CENTRAL NOVA REPORT BY PETER MACKAY
Published on February 27, 2015
Our Conservative government continues to work to ensure that our immigration system keeps Canadians safe and meets the needs of our growing economy.
Canada is the second largest country on earth, yet we boast only a modest population by international standards. This leads to a very diverse job market.
One of the ways our government is working to ensure job opportunities are filled across the country is by introducing the enhanced Job Matching Service, which connects Canadians looking for work with available jobs. Sometimes, however, matching is simply not enough to meet Canada’s needs and skilled immigrants are required to fill niche job opportunities. This can include bringing doctors to rural communities to reduce health care wait times.
That is why we introduced the Express Entry Program to improve the responsiveness of our system by enabling us to better select immigrants based on the skills and attributes that our economy currently needs. This has also helped to prevent backlogs and process applications quickly.
Through an online profile of prospective skilled immigrants, the Express Entry Program will effectively target the most highly qualified skilled newcomers from a pool of interested candidates, rather than simply processing those who apply first. In addition, prospective applicants must receive an invitation to apply before submitting an immigration application. This prevents the program from accumulating applications that are not needed.
The Express Entry Program will also expedite permanent residence applications for successful applicants. For the vast majority of those who apply, it will now take six months or less to process their applications as opposed to the 12 to 14 months it would take under the previous government.
Our government has made it a priority to enhance Canada’s economic immigration system. After years of mismanagement under previous governments, we have cleaned up backlogs and introduced important new programs to better recognize foreign credentials, and attract the very best and brightest to our country.
Our Conservative government will continue to take action to ensure Canada’s economy remains strong and prosperous.
Peter MacKay is MP for Central Nova and federal Justice Minister.