According to a recent Press Re­lease, Citizenship and Immigra­tion Canada (CIC) is proposing changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program to help Canada select immigrants who have the best chance of integrating and making a better contribution to the Canadian economy. CIC will be consulting with stakeholders and the public on the proposed changes.

The consultations follow the release of an evaluation of the program, which found that skilled workers are faring far better in Canada than their predecessors, thanks to their stronger language skills and arranged employment. The evaluation does show, how­ever, that there is room for im­provement.

“To stay competitive globally, we have to make sure the skilled immigrants we choose are the ones that we need, and the most likely to succeed when they get here,” said Jason Kenney, Min­ister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. “Research points to some key changes that will help us meet those goals.”

The input received through the consultations process will betaken into account in the development of new regulations. The proposed changes could place more em­phasis on youth and language ability, and are expected to increase the number of skilled tradespeo­ple.
CIC will consult on:

• requir­ing federal skilled work­ers to have a minimum level of lan­guage pro­ficiency;
• making the pro­gram more accessible to skilled trades -  people, technicians and  apprentices;
• placing greater emphasis on younger immigrants who will adapt more easily and be ac­tive members of the work force for a longer time frame;
• redirecting points from work experience to other factors that better contribute to success in the Canadian work force; and
• reducing the potential for fraud­ulent job offers.

The current Federal Skilled Worker Program was introduced in June 2002 with the Immigra­tion and Ref­ugee Protec­tion Act. The program is based on an objective and transparent points sys­tem, which considers factors such as language skills, age and educa­tion in the selection of immigrants. The system aims to be more effec­tive at select­ing those who will succeed economi­cally.

There are of course some sec­tors who are up in arms because if implemented it will drastically lim­it the number of immigrant de­pendents to those of immediate family to just the husband, wives and children. The “Grandparents” route will be severely curtailed for some immigrants who are relying on this immigration loop hole to bring their ageing parents to Canada. The Canadian Govern­ment while still remaining eco­nomically sound than our neigh­bor the United States has now a ballooning deficit, therefore “grandparents” who realistically not considered to be among the Canadian workers just clog the system with subsidy’s and pay­ments for medicare, welfare and pensions.

I personally think this will be a good move by the Canadian Government. By emphasizing on age, language skills and educa­tion, we will winnow the one’s who have gone thru the system without the benefit of thorough evaluation on their potential to earn decent salaries for their families and will just be a burden to the Govern­ment in the long run. As an immi­grant, my eyes are wide open on how we , as the real workhorses of this country should be vigi­lant to those who are just tak­ing the Government for a free ride. Meaning, some people are just out to collect welfare when they are healthy and strong and leave it for the others to work double time. It is a sad reality and these people are the ones who are often than not are very vocal on how they are mistreated by the Canadian Government, jeez.

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