highest projected immigration level in decades, and around a seven percent increase on the 2015 plan. Key to the government’s larger plan to promote innovation and grow the economy is McCallum’s three-year immigration plan, which he plans to unveil this fall. Following his comments in Manila, it is likely that this plan will showcase the government’s objective to increase overall immigration numbers. However, McCallum said that no final decision
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on immigration has been made and that there will be some work to do in getting convincing his cabinet colleagues, as well as the Canadian population, about the merits of his new plan. During a visit to Beijing earlier in his Asian tour, McCallum announced that the government of Canada plans to increase the number of visa offices inChina in order to facilitate the numbers of Chinese visitors, workers, students and prospective immigrants expected to come to Canada in the future. McCallum’s department is expected to make a number of other changes before the end of 2016, including modifications to the Canadian citizenship and changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The government’s bid to attract more Chinese workers and students comes as the Canadian economy sheds jobs and critics worry about the influence of foreign investors on fast-rising house prices in cities such as Vancouver and Toronto. Canada’s unemployment rate increased to 6.9 per cent in July. Mr. McCallum, though, said Canada has a “legitimate need for temporary foreign workers” in some regions and industries. He cited fish processing, meat packing and high-tech as examples. He also said the Liberals want to find a middle ground on foreign workers. “We went from
a situation five years or so ago where everybody was allowed in and then there were various scandals, and went to the other extreme of almost nobody allowed in. And now we want to be in an intermediate position, and it’s not fully resolved,” Mr. McCallum said. “There’s a parliamentary committee that hasn’t reported yet. But the general idea would be that in some regions and in some industries, we have a legitimate need for temporary foreign workers. But – and this is a big but – we would generally want to see these people on a pathway to permanent residence if that is their desire.” He said he wants to make it easier for companies to bring in foreign workers. “We’re also going to reduce some of the barriers and the silly rules … in order to give companies freedom to bring in the best and the brightest. We’ll get rid of many of these [required] labour-market impact assessments which slow things down enormously.” Ottawa, meanwhile, is also studying ways to remake an investor immigrant program that was cancelled under the Conservatives after it amassed a backlog of roughly 65,000 applicants, mostly from China. A replacement program failed to attract much interest, and “we’re working on” another attempt, Mr. McCallum said, pointing to a U.S. program designed to propel investment into senior care facilities. That could serve as a model, he said.