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Becoming Canadian to be easier for skilled
Volpe to open door for job-holders here Backlog of applicants
also to be targeted
Nov. 24, 2005. 01:00 AM
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU
Ottawa will spend $700 million over the coming years in a two-pronged initiative to make it easier for skilled immigrants to stay in the country while at the same tackling a big backlog of people waiting to get into Canada.
The money is part of almost $5 billion in new spending to help immigrants and aboriginals already announced in Ralph Goodale's Nov. 14 mini-budget.
Immigration Minister Joe Volpe will join the flurry of pre-election promises with his announcement today that he's creating an "in-Canada" economic class of immigrant, tailored to skilled newcomers, already in the country who are holding a job.
The change applies to people in Canada on temporary work permits. In the past, these people would have to leave the country to begin their application for Canadian citizenship.
But at an Ottawa news conference, Volpe is expected to say it makes no sense to force people already in Canada, holding a job and filling a labour need, to leave all that behind and go abroad in order to apply for citizenship. So he's going to pledge $300 million in improved processing and settlement services to help make it happen.
"We're making it easier for them to stay," an immigration department official said last night. "We're going to allow them to get on track for permanent resident status and Canadian citizenship without requiring them to leave the country.
"It's a new way of matching skills shortages with immigrants."
In particular, the department is expecting the move could benefit some of the 70,000 foreign students who come to Canada to study each year — many holding skills the immigration department would like to keep in the country.
"We may see an increase in the number who remain here," the official said.
In a separate move, another $400 million will be earmarked over the next five years to step up processing of a backlog of immigrant applications. Of the 700,000 caught in bureaucratic limbo, more than 500,000 are skilled workers. The others are family members.
It's expected the investment could reduce the backlog by up to 120,000.
Still, that's far short of the $2 billion price tag that has been tossed around within the immigration department as the figure needed to eliminate the backlog entirely.
Ontario, which takes in just over half of all newcomers, stands to collect $845 million of the money Goodale allocated.
Whether it arrives very much depends on possible re-election of the minority Liberal government that the opposition plans to topple MondayWe have enough youth - What we need is a fountain of smart!
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