Minister McCallum has released a policy plan on immigration policy in 2016:
The new plan does not contain many surprises and is in line with some of what was expressed during the election campaign and shortly thereafter. Syrian refugees will make up the vast majority of the refugee stream of immigration. Economic streams would have expected to decrease anyways with no reset quotas on provincial nominees; increased difficulties for employers to obtain LMIAs and no reduction in the points required to qualify under Express Entry.
Undoubtedly, the plan does offer hope to individuals who have had family class applications in queue for years with no conclusion. We would expect the new plan to emphasize priority processing of spousal sponsorships and other family class application.
The stay the course emphasis of the plan lacks ambition and vision. While the reduced processing times for family class applications are helpful, it would have been refreshing to see a plan which addressed:
(1) Demographic issues within Canada and how those will be addressed in the longterm;
(2) How Canada can better position itself to attract the world's most talented immigrants; and
(3) New streams for family class sponsorship and immigration which placed value on existing family relationships, an applicant's education and language proficiency.
Hopefully the Minister has more to offer once less emphasis is placed on the refugee resettlement issue and citizenship amendments.
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