Canada starts Consultations on Investor Immigration Program

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has launched a series of national level consultations on Canada’s immigration programs and immigration issues on Tuesday, 31^st of July 2012, during a session of public discussions in Toronto. The consultation program is proposed by CIC’s parliamentary secretaries Rick Dukstra and Chungsen Leung, aiming at improvising Canada’s immigration policies. CIC has also opened online consultation services in this regard.

The two parliamentarian secretaries intend on holding similar discussions sessions with the public and all the stakeholders in Vancouver, Ottawa, Halifax and Windsor. The agenda of these sessions will include discussions and exchange of opinions on creating befitting immigration policies and programs for Canada in years to come.

The discussion will prioritize feedback from the stakeholders on proposed immigration reforms and will aim at reaching a viable blend of existing Canadian visas classes. The Parliamentarians will also discuss with the stakeholders CIC’s prospective plans of creating a prompt and smooth immigration system that will assure the stability and growth of the Canadian economy through self-sufficiency.

The stakeholders will be representing mostly all of the major sectors of the Canadian society which are directly or indirectly affected by the country’s immigration policies. The discussion will target a vast variety of stakeholders from different perspectives of life. Invitations will be sent to stakeholders like labors, businessmen, professional organizations, academia, municipalities, settlement providers and ethno cultural organizations in order to obtain adequate feedback.

CIC also announced the launch of another online consultation campaign to obtain public feedback in order to better reform the Canadian Immigrant Investor Program (IIP), which was temporarily put on hold on July 1^st 2012 amid the concerns from the Immigration ministry. The online facility is available until September 4^th 2012, depending on it the CIC plans on re-initiating the program next year.

Canadian Immigration minister Jason Kenney said in a statement issued on Tuesday, “We can no longer be passive player in the global competition for talent and investment. That is why we need to review our immigration programs to create dynamic opportunities that enable immigrants’ investments to directly benefit the Canadian economy.”

Presently the IIP requires all its applicants to provide at least $800,000 interest free loan to any Canadian province or territory for a period of not less than five years.

The CIC is considering the option of making changes to the threshold limit for foreign investors to invest in Canadian economy under the IIP. The CIC officials say that the current threshold under the IIP is rather to flexible or too low to contribute enough to the Canadian economy.

This sort of discussions and consultations are vital for country’s having a global immigration system to keep it from becoming stale and inconsistent with current circumstances. It is obvious that these initiatives might not be that easy to take as presumed by some stakeholders as nothing can be achieved without striving hard for it. The consultations are a part of the strategy of CIC to enhance its scope and excel in the competitive field of global immigration, keeping a balance at national level as well.

Tags: Canada, Canada immigration, Canada investor immigrant program, Canada investor program, Canadian Immigrant Investor Program, Canadian visas classes, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Immigration