BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 29, 2012 Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced plans to hire an outside company to assess the educational credentials of new-comers before they arrive in Canada in a bid to keep foreign physicians from having to drive cabs when they arrive. Kenney said the government will issue a request for proposals within the next two months in the hopes of selecting a third-party organization that can begin conducting these overseas assessments before 2013. "The overall goal here is to better select and better support potential immigrants before they come to Canada so they can hit the ground running once they arrive by integrating quickly into our labour market," he told a business audience of professional regulators Wednesday. "Once this process is in place, we think this will result in a significant improvement in the points grid system we use to assess applicants to the foreign skilled worker program." Kenney said the idea ...

BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 28, 2012 OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced plans to hire an outside company to assess the educational credentials of newcomers before they arrive in Canada in a bid to keep foreign physicians from having to drive cabs when they arrive. On the eve of an anticipated austerity budget, Kenney said the government will issue a request for proposals within the next two months in the hopes of selecting a third-party organization that can begin conducting these overseas assessments by the end of the year. "The overall goal here is to better select and better support potential immigrants before they come to Canada so they can hit the ground running once they arrive by integrating quickly into our labour market," he told a business audience of professional regulators Wednesday. "Once this process is in place, we think this will result in a significant improvement in the points grid system we use to assess applicants to...

Immigration sponsorship of parents, grandparents under review by Ottawa March 27, 2012 00:03:00 Nicholas Keung IMMIGRATION REPORTER Ottawa is considering limiting eligibility of immigration sponsorship of parents and grandparents to those who are “widowed.” That is one option under review by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney as he launched his national consultations to redesign the program that reunites parents and grandparents with their families in Canada. Other measures under consideration include: • Raising the income requirements of the sponsors and binding them to lifetime financial support of the elderly family members in Canada. • Adopting the “balance of family test” where parents and grandparents must have at least half of their children residing permanently in Canada to be eligible for sponsorship. • Restricting eligibility to sponsors who are Canadian citizens; currently permanent residents are eligible to sponsor their parents and grandparents. • ...

Joseph Brean  Mar 16, 2012 – 10:14 PM ET | Last Updated: Mar 16, 2012 10:18 PM ET   “We are much more than a kind of postmodern, relativistic reflection of the world’s diversity,” says Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who emphasizes the central role in his immigration reforms of civic literacy, the ideal that every Canadian should understand the country’s basic values, symbols and institutions. In satirizing the national character in his 1962 poem “Can. Lit.,” the great Canadian poet Earle Birney made the cutting observation that, unlike our ancient imperial homelands or even our closest neighbour, Canada is mostly unbothered by history. “We French, we English, never lost our civil war / Endure it still, a bloodless civil bore,” he wrote. “No wounded lying about, no Whitman wanted. / It’s only by our lack of ghosts we’re haunted.” Once a pioneer in a virgin land, by mid-century, Birney’s archetypal Canadian had com...

Immigration system overhaul is way overdue By Chris Vander Doelen, The Windsor Star March 16, 2012 Only weeks after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that an overhaul is on the way for Canada’s broken immigration system comes a report that suggests the makeover couldn’t come too soon. The report, from two respected academics at the world-class Fraser Institute, is bound to raise the hackles of those who support wide-open immigration at any cost. But there is no doubt Canada’s immigration system is a corrupt and dysfunctional mess. From the human smugglers who make millions off the good nature of Canadians, to birth tourism and “passport babies,” to Canadians of convenience who live elsewhere and the one-million-applicant backlog, a lot of things need to change, the faster the better. It’s probably not a coincidence we have the first government in 25 years willing and able to tackle this prickly topic. The changes have already started. For instance, in 2010 Canada sudd...

By Ian Robertson ,Toronto Sun First posted: Friday, March 16, 2012 06:47 PM EDT Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Charles Sousa. (Toronto Sun files) ...

BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 16, 2012 Canada is planning to overhaul its popular Immigrant Investor Program that is so attractive to newcomers that some chartered private planes last year to be first to submit their application when the program opened after Citizenship and Immigration Canada capped intake at 700 cases in an effort to manage demand. Within 30 minutes the pro-gram - which fast-tracks permanent residency for those who can afford it - was closed for the year. In an interview with Postmedia News, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the $800,000 minimum investment required under the cur-rent system is simply too low and that it's time to consider making it a permanent contribution to the Canadian economy rather than just a loan. Right now provinces that accept immigrant investors - predominantly Ontario and British Columbia - get the cash to invest in economic development projects but must pay back the principal five years later. Kenney said a lot of it...

Megan Harris Yesterday at 2:48 PM To those who argue that the Canadian government should substantially reduce the net inflow of immigrants into the country in order to effectively tackle our stubbornly high unemployment rates are both misinformed and dead wrong. The reality is the combination of Canada’s demographic profile and low fertility rate means future economic growth will depend entirely on a steady flow of people willing to uproot themselves and families to move to our shores. Simply put, Canadians are getting older and having fewer babies. If you want to grow your economy, you need a stable cohort of young people who are willing to work. That is not to suggest Canadians are not willing to work. It’s just that many of us grew up expecting to dictate our terms for giving employers the honour of paying us for our labour. With the onset of the global recession in 2008 — coupled with the fragile state of Canada’s economic recovery — these expectations are out of whack. Th...

RATNA OMIDVAR Last updated Thursday, Mar. 08, 2012 10:29PM EST Last week, Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney laid out a plan to help Canada find the right immigrants for the right jobs. These changes have the potential to accelerate the rate at which new immigrants can get on their feet and the rate at which Canada can benefit from their contributions. Job opportunities in the trades abound, so choose immigrants who can work in skilled trades. Canada has an aging population and predicted labour shortages, so choose those who are young and will have a long career in this country. Employment and economic outcomes are better for those who speak one of Canada’s official languages, so choose immigrants who already have the fluency required to work in their occupation. These proposals are grounded in common sense. And they’re likely to give Canada what it needs, without sentencing talented and skilled new Canadians to languish in survival jobs. The changes, of course,...

March 7, 2012 00:03:00 Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF OTTAWA—The federal government is looking at simply erasing the backlog of potential newcomers as it looks to dramatically overhaul an immigration system criticized as plodding and rigid. That’s one option on the table as Ottawa seeks to make its immigration system more nimble in matching newcomers with jobs, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday. “It’s time for some frank discussion of the need for transformational change in our immigration programs so that we select the newcomers who will fill the job shortages that exist,” he said. Prime Minister Stephen Harper used a January speech at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, to signal that immigration reforms are on the way this year. Since then, Kenney has been making that case that the economy — and labour force needs — will become the main driver of Canada’s immigration policy. The minister expressed frustration that despite labour shortages...

BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 7, 2012 OTTAWA — Canada will consider legislating away its massive backlog of immigration applications and allowing provinces to cherry-pick from one big pool of would-be newcomers in a bid to transform Canada's immigration system into one that's driven by the economy, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday. In a speech to business leaders at an Economic Club of Canada luncheon, Kenney promised "transformational change" to immigration that emphasizes the need for skilled newcomers who can fill gaps in the country's labour market. He suggested the pre-2008 backlog of nearly one million applications is bogging down the system and hindering reforms and outlined several pilot projects and strategies the government is considering to eliminate it. "The time has come for fundamental change to our rigid, slow-moving immigration process and this government will deliver that change," he said. "People wit...

Tories consider capping immigration applications Daniel Proussalidis, QMI Agency Yesterday at 12:45 PM Immigration Minister Jason Kenney (Veronica Henri/QMI Agency) Even as Canadian officials hack away at a backlog of immigration applications, their workload is increasing. Documents obtained by QMI Agency show Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials have raised the goal for approving overseas immigration visas this year to more than 255,000 an increase of 17% from 2011. The biggest growth will be in family visas parents and grandparents the number of which is expected to more than triple to 36,500 in 2012. However, officials say the actual number of people who come to Canada will be lower because not everyone who receives a visa actually uses it. So, about 25,000 parents and grandparents are expected to arrive in Canada through the year, matching a number announced by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney last November. Last fall, Kenney also froze applications from pare...

