Pursuing agreements with individual sectors or firms to identify and meet
short-term labour market needs, while respecting the terms of applicable
federal-provincial agreements.
Why we are doing it:
To allow the immediate needs of employers to be met faster.
To expand our access to the global labour market.
To attract people who are skilled and on the move and to encourage them to
make Canada their destination of choice.
Strengthening Sponsorship Obligations
What we are doing:
People in default of court-ordered spousal or child support payments will not
be allowed to sponsor.
People convicted of a crime related to domestic abuse will not be able to
sponsor unless a pardon has been granted or rehabilitation has been
demonstrated.
New legislative provisions will improve the ability of the federal government to
recover the costs of social assistance in cases of sponsorship default.
People receiving social assistance, except for reasons of disability, will not
be able to sponsor.
Why we are doing it:
To strengthen the integrity of the sponsorship program.
Streamlining Appeals
What we are doing:
Introducing a new leave requirement for people appealing visa officer
decisions from overseas.
Developing an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for overseas
decisions.
Limiting inland humanitarian and compassionate applications to one per
year.
Why we are doing it:
To provide a screening mechanism for applications to the Federal Court for
review of overseas decisions. The leave provision currently exists for inland
applications only.
To provide an effective, alternative means of reviewing and solving disputes
regarding overseas decisions.
To ensure a fast and fair inland system for considering applications on
humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Business Immigration
What we are doing:
Establishing objective criteria to assess business experience for both the
investor and entrepreneur programs.
Creating a new net worth requirement for entrepreneurs.
Why we are doing it:
To strengthen the integrity of the business immigration program.
Objective Criteria for Permanent Residence
What we are doing:
Introducing a clear physical residency requirement. To retain permanent
residence status, a person must be physically present in Canada for a
cumulative period of 2 years for every 5 working years. People who spend