New Federal Skilled Trades Stream to Begin Accepting Applications on January 2, 2013

Mississauga, December 10, 2012 — To address Canada’s growing demand for skilled tradespersons, a new Federal Skilled Trades Program is being launched on January 2, 2013, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced today.

“The new Skilled Trades Stream will help address serious labour shortages in some regions of the country, and support economic growth,” Minister Kenney said. “For too long, Canada’s immigration system has not been open to these in-demand skilled workers. These changes are long overdue and will help us move to a fast and flexible immigration system that works for Canada’s economy.”

The program criteria are built around four requirements that ensure applicants will have the right skills and experience needed to succeed here in Canada. In order to qualify, applicants will need to:

• have an offer of employment in Canada or a certificate of qualification from a province or territory to ensure that applicants are “job ready” upon arrival;
• meet a basic language requirement;
• have a minimum of two years of work experience as a skilled tradesperson, to ensure that the applicant has recent and relevant practice as a qualified journeyman; and
• have the skills and experience that match those set out in the National Occupational Classification (NOC B) system, showing that they have performed the essential duties of the occupation.

In order to manage intake, avoid backlogs and ensure fast processing times, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will accept up to a maximum of 3,000 applications in the first year of the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

Minister Kenney was joined at today’s announcement by Michael Atkinson, President of the Canadian Construction Association. “The introduction of a dedicated and streamlined program for skilled trades addresses many of the shortcomings from the current Federal Skilled Worker Program,” said Michael Atkinson. “The new program ensures greater consideration is given to the needs of industry when processing eligible immigration applications.”

“Ensuring Canada’s immigration system works for small employers in need of skilled trades’ people has been a concern for some time,” said Dan Kelly, President and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “With the shortage of qualified labour in many parts of Canada growing once again, the launch of the Skilled Trades immigration stream is very welcome news.”

Eligible occupations will include electricians, welders, heavy-duty equipment mechanics, and pipefitters, among others. CIC is currently working with the provinces, territories and federal government partners on the list of skilled trades’ occupations that are experiencing acute labour shortages and which will qualify under the program. This list will be announced prior to the program opening on January 2, 2013.

The Federal Skilled Trades Program will complement other avenues already in place for skilled tradespersons to immigrate to Canada, such as the Canadian Experience Class and Provincial Nominee Programs.

“As promised in Economic Action Plan 2012, we are creating a new immigration stream to facilitate entry of skilled tradespersons,” added Minister Kenney. “The Federal Skilled Trades Program will help transform Canada’s immigration system into a fast and flexible system focused on jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.”

Need help to insure your application covers all the bases? Get my e-book, "How to Immigrate to Canada for Skilled Workers - The Authoritative Guide To Federal And Provincial Opportunities" today! See the "How to Immigrate Books" page of this site for more details. 

The Globe and Mail - Study finds Canadian immigrants at a growing disadvantage

A major international study ranks Canada among the world’s leaders in immigrant integration, but there are signs that advantage is on the wane.

Canada sits near the top of most categories in the study, which measures integration of immigrants in the 34 wealthy countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The report will be released in Paris on Monday. It compares outcomes for immigrants and their children looking at factors such as income, health, education and civic engagement.

Read the article here

Skating season is here!

Last night I was asking my Love, "I wonder when they are going to open the Natrel Rink at Harbourfront Centre?" So I looked on their site at the live webcam (see above), and what did I see? Skaters! This morning I was up at 6am, got bundled up, and walked over to the rink. It took me a little bit to get my feet under me again, and I did take one fall (the right way - on my butt), but after a short period I was skating again! So exciting. Nathan Phillips Square's rink will be open December 2, and I might go there a few times this year too (though it's usually packed), but having my rink open makes me so happy; makes the cold weather worth the struggle. I love skating!

If you are immigrating to Canada, I really encourage you to learn to skate. Want to learn? Hockey Canada has a program for you. It's great, fun exercise, it gets you outside during the long winter, and it's certainly a way to begin your cultural integration.

See you on the pond!

The Star - Immigration ministry paid for media monitoring of Minister Jason Kenney’s image

Bruce Cheadle and Stephanie Levitz
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The Department of Citizenship and Immigration spent almost $750,000 monitoring ethnic media over the past three years, including assessments of election campaign events and “perceptions” of minister Jason Kenney.

A series of contracts from March 2009 through May 2012 cost taxpayers $745,050, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information law.

Those contracts state they were for work “monitoring key words and issues related to the department’s mandate.”

But the more than 7,000 pages of documents reveal the media monitoring went well beyond public policy issues related to citizenship and immigration.

“A series of interviews and appearances by minister Kenney and his representatives were strong contributors to the upswing in the ministerial image,” says a report from May 5, 2010, under a pie graph titled “Minister Overall Perception.”

The ministerial perception charts were weekly fixtures in the lengthy media monitoring reports in the spring of 2010, when the minority Conservatives were on a constant election footing.

And while the personal Kenney pie charts vanished after the spring election window closed that year, and were not reprised, the focus of the daily media monitoring remained profoundly political.