Feds urged to cap applications to reduce immigration backlog Tuesday, March 6, 2012 By Tobi Cohen, Postmedia News Though divided along party lines, a House of Commons committee ultimately wants the federal government to consider more caps on applications for immigration in order to tackle a backlog that's now reached nearly one million, according to a report tabled Tuesday. Photographed by: Chris Mikukla, The Ottawa Citizen OTTAWA — Though divided along party lines, a House of Commons committee ultimately wants the federal government to consider more caps on applications for immigration in order to tackle a backlog that's now reached nearly one million, according to a report tabled Tuesday. The result of a months-long review, the Tory majority on the committee also wants the government to make skilled workers the priority, particularly the 300,000-strong backlog in applications received prior to 2008. "We believe that the government's primary focus should...

Toronto immigrant networks connect newcomers with jobs and community help March 7, 2012 00:03:00 Nicholas Keung IMMIGRATION REPORTER Lara Zaylah arrived in Toronto last March with her husband and their 2-year-old son, with no family or friends in the city. Five months later, the Lebanese auditor got her first job in Canada, as a senior internal auditor for an insurance company, thanks to networking. Although her fluency in English and work experience with two of the world’s top accounting firms were an asset to get her foot in the local job market, Zaylah says networking — both professional and personal — was a key to her success. “You have to go out and meet a lot of people, not just related to your careers, but for all other stuff. They give you the information, support and encouragement you need,” she says. “When you put everything together, that was the outcome.” Recognizing the strength of community associations helping immigrants, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employm...

What does ‘Canadian experience’ really mean for immigrants? March 7, 2012 00:03:00 Bill Taylor SPECIAL TO THE STAR Three simple words, but they can add up to a Catch-22 for new immigrants looking for work: “Canadian experience required.” If you can’t land your first job, how are you supposed to build that all-important breadth of knowledge? There’s more to it, experts say, than getting up at the crack of dawn to drive your kids to hockey and stopping en route to pick up a double-double at Tim Hortons. And knowing what a double-double is. The clichéd example of doctors and engineers driving cabs in Toronto is a truism for a reason, says Allison Pond: “It still happens more than it needs to. It’s still an issue.” Pond is executive director of Acces Employment, a not-for-profit charitable organization with five locations across the GTA, handling about 16,000 clients per year and “very focused” on finding them jobs in their field. Acces and other groups, such as TRIEC (the T...

Employers could bump up prospects in immigration overhaul CTVNews.ca Staff Immigration Minister Jason Kenney speaks during a press conference in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney outlined his vision Thursday for a faster immigration system that would allow employers a greater say in selecting new Canadians. "Immigration is playing an increasingly important role in our economy and we need a system that does a better job of attracting the people who have the skills that are in demand and getting them here quickly," Kenney said in the keynote address to the National Metropolis Conference in Toronto. "We have made some great strides towards an immigration system that is fast and flexible, but know that there is more work to do." Kenney's plan would see employers have the ability hand-pick potential immigrants and bring them to the front of the line. Kenney says he plans to redesign the immigration point system to be more fl...

'Birth tourism' may change Canadian citizenship rules Canada, U.S. only developed countries that grant automatic citizenship to babies born on their soil. By Prithi Yelaja, CBC News Posted: Mar 5, 2012 5:21 AM ET The Harper government is considering changes to the citizenship rules to target so-called birth tourism — where a foreign national comes to Canada to give birth so the baby can get Canadian citizenship. But critics say closing the loophole will deter bona fide immigrants and harm the economy in the long run. “We don’t want to encourage birth tourism or passport babies, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the CBC’s Power and Politics in an interview. "This is, in many cases, being used to exploit Canada’s generosity. The vast majority of legal immigrants are going to say this is taking Canada for granted. “We need to send the message that Canadian citizenship isn’t just some kind of an access key to the Canadian welfare state by cynically misrepresen...

