Concerns Expressed About Proposed Immigration Program

The federal government has made it known that they're considering changes affecting the immigration of skilled workers to Canada. They're calling the initiative the new Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and claim it will facilitate the transition from temporary status to permanent residence for Canadian-educated international graduates who have attained some skilled work experience in Canada, and temporary foreign workers who have a track record of working in a skilled occupation in Canada. The government says the CEC will mark a departure from previous immigration policy in explicitly seeking permanent residents from the temporary population already in the country.

The MFL has serious concerns about this initiative - and has outlined those concerns in a brief to the federal government. The MFL brief explains that the proposed program appears to focus on facilitating the permanent immigration to Canada of highly qualified individuals from outside of Canada or those who receive their education and training here as temporary residents. The unspoken premise is that the federal government is not interested in developing the appropriate skill base among Canadians or those who are already permanent residents of Canada.

The MFL urges the government to design and implement the appropriate skills training and education programs that will enable Canadian citizens and permanent Canadian residents to be the best and brightest with the talents, skills and knowledge to meet rapidly evolving labour market demands. This is particularly important for those who are currently under represented in skilled jobs, such as women, aboriginal people and immigrants.

The MFL brief also expresses concerns that the very individuals the proposal would assist in becoming Canadian citizens are the same people that the countries they hail from, in many cases developing nations, rely on to build healthy democracies and functioning economies. Existing Canadian foreign policy includes programs to foster those very things in developing nations, but the CEC program, intentionally or not, could undermine modernization and development efforts in those countries.

You can download a copy of the full MFL Brief on the CEC initiative in PDF format.