Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney has announced that a further fourteen libraries are to be set up in the Southern Ontario region at a cost of $1.9 million.
The scheme is part of a project called the Library Settlement Partnership Program, geared towards easing the settlement process for the 200,000 migrants who immigrate to Canada every year. The project has been successfully running in Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton since 2006.
The programme offers a range of services including group orientation workshops, as well as offering migrants the opportunity to research local housing, transport and employment opportunities.
“Our Government is helping make settlement services more accessible to immigrants,” said Minister Kenney. “This investment will give newcomers in our community access to settlement services to help ease their transition to life in Canada. Their success will strengthen this community and Canada.”
Since introducing the initiative in 2006, the Canadian government has reminded committed to offering new migrants the resources required to enable them to make a smooth transition into Canadian life.
The Library Settlement Partnership programme is just one of the many initiatives set up by the government to welcome newcomers who have chosen to live and work in Canada. A total of $5billion was budgeted in 2006 for setting up similar schemes across the country over a five-year period.
In addition to the economic difficulties brought upon by the worldwide recession, Canada is set to suffer from falling numbers in the workforce, as a projected birth-rate crisis plagues economic output.
Between now and 2020, baby-boomer retirements, coupled with declining birth rates, are expected to produce a labour deficit of approximately 1.2 million Canadian workers.
Currently, Canada attracts some 200,000 newcomers to its shores, primarily on skilled migration visas. However, if immigration is to be the answer to Canada’s predicted workforce woes, this number is going to have to double over the coming years.
The largest potential obstacle to Canada attracting increased numbers of skilled migrants into its workforce is the fact that numerous other countries, including the USA, UK and Australia, are also looking to international migration as a means of addressing the economic hardships brought upon by the credit crunch.
Vancouver columnist and immigration expert Andy Radia writes:
“Canada can no longer ignore that it’s becoming less efficient for us to import people; worldwide demand of the scarce “human resource” will only continue to increase. As a result, governments and businesses must do a better job to encourage the “manufacture” of babies”.
The Sun Media has revived a leaked source suggesting that the Canadian immigration department plans to prioritise the processing of business visa applications over those for visitor visas.
The report stated that the Canadian government intends to speed up the processing of business visas so that applications launched by established Canadian companies could be processed within 48 hours of their submission.
The scheme was reportedly discussed some two weeks ago, and according to The Sun Media, it would be an expansion of the pilot initiative Business Express which has been active in India over the past year.
“As we recognize that business is important to the economy of Canada, we’re looking at streamlining the process for business visitors, where we can use the key links between companies that we know exist and are already well-known to the mission, to streamline those processes,” Claudette Deschenes, assistant deputy minister, said in the informal committee meeting.
Canadian immigration expert Eric Katz was unsurprised at the reported decision to fast-track business applications, commenting: “there is a lot of fast-tracking even for skilled worker cases now under the new regime”.
Amidst the turmoil of the worldwide recession, Canadian immigration is going from strength to strength.
In the first nine months of last year alone, a total of 8,000 new migrants began theirn new lives living and working in Canada, with 12,000 applications for Canadian immigration being made over the same period.
Skilled tradespeople with young families form the bulk of Canada’s new migrants, leaving the shores of the UK in search of better education for their children, nicer weather and cleaner, crime-free cities, not to mention cheaper food and fuel prices.
Erik Katz cites the recent recruitment drive headed by Alberta’s Immigration Minister Hector Goudreau as a primary reason for the recent influx of skilled workers form the UK.
From January to September, 2008, British nationals had filed 12,020 applications for permanent residence in Canada, CIC statistics show. In 2007, the total was even higher, at 24,182.
Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has pledged to “substantially increase” the number of foreign students accepted into Canada over the course of 2009.
Citing Australia as a prime example of a county which has been able to generate revenue and address its labour shortage, Minister Kenney added that entering Canada as foreign students would set prospective migrants on a “much faster pathway to immigration”.
The Canadian Experience Class, introduced in 2008, now allows foreign students who graduate from Canadian citizenship to apply for full residency. Minister Kenney has stated that he hopes that the opportunity for fast-tracked Canadian immigration will bring the country on a level par with Australia, which was home to some 278,000 compared to Canada’s 176,000.
Kenny also added that the “significant reduction” expected in terms of temporary foreign workers due to the global economic crisis would need to be compensated for, not least because foreign students are deemed to be a lucrative source of income.
As yet, the Canadian government has not announced a quota or target for 2009’s foreign student intake.
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