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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE MONTE SOLBERG
MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION

Before the National Symposium of the
Canadian Employee Relocation Council

Toronto, Ontario
June 15, 2006

Check against delivery

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Well, thanks very much, Andrew. And thank you all for your warm welcome this morning. It’s great to see that everyone is so wide awake this morning considering how late the hockey game went last night. Pretty exciting outcome and I guess in this context it goes to show that you really can win even when you’re shorthanded—not that we’re recommending that, not that that’s a preferred option.

Thank you to Stephen Cryne, Vice-President of the Canadian Employee Relocation Council, for the very kind invitation to appear before you today to outline some of the key immigration policies and initiatives of this government.

Before I do that, though, I would like to commend the Council for the active role it has taken in working with all levels of government toward improving our immigration system, particularly regarding opportunities for skilled worker immigrants and the recognition of foreign credentials. Your submissions, which have represented the inputs and views of over 550 organizations across the country, are invaluable contributions to this important debate and the much-needed changes that it must produce. The deliberations at your national symposium will be an important contribution to options we are considering to better the Canadian immigration system.

I want to tell you now that I am committed to putting in place a more effective, modern and flexible approach for attracting immigrants to Canada.

As part of that commitment, in the four months since becoming minister I’ve consulted with many Canadians about possible changes to our immigration system. It’s all been part of a great dialogue that we’ve entered into and I’ve heard many suggestions and brought a number of them forward to discuss with my fellow parliamentarians including members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. It’s been a rewarding experience as we work with groups like this one to try and find solutions to the problems that dog our immigration system today—problems that I know you’re too familiar with.

The shortage of skilled workers in our country is one of the most important challenges we face in ensuring our economy and workforce remain competitive and responsive to emerging global trends. As a legislator, I can tell you I understand how important it is to address those problems. I know it’s my obligation to find some answers.

But that said, there are some successes. In addition to the more than quarter of a million immigrants we accepted in 2005—in fact we accepted 262,000, more than we had actually targeted last year—in addition to that nearly 100,000 workers came to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program last year in direct response to employer needs. Meanwhile, almost the same number of foreign students chose Canada and Canadian institutions to pursue their ambitions. Combined with permanent residents, almost half a million newcomers came to Canada this year with varying degrees of potential to help us meet our skills needs. This is a great opportunity and a big challenge too.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in collaboration with Human Resources and Social Development Canada, is working to help Canadian employers who have difficulty recruiting enough Canadians to fill positions of all kinds. The Temporary Foreign Workers Program has been used to bring workers from other countries to Canada to fill jobs on a temporary basis when there’s no one available in Canada to do the job. The workers fill a wide range of positions from seasonal agricultural jobs to others that required specialized training.

While we want to streamline the entry for temporary workers to address the skills shortages, we also want to anticipate Canada’s labour market needs, not only respond to them. Permit me to give an example of how my government is trying to build our skilled labour pool.

Approximately 100,000 foreign students currently studying in Canada can now apply for off-campus work permits. For you, the leaders of industry and commerce, this new policy will be a significant resource and potential talent pool to draw from. And for the country it will present an opportunity for these students to seriously consider choosing Canada as their new home.

We must always strive to make Canada a destination of choice for students who are preparing to enter the labour force.

In April, we announced that foreign students will immediately be able to apply to work off-campus. This puts 100,000 young people into Canada’s labour pool. Now some people will ask what’s the return on that kind of investment? Well, the answer is simple. Obviously it addresses some of our short-term labour needs but, more importantly, our competitive position within the international community is enhanced as young, bright, motivated newcomers start to lay down roots in Canada bringing with them all their skills and abilities. But we must do more. We recognize this. We must do more to take them from being temporary residents and make them into permanent residents. And we’re working on that.

We’re also making progress in dealing with skilled worker shortages but much more needs to be done. In fact, I hope to say a little bit more about that in the days and weeks ahead. There are existing tools at our disposal which could be used even more strategically than they already are.

