RBC – A Smarter Immigration Strategy: Five Questions that Could Help Shape Canada’s Future

Good diagnostic and reasonable recommentations:

Canada’s immigration strategy has lost its edge. Population shocks—including the admission of a decade’s worth of immigration in just three years—policy volatility, a diminished focus on skills and experience, and a lack of real time data andtransparency are to blame. The result: public sentiment has turned negative for the first time in more than 20 years.

Without immigration, Canada’s population will be cut in half by the turn of the century. Our population is aging, deaths are outpacing births, and workforce participation is shrinking at a time when international competition for highly skilled working-age talent is growing.

Express Entry is not working as intended The goal of the flagship system is to select applicants with the highest earning potential, and it has; 30% higher median earnings after 3 years than those coming through the Provincial Nominee Program (the next biggest economic stream)a. But sub-categories are now undermining the program, allowing lower scorers to leapfrog people ahead in line.

Categories need to be reined in and more closely aligned with regional talent shortages. Canada needs some immigration categories to address talent shortages (e.g., blue-collar workers), which vary by region. But 80 provincial streams and duplicative federal categories add unnecessary complexity to the system.

Temporary pathways prioritized volume over skill, undermining a core two-step advantage. The focus on attracting workers and students to fill low-wage labour gaps and prop up underfunded colleges undermined a strategy that had seen former temporary residents gain an earnings advantage over direct permanent residents for more than two decades.

Canada could restore its advantage in the global competition for talent by:

• Stabilizing with a population growth target (e.g., 1%)

• Restoring the points system; going back to basics and removing Express Entry sub-categories

• Concentrating most categories at the provincial and territorial level to address regional skills shortages

• Recovering the two-step strategy with highly skilled temporary admissions and Express Entry points for Canadian experience

• Closing the data gap with near real time and more complete information about outcomes, including exits and earnings…

Source: RBC – A Smarter Immigration Strategy: Five Questions that Could Help Shape Canada’s Future

Strategy

Five questions that could

help shape Canada’s future