27 February 2006

New Canadian Prime Minister invested in immigration

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has expressed interest in working directly with the nation's provinces to expedite overseas skills recognition for new Canadians.

At a meeting with the country's premiers, Harper said that he hoped to collaborate with the provinces on the issue of recognition of credentials from the foreign community.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty commented that Canada would soon be competing for immigrants. Ensuring immigrants gain successful employment in their field of expertise is key for Ontario if it wants to attract the best and brightest immigrants he said.

McGuinty addressed a common concern among immigrants, which is 'how long will it take me to get up and running once I'm over there?’ He wants to ensure Ontario can address this issue with new Canadians arriving in the province.

Opposition critics have argued that McGuinty has done little in the past to help out the province's immigrants. Conservative Tim Hudak said that as long as Ontario is seeing doctors and engineers with training working outside their field of expertise, McGuinty is not addressing the real issues of new immigrants.