Read more

Vancouver Sun - Skilled worker immigrant backlog to be eliminated three years ahead of schedule

OTTAWA — The government is expected to eliminate a controversial, years-old backlog of skilled worker immigration applications by the end of 2014 — about three years ahead of schedule, Postmedia News has learned.

It means a plan to create a pool of would-be Canadians from which provinces and employers could cherry-pick newcomers based on labour market need as opposed to who applied first will also be in place sooner than expected.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is expected to make the announcement Friday.

“Employers are best positioned to decide who can best fill the open jobs rather than a passive and bureaucratic system,” Kenney said of the plan last spring. “It’s not about privatizing the immigration system, it’s about a more active role of recruitment for people so they have jobs when they show up. I’d rather have an engineer working as an engineer than as a cab driver. That’s really where we’re trying to go with this.”

Read more: 

Immigration Minister Calls on Regulators to Reduce Barriers for Canada’s Immigrants

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is seeking the cooperation of Canada's self-regulatory organizations in making it easier for new Canadians to get licensed to work in their field in Canada

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney attended the annual conference for Canada’s self-regulatory organizations (SROs) today and asked for their cooperation in helping recent immigrants to Canada become licensed in their field.

Read the article at CICS News

Election eve in the U.S.

This will be my first U.S. presidential election away from the country. I voted in my home state of Washington via absentee ballot a few weeks back. In general, states facilitate voting by those outside of the country by a number of methods. I had the option of a paper ballot or electronic one. I could submit my ballot via regular mail or by email (I simply needed to print and scan my completed ballot). I was surprised that I was able to vote a full ticket in my home state - just the way I would have had I been living where I lived before I immigrated.

The challenge for me as an absentee voter is that I did not receive a voter's pamphlet. This is a guide to the candidates and issues prepared by the state. So I had a long conversation with my brother about the ballot issues and candidates. We don't agree on everything, and in retrospect I feel like maybe the right thing to do in the future is vote with him on local issues. He's the one impacted by the results, not me. If he believes he shouldn't support a particular property tax, well - I feel like I should support that. On matters that do impact me directly, such as candidates for State and Federal election - I'll vote my own way on those things.

As a typical, independent Washington State voter, I supported candidates from both major parties and a handful of independents too.

Our own poll here at The Expatriate Mind shows Obama leading. But in the U.S. it's much closer, and democratic friends of mine are quite nervous. I guess we'll know in less than two days just where the American public's support is as a nation struggles with the ghost of its past and the vision of its future.

The Star - Immigration levels to stay the same in 2013, mix to change: Kenney

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced today that 2013 immigration levels are to remain the same as last year - somewhere between 240-265,000 persons to be admitted. However, the Minister plans to cutback on the Federal Skilled Worker program and re-balance in favour of Canadian Experience Class applicants. How to interpret this? The Tories are happy to allow you to immigrate if you have already been allowed into Canada. If you haven't already been allowed in, it just got harder.

From the CIC web site:


You must meet these minimum requirements to apply for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class. You must:

• plan to live outside the province of Quebec (emphasis added)
• be either:
• a temporary foreign worker with at least two years of full-time (or equivalent) skilled work experience (emphasis added) in Canada, or
• a foreign graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution with at least one year of full-time (or equivalent) skilled work experience in Canada
• have gained your experience in Canada with the proper work or study permit
• apply while working in Canada or within one year of leaving your job in Canada
• include the results of an independent language test (from an agency designated by CIC) showing you meet the minimum language requirements with your application

Read the article here 

Huffington Post - Canada: A Nation of Foreign Terrorists According to Bill C-43

Irwin Cotler writes:

Simply put, bill C-43 is seriously flawed in several particulars. First, it grants the Minister of Immigration new and ambiguous powers to bar people from entry to Canada for a period of three years on the grounds of "public policy." This reform is likely to lead to further politicization of our immigration system. Second, the new measures for faster deportation of residents will invite Charter challenges, particularly as the bill lowers the sentence for which a person can be deported from a two year sentence to six months -- thus shifting the focus of deportation away from serious criminality towards petty crimes.

Read the article here

Far from the home I love

I was watching "Fiddler On The Roof" the other day - one of my favourite musicals. It's directed by Canadian Norman Jewison.

There is a scene in it when the daughter, Hodel (played by Michele Marsh), and Tevye (played by Topol) are sitting at a lonely train stop, and Hodel is explaining to her father why she is leaving home to follow here love to Siberia, where he is serving a sentence for sedition.

In the song she sings, "Far from the home I love", I heard many an immigrant's story, who, like myself, left my home to follow the one I love. Here are the lyrics for you. Like the rest of the story, it's as beautiful as it is sad.

How can I hope to make you understand
Why I do, what I do,
Why I must travel to a distant land
Far from the home I love?

Once I was happily content to be
As I was, where I was
Close to the people who are close to me
Here in the home I love...

Who could see that a man would come
Who would change the shapes of my dreams?
Helpless, now, I stand with him
Watching older dreams grow dim.

Oh, what a melancholy choice this is,
Wanting home, wanting him,
Closing my heart to every hope but his, 
Leaving the home I love.

There were my heart has settled long ago
I must go, I must go.
Who could imagine I'd be wand'ring so
Far from the home I love?

Yet, there with my love, I'm home.