Conservative government mulls tying immigration to labour market demands
Meeting labour needs appears to be the top priority in the new Conservative government’s immigration policy, a shift in direction from past federal policies that some observers say they welcome.
Although the new federal government has remained relatively quiet on policy announcements, Monte Solberg, the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, said he’s open to working with provinces and employers to get the workers Canada needs into the country using temporary work visas. And, once they’re here and “doing a good job,” then they may be permanently landed, he said.
He also said Ottawa might change the mix of people arriving through family reunification, refugee and other categories.
“I don’t think it’s the overall number that’s the issue,” Solberg said in an interview with Canadian Press last month. “I think partly maybe it’s the mix. But it’s also using some of the other tools that we have to address some of the problems we have — like the work visas.”
While noting he has no plans to change the number of people arriving under the family reunification category, “it doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can do to ensure that we’re dealing with the skills shortage in this country.… Right now, clearly we’re not. We’re not dealing with those issues.”
Solberg was not available to comment for this story.
While vague, the new minister’s comments seem to indicate a new direction in Canada’s immigration policy, said Jeffrey Reitz, director of ethnic, immigration and pluralism studies at the University of Toronto.
Canada’s current system is largely driven by supply, with the current points system making sure newcomers have the general skills needed to adapt to the Canadian labour market. A competing approach, one driven by labour market demands, plays a part in the current system only to the extent that a small number of points are linked to whether the would-be immigrant has a job offer in Canada.
Reitz said he would welcome experimentation with Canada’s immigration policy, but stressed that what the country needs, and no government has expressed interest in providing, is a central agency to comprehensively assess the system in terms of how immigrants fare once they’ve arrived.
He also noted that a demand-driven system comes with its own set of challenges. The biggest, as experienced in countries that use such a system, is fraud. If an immigrant’s admissibility depends on his having a job offer, then systems must be in place to verify such offers are legitimate.
A related concern would be the system of controls needed to make sure people leave the country once their temporary work visas have expired. Noting that there’s no detail available yet about the length of time a foreigner could stay on such visas, Reitz said the longer the stay, the harder it would be for them to leave Canada.
Given the difficulties the Liberal government experienced in making sure failed refugee claimants leave, Reitz questioned whether the Conservative government is ready to commit the resources needed to enforce the temporary work visas on a larger scale.
Reitz noted a significant advantage of a demand-driven system is the fact it cuts down the difficult period of adjustment for newcomers, who would be able to start work right away.
But a concern such a system raises is how adaptable newcomers would be in the event the jobs they were selected for disappear in an economic downturn.
Howard Greenberg, an immigration lawyer at Greenberg Turner in Toronto, said it’s not surprising that Solberg seems to be focusing on the labour shortage. After all, he’s an MP from Alberta.
“His province is suffering the greatest shortage. You hear horror stories about doughnut shops not being able to stay open 24 hours because the guy behind the counter doesn’t want to work for minimum wage. If I were an immigration minister from Alberta, that would be my greatest concern,” said Greenberg.
The shift in priority may mean that top items on the Liberal immigration agenda would be displaced, particularly the task of tackling a backlog of about 700,000 applications, 500,000 of which are skilled workers. The Liberals pegged the price tag for that job at $400 million.
“It’s not the soft immigrant votes that count anymore,” said Greenberg.
Greenberg, who has advised past immigration ministers in both Liberal and Conservative governments, said changes that draw on more skilled foreigners on temporary work permits were already in the works in the final days of the Liberal government, as were plans to get a larger number of the 70,000 visa students who come to study in Canada every year to stay after they graduate.
With meeting labour needs apparently on top of Solberg’s agenda, comes an opportunity for the government to make a number of needed changes, including involving provinces, municipalities and employers more in the process of selecting immigrants, said Greenberg. “The old rules have got to go,” he added.
Although the new federal government has remained relatively quiet on policy announcements, Monte Solberg, the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, said he’s open to working with provinces and employers to get the workers Canada needs into the country using temporary work visas. And, once they’re here and “doing a good job,” then they may be permanently landed, he said.
He also said Ottawa might change the mix of people arriving through family reunification, refugee and other categories.
“I don’t think it’s the overall number that’s the issue,” Solberg said in an interview with Canadian Press last month. “I think partly maybe it’s the mix. But it’s also using some of the other tools that we have to address some of the problems we have — like the work visas.”
While noting he has no plans to change the number of people arriving under the family reunification category, “it doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can do to ensure that we’re dealing with the skills shortage in this country.… Right now, clearly we’re not. We’re not dealing with those issues.”
Solberg was not available to comment for this story.
While vague, the new minister’s comments seem to indicate a new direction in Canada’s immigration policy, said Jeffrey Reitz, director of ethnic, immigration and pluralism studies at the University of Toronto.
Canada’s current system is largely driven by supply, with the current points system making sure newcomers have the general skills needed to adapt to the Canadian labour market. A competing approach, one driven by labour market demands, plays a part in the current system only to the extent that a small number of points are linked to whether the would-be immigrant has a job offer in Canada.
Reitz said he would welcome experimentation with Canada’s immigration policy, but stressed that what the country needs, and no government has expressed interest in providing, is a central agency to comprehensively assess the system in terms of how immigrants fare once they’ve arrived.
He also noted that a demand-driven system comes with its own set of challenges. The biggest, as experienced in countries that use such a system, is fraud. If an immigrant’s admissibility depends on his having a job offer, then systems must be in place to verify such offers are legitimate.
A related concern would be the system of controls needed to make sure people leave the country once their temporary work visas have expired. Noting that there’s no detail available yet about the length of time a foreigner could stay on such visas, Reitz said the longer the stay, the harder it would be for them to leave Canada.
Given the difficulties the Liberal government experienced in making sure failed refugee claimants leave, Reitz questioned whether the Conservative government is ready to commit the resources needed to enforce the temporary work visas on a larger scale.
Reitz noted a significant advantage of a demand-driven system is the fact it cuts down the difficult period of adjustment for newcomers, who would be able to start work right away.
But a concern such a system raises is how adaptable newcomers would be in the event the jobs they were selected for disappear in an economic downturn.
Howard Greenberg, an immigration lawyer at Greenberg Turner in Toronto, said it’s not surprising that Solberg seems to be focusing on the labour shortage. After all, he’s an MP from Alberta.
“His province is suffering the greatest shortage. You hear horror stories about doughnut shops not being able to stay open 24 hours because the guy behind the counter doesn’t want to work for minimum wage. If I were an immigration minister from Alberta, that would be my greatest concern,” said Greenberg.
The shift in priority may mean that top items on the Liberal immigration agenda would be displaced, particularly the task of tackling a backlog of about 700,000 applications, 500,000 of which are skilled workers. The Liberals pegged the price tag for that job at $400 million.
“It’s not the soft immigrant votes that count anymore,” said Greenberg.
Greenberg, who has advised past immigration ministers in both Liberal and Conservative governments, said changes that draw on more skilled foreigners on temporary work permits were already in the works in the final days of the Liberal government, as were plans to get a larger number of the 70,000 visa students who come to study in Canada every year to stay after they graduate.
With meeting labour needs apparently on top of Solberg’s agenda, comes an opportunity for the government to make a number of needed changes, including involving provinces, municipalities and employers more in the process of selecting immigrants, said Greenberg. “The old rules have got to go,” he added.