The Provincial Nominee Program, for instance, is a tool available to provinces and territories to help them tailor immigration to their own specific needs. The PNP program allows provinces and territories to bring in immigrants with specific skills. Applicants with a provincial nominee certificate are given priority processing by the department.

Manitoba, more than any other participating province, has taken charge of addressing its immigration needs. Last year, the provincial government in Manitoba brought in 4,600 people to meet job demand. By comparison, B.C. brought in 787 and Alberta brought in 614. Ontario does not yet have a PNP plan. So you see the provinces also have a role to play and more could be done.

We will continue to rely on our partnerships with our stakeholders including provinces and territories and employers to meet Canada’s labour needs. I believe that this is a key to our success.

Now is the time for action and Canada’s new government has made a good start in addressing a problem that has frustrated people for too long. All of us here today have heard stories of doctors driving taxies because the Canadian labour market has been too slow in recognizing their professional credentials. Well, I take great pride in saying that we are once again making good on a promise made to the Canadian people. We have taken steps toward creating an agency to address the assessment and recognition of foreign credentials. The establishment of this agency will be a crucial step in continuing the progress that Canada has made in this area. We have committed $18 million toward this initiative. The agency, along with our partners, will ensure that barriers to an efficient and flexible labour market such as the lack of recognition of foreign credentials, hard-earned foreign credentials are reviewed and, where warranted, removed in order to allow employers to meet their skill requirements and workers to obtain meaningful employment whenever and wherever jobs are available.

The Council has played a key role in developing and implementing this initiative, and it will continue to do so.

While establishing such an agency is an important step in labour market integration, there are additional challenges that we must meet in order to attract newcomers to our country and smooth the transition process and their integration into society. I would like to take advantage of my time this morning to briefly outline a number of parallel initiatives currently underway that are all designed to improve our ability to meet the needs of immigrants and, by extension, the business community.

In the recent federal budget, our government committed $307 million in additional funding for settlement services to help newcomers integrate and excel in Canada. And this is important. Despite jumps in the number of newcomers arriving in Canada over the last decade, the previous government decided to freeze settlement funding in 1995. Meanwhile, line-ups for language training and skills training got longer and longer and longer. The new funding that we have announced in the budget shows the government is determined to improve outcomes for newcomers.

We’ve also taken a major step to lessen the financial burden facing newcomers by reducing the right of permanent residence fee by half, from $975 to $490. That means a thousand dollars in the pockets of a newcomer couple to help them cover their rent while they get established, to help pay for work clothes, to put towards their savings in their new country. That’s on top of other tax cuts in the budget that, when combined, were more than all the tax cuts in the previous four budgets.

But our government is not just about money. We’ve also adopted some new measures to help victims of a terrible crime—human trafficking. We will be helping victims by granting them temporary residence and access to interim federal help. We expect many will help in the prosecution of the traffickers to stop this brutal crime. And we have kept our promise as well to support Canadian families who adopt foreign-born children by introducing legislation that will make it easier for such children to become Canadian citizens.

So, overall, can we do better? Of course we can. And together, we are making progress.

In working towards solutions to some of the major challenges facing us, I am proud to be leading Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Together, we will continue to consult with important stakeholders such as CERC towards seeking better solutions to issues that affect both our country and its newcomers.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are privileged to live in one of the best countries in the world. But that did not happen by accident. We are a great country because we are an open and free society that encourages initiative and hard work. Yet we can do even more. We can do even better.

As Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, I believe that the better we make the immigration system for newcomers to Canadian society, the better it is for all of Canada and all Canadians. I believe that these priorities and policies I have outlined reflect the deep commitment that Prime Minister Harper and our government have to extending a hand to newcomers to make sure that Canada really is their land of opportunity but also, ladies and gentlemen, to ensure that our economic policy, our immigration policy is a great benefit and strategic strength for all of Canada.

Thank you very much for your time this morning. Thank you very much.