Citizenship and Immigration Canada Continues Consultations on Immigration

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) continued consultations on investor immigrant program as officials met with the local entrepreneurs and organizations heads in CIC offices in Windsor, Ontario, on Wednesday August 1^st, 2012. CIC’s parliamentary Secretary MP Chungsen Leung had elaborate discussions with the stakeholders on establishing immigrant employee programs to meet workforce demands in Windsor.

Leung said that the discussions mainly focused on the possibilities and challenges faced by the new-coming immigrant workers in Windsor. He said the fact that this region shows progress mostly in the agricultural sector, the demand for migrant workforce was considerable over here. Leung said that the migrant workforce was also required in manufacturing industrial sector, emphasizing the importance of technical skills imports from other countries. He said that this was one of the reasons these discussions value opinions and suggestions from the organizations, including academic, working with immigrants.

Leung also clarified that the soul motive of the discussions was to create an appropriate immigration structure with suitable blend of Canadian visa categories providing a platform to establish a more prompt and viable immigration system.

The business leaders and other organization heads were quite encouraged by such initiative from the government. They boldly emphasized the need for immigration policies that would be based on a corresponding market requirement in Canada.

Treasurer of Windsor and Essex regional Chamber of Commerce, Gordon Moore, was also participating in the discussions. Moore said that the government and CIC must design immigration policies that would make the Canadian market more appealing for international investors and entrepreneurs.

“We delivered our message,” Moore said, “to do the pilot project for immigrant entrepreneurs. Over 250,000 immigrants come to Canada and the entrepreneur class represents between 3,000 to 4,000 of them. It is a win-win situation. The chamber would work with them on a business plan to make them successful.”

Mr. Moore said that according to his calculations, the region will receive above 30 of those entrepreneurs from that total. He said that this would bring an approximate of $1.6 million investment from each investor. Moore also said that the program will provide the investors with crash courses which will enable them to adapt to the local market and be more confident and competitive. He said that his ideas had received most positive reviews from the Parliamentary Secretary to Immigration Minister, Rick Dykstra, last year and that is why he intends on suggesting it again.

Apart from the business leaders, academic heads were also anxious to provide the Canadian immigration with some suggestions. The vice-provost of the University of Windsor, Clayton Smith, also emphasized the need for an accommodating immigration policy to both the local organizations and the foreign immigrants. Smith said that CIC must seriously consider commencing programs to enhance the quality and quantity, and their standards, of immigrant students coming to Canada. He also suggested that measures to ensure that eligible students be given permanent residence or citizen status after they qualify must be taken seriously.

This meeting is a part of a long series of nationwide consultations the CIC decided to hold in order to bring reforms in the country’s immigration system with the help of feedback from these stakeholders. The CIC had announced earlier this week that it is looking forward of holding meetings, similar to the one in Windsor, throughout potential immigrant regions in Canada till September.

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