John McCallum wants to ‘substantially increase’ immigration to fill Canada’s labour needs
2016/08/15 1 Comment
Does suggest that the on-line consultations exercise, launched this summer, was more cosmetic than substantive.
I find the call for increased immigration levels has a bit of “field of dreams” quality, rather than being evidence-based:
If Immigration Minister John McCallum gets his way, Canada will significantly increase immigration beyond its current record level as a way to fill the country’s labour needs.
Pointing to an aging population and looming labour shortages, McCallum made the pitch in Manila during a speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines on Friday.
“So why not substantially increase the number of immigrants coming to Canada? And that is, I think, I hope, what we are about to do,” McCallum said, according to a transcript of his remarks obtained by CBC News.
Earlier in the week, McCallum was in Beijing, where he sought to open more offices where Chinese can apply for visas, in the hope of attracting more high-skilled workers.
The Trudeau government is already seeking to admit between 280,000 and 305,000 new permanent residents in 2016 — a record increase from the 260,000 to 285,000 newcomers the previous Conservative government had planned to welcome by the end of 2015.
Key to the Liberal government’s larger plan to promote innovation and grow the economy is McCallum’s three-year immigration plan, which he plans to unveil this fall.
McCallum said no final decision on immigration has been made and that he has to get his cabinet colleagues on board with his new plan and convince Canadians it’s the right thing to do.
“But the direction in which I would like to go is to increase substantially the number of immigrants,” McCallum said Friday.
Reducing ‘barriers’ to immigration
The express entry system launched under the previous Conservative government promised transformative changes to Canada’s economic immigration policy.
McCallum will ease some of the rules to make it easier for international students to come to Canada and become permanent residents.
He is also going to eliminate what is known as a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) — a document all employers need to hire foreign nationals over Canadian workers.
Businesses have said it is the biggest flaw with express entry, a requirement the previous government borrowed from the temporary foreign worker program.
The Liberal government also tasked a parliamentary committee with a review of the controversial foreign worker program, but Parliament adjourned before the report was tabled. It will now be made public in the fall.
“So we’re going to make it easier for international students, we’re going to reduce some of the barriers in our immigration system … we don’t think that every immigrant needs to go through what we call a labour market impact assessment process. We think it can be simplified. We think there are some rules which are no longer necessary,” McCallum said.
“Now, we have to convince Canadians of this. But I think it’s a good idea.”
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 
I understand that one might think increased immigration would be the ideal way to fill labour needs but, given the situation in this part of Southwestern Ontario, I don’t think it would be the right move. We have many crops in this area which require hundreds of workers for very short periods of time, i.e. ginseng and tobacco, fruits and vegetables For many years, we have had workers coming from the Caribbean and, more lately, Mexico and China. I think it has worked well, especially as we have seen the Caribbean workers here for a long period of time, well over 40 years. This has resulted in a very good relationship between their countries (i.e. Jamaica) and ours.. The workers can purchase things here they cannot get at home and, in turn, provide our farms with workers they do not have here because we just do not have the population. If they immigrated (and some do) they would not have employment during the winter which some of them can get back home.
I would like to see people made welcome if they wish to immigrate but, as well, the ones who prefer to make their country of birth their primary home should be welcome to work as they have for decades here in Canada to the benefit of both countries.