Those wishing to get into Canada under the current immigration programs are advised to hurry
It is worth noting that the victory of the Conservatives in British Columbia and especially in Ontario was largely due to Jason Kenney's work in establishing contacts with ethnic communities, allocating funds for providing advisory and other assistance to new immigrants, etc. In this situation, one might have expected Jason Kenney to be duly rewarded. However, no moves occurred – on May 18, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the composition of the new cabinet, in which Jason Kenney retained his post as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
True, there is one important addition – as an encouragement, Mr. Kenney also received the post of chairman of the Operations Committee, an influential body that determines government strategy and plans its work.
What does this indicate? The main conclusion: in immigration, we should expect a continuation of the policy pursued in previous years. Moreover, the government appears likely to pursue an even tougher line on immigration than it had before.
First, the Conservatives have a majority in Parliament and can now pursue their policy without much regard for the opposition. Second, Jason Kenney is currently one of the key figures in the government, and his work as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada has been highly praised by Prime Minister Harper. In this regard, it is difficult to expect him to change the course he previously pursued, deeming it wrong.
Therefore, we should likely expect further steps in implementing Mr. Kenney's program, the features of which have become apparent over the past couple of years, and whose main characteristic is the tightening of selection.
Let me recall that the main problem of the last decade in the immigration sphere has been the lengthy processing times for immigration cases and the huge backlog of applications awaiting review. All the numerous initiatives of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which often resembled poorly thought-out experiments, were carried out under the slogan of reducing processing times for immigration applications and reducing backlogs.
In practice, the opposite happened – instead of decreasing, processing times for applications significantly lengthened, the procedure for submitting and reviewing applications became markedly more complicated, selection became stricter, and backlogs only grew. For example, according to incoming information, the work of the Moscow embassy has been virtually paralyzed in recent months. Based on my experience, I can say that such a mess of constantly changing rules and contradictory instructions in Canadian immigration policy has not been seen for at least twenty years. And it seems unlikely that relief will come in the next couple of years.
Moreover, since Mr. Kenney has been tasked with overseeing an important and influential cabinet committee, his attention to immigration issues may be diminished. Overall, the impression is that he has been left in his post temporarily, with prospects of later moving to a more significant position – for example, Minister of Foreign Affairs, which political analysts who know the internal dynamics of the Conservative Party had initially predicted for him.
Under such conditions, it is hard to expect an improvement in the immigration situation, and the only way to reduce the number of applications waiting in line is to set up strict barriers at the application stage to avoid accumulating new backlogs and to give time to deal with the old ones.
As for the province of Quebec and its immigration programs, it seems to me that serious changes await them. With the loss of positions by the Bloc Québécois, which indicates a sharp decline in separatist sentiment in Quebec, the immigration programs of this province may be brought closer in their selection criteria to the federal ones (which has already happened with the Investors category).
At the same time, I want to note one positive factor related to the fact that the New Democratic Party (NDP) will serve as the official opposition in Parliament. The party's immigration policy is overseen by Olivia Chow, the wife of party leader Jack Layton and one of the most influential people in the NDP structure. Over the past years, Olivia Chow has shown herself to be a very competent politician with a thorough understanding of Canadian immigration policy and her own perspective on processes in this area. Given that she herself has Chinese roots and actively works with Canada's ethnic communities, one can expect that she will have a significant influence on decision-making in this field.
Since the Conservatives are unlikely to want to lose their influence among ethnic communities by the next election, and Olivia Chow may well seize the initiative from them in this area, the Conservatives may adjust their policy in light of criticism from the official opposition. However, I think that in the next year or two, we should not expect any positive shifts in this direction.
As for the foreseeable future, one can expect that the previously announced changes to the selection rules for the federal Skilled Worker immigration program will soon be implemented. I think this will happen no later than June 2011. Therefore, we should wait for the new rules to be put into effect, in whatever form they are adopted, after which we can provide recommendations on how to qualify under them.
I would also recommend paying special attention to the Entrepreneur and Investor business programs, which, in my opinion, will remain attractive in the coming years and will be actively developed. However, I cannot rule out that the selection requirements for the Entrepreneur program will be changed in terms of personal savings and company performance, as they no longer reflect current realities. Therefore, those who plan to apply under one of the mentioned business programs, I recommend hurrying.
Elena RYABININA.
«Russian Toronto»