Budget 2012: New immigration rules and $130M aimed at fixing skilled worker backlog

By Tobi Cohen

OTTAWA — The federal government will refund up to $130 million to federal skilled workers who applied to come to Canada before 2008 in a bid to get rid of a backlog of about 300,000 applications through legislation.

The plan, outlined in part in Thursday’s budget, will ultimately allow the government to ensure skilled newcomers actually meet current labour market needs.

The budget didn’t include plans to legislate away the entire backlog of nearly one million, which includes another 160,000 skilled workers who applied after 2008.

While all departments were asked to slash spending by five to 10 per cent, Citizenship and Immigration was spared some of the harshest cuts.

Read the full text of Jim Flaherty’s 2012 budget speech:

‘Our goal is to strengthen the financial security of Canadian workers and families, to help create good jobs and long-term prosperity in every region of the country’

The department will cut about $179 million over three years — nearly $23 million of which will come from the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Much of the savings will result from “reducing overhead costs and continuing to streamline operations and program delivery” at foreign visa offices.

In Hong Kong and Delhi, for example, a significant amount of office space is devoted to the pre-2008 backlog of federal skilled workers. With that eliminated through the refund program, officials suggest there will be reduced overhead.

By centralizing part of its visa processing, the department will also “reduce duplication and overlap” and ensure that those who are applying from within Canada are processed in Canada, according to the budget.

The budget also seeks to “better align the temporary foreign worker program with labour market demands.”

The plan, which will be unveiled in full in the coming months, seeks to encourage Canadian employers to consider the domestic labour market before hiring overseas workers to fill gaps, by giving them access to Canada’s pool of employment insurance recipients.

While many temporary foreign workers are employed seasonally in the agriculture sector, officials say there are also shortages of, for example, lawyers in Saskatchewan and that this is not about putting unemployed Canadians to work fruit picking.

The budget also calls for a new skilled tradespeople stream under the federal skilled worker program to attract more plumbers, electricians, crane operators and construction workers.

As a result, sources suggest that the current annual cap of 10,000 federal skilled worker applications is likely to increase.

“Our government will reform Canada’s immigration system to make it faster and more efficient,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.

“We will ensure it is designed above all to strengthen Canada’s economy. As a result we will be better able to fill gaps in our labour force. We will attract more of the entrepreneurs we need to create good jobs and long-term economic growth.”

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Canada scraps some skilled immigrant applications

By Randall Palmer

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OTTAWA (Reuters) – The federal goverment plans to eliminate a backlog of stale immigration applications by skilled workers, in a potentially controversial move designed to enable immigrants whose skills are in greater current demand to enter the country faster.
Some employers have complained backlogs have hobbled the immigration system and made it unable to respond nimbly to demand for foreign workers in higher growth sectors such as video-gaming and the oil patch.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday Canada now plans to return almost all of the 300,000 foreign skilled worker applications that were filed before Feb. 27, 2008, along with their $130 million in fees. Some have been waiting for one decade or more.
Flaherty made the announcement in his annual budget, saying the reforms would make the system faster and more efficient.
"We will ensure it is designed above all to strengthen Canada's economy. As a result, we will be better able to fill gaps in our labour force," Flaherty told the House of Commons in hisbudget speech.
It is an irony national unemployment is running at more than seven per cent while certain industries face labour shortages, but such employers may be looking for people with certain skills not found among most of the unemployed.
But someone who applied in 2001 may not have the skills needed in 2012, and if she was 42 when she applied would now be 53 and have fewer working years.
Canada has traditionally welcomed high numbers of immigrants. The country lets in 250,000 people per year and because of its below-replacement birth rate it will eventually rely on immigrants for any growth in its labour force.
It has a total backlog of one million would-be immigrants, about 460,000 of whom are skilled workers. Also in the backlog are applications by family members of recent immigrants, as well as investors and entrepreneurs.
The government allows 75,000 skilled workers to immigrate each year. In 2008, Ottawa started fast-tracking new applications by skilled workers but it quickly had to put a cap on those in order to be able to work through those still in the queue.
As a result of the measures announced on Thursday, it will be able to raise the number of applications it fast-tracks, with a planned eventual turnaround time of six months.
It had already told those in the backlog that they were welcome to withdraw their applications and reapply under the new rules. But if their skills are now in less demand, their chances of acceptance will also be lower.
The budget also announced somewhat less-developed plans to revamp the rules under which investors can immigrate. Previously, they were required to invest large sums of money with Canadian governments. But the intention now is to require them to invest directly in the economy.

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