Immigration Minister says new system makes it easier for foreign professionals to have credentials recognized in Canada

Further to my post of 30 September 2011, in a report in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that his government is making “profound” changes to Canada’s immigration system in anticipation of escalating competition from other developed nations for skilled immigrants. 
http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2011/10/hot-hr-election-issues.html

Canada currently admits between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents a year.  For decades it has been one of only about half a dozen countries worldwide to allow immigration.  (The others include the United States, Australia, and Israel.)  But now other industrialized countries are opening their doors to immigrants to compensate for the reduced growth and aging demographics of their domestic populations. 

In the face of this rising global competition, Mr. Harper says Canada must improve its process for targeting and selection to ensure that it attracts sufficient numbers of immigrants, as well as people with the most desirable skills, expertise, and investment capacity. Mr. Harper describes his Conservative government's changes to the immigration system as shifting from a system that merely receives applications and processes them on a first-come-first-serve basis to a more proactive one that chooses people based on the country’s priorities and how much the applicants can benefit Canada. 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-needs-to-get-competitive-to-attract-skilled-immigrants-harper/article5179369/ 
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/12/fundamental-change-on-immigration/

Mr. Harper’s statements come soon after three further developments affecting Canadian immigration practices:  The first is that Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney (shown at right), announced earlier this month that the backlog of skilled immigrant applications, which has clogged the system for years, is declining rapidly and will be eliminated by the end of 2013.  Mr. Kenney said about 100,000 applications are still in the system, down from 640,000 just a few years ago.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/11/02/pol-kenney-backlog-skilled-workers.html

The second development occurred last week, when Mr. Harper’s government launched a review of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker program, which brings some 200,000 temporary workers into Canada each year from foreign countries.  The review was prompted by controversy following the government’s decision to hire hundreds of Chinese nationals through the program to work in British Columbian mines.  Criticisms of the program include that it lets foreigners take jobs away from Canadians and creates a second class of labourers that puts a downward pressure on wages.  (In October, unemployment in Canada remained at 7.4 percent, following two consecutive months of increases.)

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Exclusive+Canada+foreign+worker+program+reviewed+after+hiring+Chinese+coal+miners/7520003/story.html

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/unemployment-rate

The third development, also announced earlier this month by Mr. Kenney, is a revamped points system to assess people who apply for immigration.  Schedule to take effect in 2013, the revised system will place new emphasis on having employers invite immigrants into the country and place them in jobs on arrival.  It also includes pre-assement of overseas applicants based on their education, prior Canadian work experience, age, and English or French language skills. The Conservatives’ current immigration system already treats temporary workers from foreign counties who have obtained Canadian work experience as one of the best prospects to enlist as new immigrants, because they have already proven they can integrate into Canadian society and meet the country’s labour-market needs.  

To date, discussions sparked on LinkedIn by the Globe’s Saturday report seem to emphasize the disparity between the public image of Canada as a land of golden opportunity for newcomers versus the reality that skilled immigrants may encounter upon arrival in this country, when they may find themselves severely underemployed.* 

Mr. Kenney says the recent immigration reforms were devised with exactly this disparity in mind: "I don't think we're being true to our reputation as a land of opportunity by inviting engineers to come here and come and drive cabs, or medical doctors to come here and be night watchmen or convenience store clerks," he comments. 

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/08/new-points-system-for-immigrants-coming-in-2013
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

http://www.cicsnews.com/
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/2012-08-17.asp
http://2vancouver.com/en/blog/new-skilled-worker-skilled-trades-and-canadian-experience-class
http://www.immigrationmatters.co.uk/canada-to-reduce-skilled-worker-immigration.html

*   For an example, LinkedIn members might search and review the discussion started on Saturday by Nicole Jelly, a global HR strategist and cross-cultural expert in Calgary, Alberta.  Mr. Kenney is the Member of Parliament for Calgary Southeast.

This week Canada elected a record number of women--but still not enough

In response to my 19-April-2011 post observing how women in politics operate differently than men, Jodi Krohn, CEO of Premier Press in Portland, Oregon, and one of my fellow members of the Girls Who Print Discussion Group on LinkedIn, wrote back:  “Co-operation, politics without personal attacks, understanding that there are multiple perspectives and finding a healthy balance, would be very refreshing.”

Makes you think, doesn't it? I recall that certain North American native tribes left the decision to wage war up to their Clan Mothers, who had the most to lose (i.e., their children) and were the least warlike faction of their society. Could we actually remake our whole political system along similar, more co-operative, nurturing, female lines--instead of the competitive, combative, male-dominated system we've got?

Speaking of male-dominated politics, by now most people know that Canada’s federal election on Monday 2 May 2011 promoted the national Conservative Party from a minority to a majority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  But another, less publicized result of the election is that more women than ever before have been elected to Canada’s Parliament.  A record 76 women will now sit in our country’s House of Commons—or about 25 percent of the total 308 seats—a count slightly up from the approximately 22 percent of seats held by females in Canada’s last federal parliament.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/MSNHome/20110503/projected-female-mps-41st-parliament-110503/

Not that Canada can start congratulating itself for being egalitarian just yet.  While the record high number of female Members of Parliament is nothing to sneeze at, it’s also nothing to be especially proud of---since the country still ranks 52nd in the world when it comes to proportional female representation in political office.  We are also falling further behind as other nations take more aggressive measures to correct their political gender imbalances. 

Also take note that another telling revelation of how far we’ve supposedly progressed will be coming up shortly:  Let’s see how many females Mr. Harper will include in his new Cabinet ... .

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/voters-send-a-record-76-women-to-parliament-most-of-them-ndp/article2009244/?from=sec368