Business leaders cite skilled-labour shortage as priority RICHARD BLACKWELL Last updated Sunday, Mar. 04, 2012 8:16PM EST The most recent C-Suite survey of Canadian corporate executives shows that despite the high level of unemployment, companies just can’t get all the people they need to fill the skilled positions that are available. (Golden Band Resources) As Canada drags itself through a slow-motion recovery, one of the most pressing issues facing executives across the country is an acute shortage of skilled labour. The most recent C-Suite survey of Canadian corporate executives shows that despite the high level of unemployment, companies just can’t get all the people they need to fill the skilled positions that are available. Browse the C-Suite archives Federal spending cuts with a scalpel, not an axe, executives urge Two-thirds of executives say they are having difficulty finding qualified employees, and one-third say the labour shortage is so severe it is preventing t...

TORONTO - Ottawa has tightened the strings on foreigners who try to use a fraudulent marriage to gain Canadian citizenship. The new law will force sponsored spouses to wait five years from when they are granted Canadian residence status before they can sponsor a new spouse. There have been problems where sponsors sponsor a person believing there is a love connection only to have their spouse skip town with Canadian status. The spouse could then sponsor another foreign spouse for money even though their sponsor would still be on the hook financially for them for three years. "I held town hall meetings across the country to hear from victims of marriage fraud," Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney said Friday. "In addition to the heartbreak and pain that came from being lied to and deceived, these people were angry. They felt they had been used as a way to get to Canada. We're taking action because immigration to Canada should not be built ...

Minister Kenney outlines vision of a fast and flexible immigration system Toronto, March 1, 2012 - In a keynote address to the National Metropolis Conference today, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney outlined his vision for a faster, more responsive immigration system that better meets Canada’s economic needs. “Immigration is playing an increasingly important role in our economy and we need a system that does a better job of attracting the people who have the skills that are in demand and getting them here quickly,” said Minister Kenney. “We have made some great strides towards an immigration system that is fast and flexible, but know that there is more work to do.” In his speech, the Minister highlighted recent changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program, where current applicants must have experience in one of 29 occupations in demand, or have a job offer in Canada. He also noted the growing success of the Canadian Experience Class, which all...

A new immigration point system for Canada starts in 2012 March 1, 2012 00:03:00 Nicholas Keung IMMIGRATION REPORTER A revised points-based selection grid will be introduced to favour young immigrants with strong language skills, says federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. Prospective immigrants in licensed professions will need to be pre-assessed to ensure they are likely to get certification in Canada before their applications are processed, Kenney said in Toronto at the annual gathering of Metropolis, an immigration research network that is about to lose its federal funding. Currently, immigration applicants can skirt the mandatory language requirement by entering through the Provincial Nominee Program, which allows provinces to select immigrants with job offers from local employers. Under the new grid, to be introduced by the end of the year, Kenney said provincial nominees will face a higher bar as well, because research has shown that language proficiency enhances ...

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION Immigrant rule targets marriages of convenience Newcomers must wait to sponsor another partner By: Tobi Cohen 03/3/2012 1:00 AM OTTAWA -- A five-year sponsorship bar to crack down on bogus marriages of convenience falls short of addressing the real problem, critics said Friday, shortly after Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the regulatory change. Starting immediately, Kenney said spouses will have to wait five years from the day they are granted permanent residence status before they can sponsor a new partner. The move is meant to prevent people from fraudulently marrying Canadians for the purposes of immigration only to leave them and then sponsor a new partner while their Canadian spouse is still financially responsible for them for three years. "I held town hall meetings across the country to hear from victims of marriage fraud," said Kenney, who made the announcement in Brampton, Ont., just west of Toronto. ...