ARCHIVED – Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2007

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Message from the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

I am proud to present the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) 2007 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration.

During this 60th anniversary of Canadian citizenship, I have been deeply moved by the many ceremonies that I attended this year. Witnessing these historic moments with new Canadians and their families has been a tremendous honour for me.

In my travels across the country since becoming Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, I have had the great pleasure of meeting many people from all over the world, newcomers who have found freedom and opportunity in a land that rewards hard work and appreciates cultural diversity.

This country benefits from the skills and enthusiasm that newcomers bring. Ensuring that Canada has the right people and skills that it needs to prosper in the 21st century involves making the best use of the human resources that we have, while providing Canadians with access to emerging employment opportunities through training, education and mobility.

Canada has one of the largest and best-known permanent immigration programs in the world, with approximately 250,000 new immigrants coming to this country each year. In addition to these newcomers, a further 200,000 temporary foreign workers and international students come to Canada to help respond to labour-market needs, support Canadian businesses and influence our culturally diverse communities.

Balancing the economic, family-reunification and refugee components of our immigration program, Canada welcomed over 251,000 newcomers in 2006. In 2008, we expect to welcome somewhere in the range of 240,000 to 265,000 newcomers.

My ongoing goal is to ensure that Canada’s immigration program responds to our needs as a country in a way that is fair and transparent, and adheres to the rule of law, while protecting the health, safety and security of Canadians.

We are maximizing this country’s social, cultural and economic benefits by working to respond to labour-market needs, attracting and retaining skilled foreign workers, and ensuring that we have the policies and programs in place to support the successful integration of newcomers to this country.

To help immigrants integrate into our communities, improve their language skills, and find work and family support, we allocated $1.3 billion in settlement funding over five years.

Working with our provincial and territorial partners, we followed through on our commitment to enhance assessment and recognition of foreign credentials by opening the Foreign Credentials Referral Office in Canada.

In 2007, we also signed new agreements with Alberta and Nova Scotia concerning our shared immigration responsibilities. As well, we continued working with the other provinces and territories to uphold and implement our mutual commitments regarding immigration, as outlined in our agreements with them.

Working with Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), Service Canada, and the provinces and territories, we implemented a series of administrative improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. As announced in Budget 2007, we are developing ways to make it easier, faster and less costly for employers to access the workers that they need, while also introducing measures to ensure that employers comply with program terms and conditions. We are also developing the Canadian Experience Class, a new avenue to immigration that will, under certain conditions, permit foreign students with Canadian credentials and work experience, as well as skilled temporary foreign workers who are already in Canada, to apply for permanent residence.

In 2007, CIC also launched a public information campaign directed at those who may have lost, or were at risk of losing, their citizenship or who wish to regain it. We also initiated a campaign aimed at permanent residents, reminding them that their permanent resident cards need to be renewed every five years for those traveling outside the country.

In 2007, we introduced Bill C-57 to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and protect foreign nationals coming to Canada to work from being exploited or abused. As well, Bill C-14, containing amendments to eliminate excessive distinctions in the way the Citizenship Act treats foreign-born children adopted by Canadian citizens, was passed in June.

This past year, we further demonstrated our humanitarian reputation as a country through our involvement in efforts to help those most in need. We continued to resettle Karen refugees from Myanmar who have been living in camps in Thailand. Canada accepted more than 800 Karen refugees in 2006, and will welcome 2,000 more over the next two years. As part of an international collaborative response, we committed to resettling 5,000 Bhutanese refugees over the next three to five years.

As part of our continuing work advancing service to clients, we improved electronic services at our overseas offices to allow foreign nationals to enquire about the status of their visa applications by e-mail from anywhere in the world.

As well, we recently announced the implementation of a pilot project that expands the Off-Campus Work Permit Program for international students to include selected private institutions in Manitoba and Alberta. As a result of this project, international students in qualifying programs will be able to gain valuable Canadian work experience.

I want to thank all CIC employees for their talent and expertise in promoting Canada as the truly great nation that it is. I would like to thank each of them for their hard work and dedication in this regard.

For more information on CIC and the work we are undertaking, please visit our Web site at www.cic.gc.ca.

The Honourable Diane Finley, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

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