New rules to
fast-track skilled immigrants to Canada
Nov 29, 2008
Noor
Javed
Nicholas Keung
Staff Reporters
If you're planning to move to
Canada, you'll have to check the list first.
Thirty-eight in-demand
occupations were unveiled by the Harper government
yesterday, setting out a new selection criteria for skilled
immigrants, allowing those with relevant skills to be
fast-tracked into the country.
The occupations include jobs
in the field of health, skilled trades and the finance
sector. Details of the long-awaited "ministerial
instructions" were posted on the Citizenship and Immigration
Canada website
and come into effect
immediately.
Skilled workers whose
occupations are on the list will be fast-tracked for
acceptance as permanent residents under the skilled worker
immigration class. New applications that do not meet the
eligibility criteria will not be processed, and the
application fee will be refunded.
"Applicants who aren't
eligible for the federal skilled worker category may qualify
under another category," said Jason Kenney, minister of
Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, in a release
yesterday. "There are many ways to immigrate to Canada."
They include applying as
temporary foreign workers or through the provincial nominee
program under a job offer by a Canadian employer.
The controversial plan was
first introduced in March by then immigration minister Diane
Finley, as a way to reduce the backlog of 900,000
immigration files and bring in the right skilled immigrants.
Previously, applicants faced wait times of up to six years.
Under the new rules, applicants should receive a decision
within six to 12 months.
Olivia Chow, New Democrat MP
for Trinity-Spadina, who was an opponent of the
controversial immigration changes, says the list offers no
real solutions to the backlog.
"The government's solution is
throwing out the applications. It's absurd," she said.
The list is also aimed at
responding to Canada's changing labour market and economic
needs. But Chow says the list has already become outdated.
"It took the government all
these months to come up with these professions, and things
have completely changed in the last few months. People are
being laid off in the financial sector," she said. Financial
managers and accountants are on the list.
Ottawa consulted the provinces
and territories, employers, industry groups and academics to
come up with the list.
Kenney is confident the
occupation list is current despite concerns over the
softening economy. "It is difficult to project the
consequences for immigration as a result of the global
economic crisis," Kenney told the Star yesterday.
"There is no fixed schedule
(to update the list), but we will monitor and amend it as
necessary," he said.
Gurmeet Bambrah, with the
Council for Access to the Profession of Engineering, made up
of foreign-trained engineers, says such policies are
counterproductive. Of its 1,820 members, all of whom are
engineers, 60 per cent are underemployed or underutilized in
Canada.
"You can't keep bringing
people into the country you aren't going to employ," said
Bambrah. "Not only are they forced to go on to welfare, so
they are a burden on society, but it's also that you are
killing all their creativity," she said. "You have to go
back and ask what is the focus of your immigration policy,
and why are you particularly targeting these people?"
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