Saskatchewan, Newfoundland push Ottawa for greater control over immigration

Interesting commentary and yes, control doesn’t necessarily correlate with outcomes:

…Lisa Lalande, chief executive officer of the Century Initiative, a non-profit think tank that wants to see Canada’s population grow to 100 million by 2100, warned that “greater control over selection doesn’t automatically mean better outcomes.”

While Albertans’ demands deserve to be taken seriously, she said, “the real test is whether the system meets local needs, helps newcomers settle in and gives them reasons to stay. Ottawa sets the overall numbers, but provinces and communities know where the jobs are, so they need to plan together.”

Mikal Skuterud, an economics professor at the University of Waterloo, cautioned against handing more control over immigration to provinces. There has been “an ongoing devolution of power away from the federal government towards the provinces, and that’s had a very high cost,” he said.

A once robust federal points-based system for choosing who settles here has over decades unravelled, Prof. Skuterud said. “What we have now looks like a lottery. It’s a patchwork system that you cannot navigate by yourself because it’s so complicated.”

Newcomers granted permanent residence in one province have a right to move somewhere else in Canada to work.

“We live in a federation with a constitution that guarantees people freedom of mobility,” Prof. Skuterud said, adding “there’s no way to ensure that they don’t leave. And so the whole system is flawed.”…

Source: Saskatchewan, Newfoundland push Ottawa for greater control over immigration