Minister Joe Volpe will Fix You

Immigration Minister Announces Significant Investment in Fixing Canada's Immigration System

Well here I am celebrating another American Thanksgiving Day and what do I read in the RSS feed from the government of Canada but this holiday offering. Immigration Minister Joe Volpe plans to put $700 million CDN over the next five-years into fixing the chronic problems within his ministry.

The goal of this spending is to decrease the huge backlog of applicants as well as fund programs to evaluate and fast-track those applicants who have job skills Canada is looking for.

Of course, the government and business probably have differing ideas of the profile of those skilled populations. The press release specifically mentions "...moving to actively recruit those who best meet Canada’s labour market needs—such as temporary foreign workers and international students already in Canada..." Which seems to imply those who would populate the lower levels of the labor market (temporary farm workers and entry level professional services), rather than the "Skilled Worker" class - where Canada is by all reports in desparate need of talent.

Perhaps this indicates the political nature of this announcement. It surely couldn't offend anyone: backlog of applicants gets cleared up, labour needs are addressed, but no current citizen's job is threatened. Brilliant!

Let's hope now that this plan is on the table, that should another government inherit the leadership in the coming election, they will still choose to follow through on the core ideas it represents.