The Lawyers Weekly - May 18, 2012

A business immigration program
to target more investment in Can-
adian growth companies and entre-
preneurs;
APPLICATION
PROPOSAL IS
CONCERNING
Changes to provincial nominee
programs in order to respond quickly
to regional labour market demand as
identified by employers;
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Reducing the required work term
for the Canadian experience class to
12 months from 24 months;
Co-ordination with the Temporary
Foreign Worker program to connect
unemployed Canadians with avail-
able jobs across the country.
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Over the past few months, there
has been a flurry of regulations, poli-
cies and initiatives aimed at expedit-
ing the recruitment of foreign work-
ers into Canada to meet the needs of
businesses and employers. Many of
these changes have been announced
by way of government press releases,
but have contained few details about
implementation or timing.

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All of these initiatives are directed
at serving current labour needs and
expanding the Canadian economy by
way of immigration, rather than
addressing other stated Canadian
immigration goals, such as family
reunification or humanitarian and
compassionate ideals.
The release of the immigration
plan in the federal budget announced
on March 29 follows the government’s
recently publicized interest in moving
toward an employer- and industry-
driven immigration system. Prime
Minister Stephen Harper recently
stated at the World Economic Forum
in Davos that “while we respect our
humanitarian obligations and family-
reunification objectives, we [will]
make our economic and labour force
needs the central goal of our immi-
gration efforts in the future.”
Of the initiatives discussed in the
Economic Action Plan, one of the
most concerning to immigration law-
yers is the proposal to return previ-
ously submitted applications and
refund up to $130-million in fees
paid by federal skilled worker appli-
cants who applied under criteria
established prior to Feb. 27, 2008.
The Federal Skilled Worker (FSW)
program is the largest immigration
program in Canada and is the main
stream for foreign nationals to obtain
permanent residence status. There is
currently a backlog of about 300,000
applicants, some of whom have been
The government’s Economic
Action Plan 2012 outlines several
initiatives to build a “fast and flexible
immigration system,” including:
Introducing an immigration
stream for skilled tradespersons;