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The Canadian economy is doing better than expected. There are increased job opportunities, overall trade data including oil exports are on the up. It is against this background that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced recently a consultation to identify likely future skills needs. Canadian immigration will look at possible changes to make it easier for immigrants with the right skills to gain entry to Canada.
The Canadian Government would like views of Canadian on steps to take to make sure that Canada fully recovers from the recent Worldwide economic recession. The consultations will consider worker shortages in trades and professions in Canada. It will also look at factors that affect an immigrant's ability to find a job in Canada.
The immigration consultations will help with the development of instructions to immigration officers on which economic immigration applications should be eligible for processing to help meet Canada's skilled labour needs. The Action Plan for Faster Immigration resulted in the first set of instructions being issued in November 2008 which kept the backlog of applications from growing, and reduced the waiting times for immigrants.
"The Action Plan for Faster Immigration is designed to make immigration more responsive to Canada's economic conditions. When these conditions change, the instructions are meant to change too," said Minister Kenney. "The first set of instructions has had a significant impact, but our research shows it is time to revise them to make sure they continue to meet their goals."
Canadian immigration says that the Action Plan for Faster Immigration has reduced the federal skilled worker category backlog by 40 percent. Previously there was a backlog of 600,000 applicants. Canadian skilled worker immigration applications are now dealt with within a year. This compares with processing times of perhaps six years under the old immigration system.
