On June 26, Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced at a press conference that Canada would accept more skilled immigrants -- those applying under the "economic" category -- this year than initially planned. In his speech, he described the decision as a response to the need for economic stimulus following the recent recession. "When I met with my provincial colleagues last week, they all stressed the importance of economic immigration," he said. "As we recover from the recession, increasing economic immigration will help ensure employers have the workers they need to supplement our domestic labour supply."
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada media spokesperson Kelli Fraser, Canada will admit approximately 10,000 more economic immigrants than it did last year -- bringing the total number of economic immigrants to roughly 163,500, of a total number of immigrants in the neighbourhood of 265,000.
At the same time, the federal government also announced changed to the process, capping the number of new applications this year to ensure that all are dealt with promptly. And the government also proposed to double the economic asset requirements for the investor class of immigrants to a net worth of $1.6 million. A list of the new requirements and proposals is available at the
Citizenship and Immigration website.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Kelli Fraser, Media Spokesperson, Citizenship and Immigration Canada
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