Highest Number of Immigrants since 1911

This story confirms the importance of ongoing immigration to Canada's government and its future:

Tories set to announce number of foreigners allowed into Canada highest since 1911

By: Alexander Panetta, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - The government is set to announce Friday that a near-record number foreigners was allowed into Canada last year - 429,000 - a total higher than in any year since 1911.

That sum includes 251,000 permanent residents, as well as temporary workers and foreign students, said government sources who released the number to The Canadian Press.

The NDP dismissed the figure as artificially inflated by temporary residents - including "cheap labour" seasonal workers and students - and note the actual number of permanent residents was 262,000 in 2005.

The latest figures will be released on the same day as a controversial piece of legislation, which is designed to cut processing times for some immigrants - but which could also shut out others.
The budget implementation bill will include a legislative change that gives the immigration minister the authority to cap applications beyond a certain limit if the backlog gets too long.
"It would give the minister the authority to manage the size of the backlog and set limits," Immigration Minister Diane Finley said in an interview.

"It takes three to six years for someone to even get their application looked at - let alone processed.

"That's not fair to them, it's not fair to their families, and it's not fair to the employers that want to hire them. We have to fix that. It's not going to be fixed overnight."

Immigration wait times have surged more than 20 per cent since 2004, according to statistics released by the opposition.

More than 800,000 prospective immigrants languishing on waiting lists. Finley blamed the previous Liberal government for allowing waiting lists to grow more than 15-fold since 1993.
The legislative change is among a host of other recent reforms designed to reduce wait times.
One is creating SWAT teams who can be transferred to process files from countries or immigration categories where the wait is longest.

Another is allowing Canadian officials stationed abroad in quieter posts to process paperwork filed in immigration hot spots.

The government is also creating a new category of immigrant - the Canadian Experience Class. Under that category, temporary residents such as highly skilled workers and foreign students would be allowed to remain in Canada post-graduation while they apply for permanent residence.

The idea, Finley said, is to keep the best and brightest from giving up and heading elsewhere while stuck on Canadian wait lists.

But the opposition zeroed in on the legislative change that would allow the government to cap applications.

With Canada facing a declining birth rate, an aging population and labour shortages, they suggest the government should hire more immigration staff instead of reducing applicants.

"By 2011, 100 per cent of Canada's labour force growth will come from immigration," said Liberal immigration critic Maurizio Bevilacqua.

"Why does the minister believe that shutting the door on immigration is the answer?"
The NDP's Olivia Chow called the approach "short-sighted and wrong."

"We need to increase the target number of immigrants into the country to one per cent of the population - or 330,000 people - in order to renew our workforce and drive our economy," Chow said.

"Instead of allowing families into Canada, the Conservative government seems intent only to bring in massive numbers of temporary foreign workers who are vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse."

Finley would not say whether she intends to use the new power to cap immigration applications, saying that the budget bills need to pass first.

The idea of capping immigration applications to combat wait times is reminiscent of a controversial Diefenbaker-era policy.

In 1959, the Tory government also proposed limits to tackle the backlog in applications - a 131,000-person backlog at the time, fuelled primarily by Italians arriving through family sponsorships. The goal was identical: to reduce those applications in order to speed up processing times for more valued skilled workers.

Within one month, the Diefenbaker government abandoned its effort in the face of an uproar from Italian-Canadians and the Opposition Liberals.

Many elderly members of Canada's 1.3-million-member Italian community can still be heard blaming that policy for their lifelong vow never to vote Conservative again.

Some of these voters are staunch social and fiscal conservatives, but their traditional tendency to vote Liberal anyway has served as a historical obstacle to the Conservatives winning seats in Montreal and Toronto.

But Finley called it hypocritical for today's Liberals to complain about the government measure. She noted that they're allowing the budget to pass, and abstaining en masse from voting on it.

"The Liberals created this situation. For them to provide any criticism of it - when they're actually supporting this legislation in the budget - is nothing but hypocritical," she said.

"We're losing out on a lot of talent because it takes too long for people to get processed here.
"Now we've got employers screaming for talent, which is stuck on wait lists."

2008 Immigration Budget

Here's an excerpt from the Federal Government's 2008 Immigration Budget -- it is good news and shows a commitment to immigration and response to the queues created by the huge number of immigration applicants that continues to grow every year:

Advantage Canada recognized that in a modern global economy, Canada’s immigration policies need to be closely aligned with our labour market needs. Budget 2007 took action to make the immigration system more responsive to the new labour market realities in Canada. The Temporary Foreign Worker Program was streamlined to enable employers to bring in workers more quickly to address their immediate labour shortages. The Government also introduced the new Canadian Experience Class to expedite the process for skilled temporary foreign workers and foreign students with Canadian credentials and work experience to remain in Canada as permanent residents, under certain conditions.

Canada must maintain the ability to compete globally for the best and the brightest by creating the optimal conditions to attract immigrants who can contribute fully to Canada’s prosperity. A well-managed and efficient immigration system is critical to achieving this objective. The Government will continue to modernize Canada’s immigration system.

Budget 2008 builds on Advantage Canada priorities with additional measures to improve the immigration system’s capacity and flexibility to respond to Canada’s dynamic and evolving labour market needs. Concrete measures will be initiated to expedite the processing of permanent resident applications. Combined with the recent improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the expansion of the Provincial Nominee Program and the new Canadian Experience Class announced in Budget 2007, these measures will ensure that the labour needs of employers in all provinces and territories are met in a more timely fashion.

To complement these actions, changes will be made to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to improve the immigration process. It is not fair for prospective immigrants to wait for years before being considered, and it is not desirable to wait that long for the immigrants the country needs. The measures proposed in Budget 2008 will expedite the processing of permanent residents to ensure that skilled immigrants can get to Canada when their skills are in demand. The proposed legislative changes will provide flexibility for concrete measures, as required, to more effectively manage the future growth in the inventory, such as addressing the number of applications accepted and processed in a year. The end result will be reduced wait times and improved service. These changes will allow Canada to take the first steps towards establishing a "just-in-time" competitive immigration system which will quickly process skilled immigrants who can make an immediate contribution to the economy.

Action will also be taken to help address the growing demand at Canadian missions abroad for temporary resident visas for students and skilled workers. In particular, the Government will focus on helping post-secondary educational institutions attract foreign students and on facilitating their arrival in Canada. For example, an online application system, as well as other measures to improve service and speed up processing, will be implemented for student visas. These initiatives, combined with new Canada Graduate Scholarships for Canadian and international students, will enhance Canada’s ability to compete with other countries to attract and retain the best foreign students.

Taken together, these initiatives will ensure the ongoing integrity of the immigration program. They will enable Canada to respond to growing demand and to admit more highly-skilled immigrants and their families, including foreign students. At the same time, Canada’s social and humanitarian objectives will be preserved and continue to be balanced with Canada’s labour market needs.

Budget 2008 provides $22 million over the next two years, rising to $37 million per year by 2012–13, to implement this next critical stage of modernizing the immigration system.