ARCHIVED – Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2007

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Section 7
Conclusion and Key Challenges for the Future

Immigration is a defining feature of Canada’s development as a nation and its path to the future. Much of what our country stands for today has been built on and shaped by immigrants of the past, and newcomers will continue to significantly contribute to Canada’s economic prosperity in decades to come. CIC is strongly committed to harnessing this strength by laying the foundation for attracting and retaining immigrants, and for successfully integrating them upon arrival in Canada.

In the past year, concrete steps have been taken to build on our capacity to support newcomers in their early settlement period, and to ensure that we have the human resources we need to enhance our competitiveness on the global stage. These included additional resources to settlement services, and measures to further build our capacity to assess and recognize foreign credentials. Legislative action has also been taken to provide all Canadians with certainty of their citizenship status. We also continued to make our mark on the global humanitarian effort through resettling those who are most in need of protection, and meeting the needs of those who are victims of trafficking. How migration is managed globally is an important consideration in Canada’s policy and program development. Through its active international engagement, CIC continued to work with other governments and regional and multilateral organizations to influence the international migration agenda.

While Canada’s immigration system provides a strong foundation upon which to build, a fundamental challenge facing the system is the large and growing inventory of applications, which results in long wait times for clients. CIC is obligated to process all applications that it receives until a final decision is reached. Application intake far exceeds CIC’s annual admission levels. As a result, application inventories, particularly in the Skilled Worker category, continue to put pressure on program delivery, hinder system responsiveness and erode public confidence. These pressures are exacerbated by the continuing increase in the temporary immigration workload, essential to meeting immediate labour market needs, as both the permanent and temporary streams are managed by the same network. Looking ahead, actions to control application intake and bring down the inventory are critical to meeting Canada’s immigration objectives.

CIC continues to focus on client service. In 2006, measures were taken to facilitate and simplify the process for temporary residents (in particular, students and temporary workers), permanent residents (especially skilled workers) and refugees. The operational policies and procedures concerning citizenship were amended in order to speed up the processing of exception cases and to regularize the situation of the affected applicants. These concrete actions demonstrate the Department’s willingness to put forth solutions that reconcile Canadians’ economic, social and humanitarian interests with the legitimate aspirations of an immigrant clientele being courted by a growing number of industrialized, and even developing, countries. The stakes are high, and resources are limited. Thus, it is more important than ever to target initiatives to invest in and to work with partners at all levels to provide quality information and services in a timely fashion. The Department’s approach is progressive, responsive to changing needs and centred on client satisfaction. In 2007, CIC will continue working to make service delivery more effective while offering clients innovative options using reliable, modern and secure technology.

These efforts are part of an ongoing commitment to meet the economic and social needs of Canada, to uphold its humanitarian tradition, and to make immigration work for Canada today and in the future.

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