Diane Francis: Provinces need more say over immigration

Worse, Quebec enjoys privileges above all the other provinces under a deal signed years ago, but now others want the same ability to set immigration targets and have a say over who is selected, and are petitioning Ottawa to give them commensurate privileges.For instance, Ontario receives nearly half of new immigrants to Canada, yet has practically no say over who can migrate to the province. This is why Ontario and other provincial labour ministers officially asked for more control over immigration to combat severe labour shortages in their provinces and avert what Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton calls a “looming skills crisis.”

In July, he and his counterparts from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba wrote a letter to federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, urging that they be allowed to choose skilled newcomers “with the greatest chance of success,” McNaughton explained in an interview with the Financial Post. “We need the ability to respond to the rapidly evolving needs of specific areas and communities, with a flexible system that we can adapt to changing economic and humanitarian needs.”