Engaging Employers on Immigration
This winter, CIC Deputy Minister Neil Yeates and Associate Deputy Minister Peter Sylvester will be holding roundtable meetings with Canadian employers to seek input that will help inform CIC’s economic immigration programs and policies. CIC’s outreach to employers is aimed at getting a better understanding of their challenges, particularly related to workforce planning, hiring and recruitment, and how they use the immigration system.
The discussions will focus on the following topics:
•Making the selection of high-skilled, labour-market ready workers more demand-driven;
•Modernizing how we manage immigration applications, to better control intake, prevent backlogs and improve processing times;
•Positioning the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to respond to Canada’s economic needs – complementing, not displacing local labour supply.
Supporting economic growth and competitiveness is a Government of Canada priority. As such, even in a time of global economic uncertainty, immigration is necessary for Canada’s long-term economic health and success.
CIC recognizes that our immigration system could be more attuned to meeting immediate and regional skills shortages while continuing to respond to longer term, national labour force needs. We look forward to input from employers and stakeholders.
The first roundtable meeting will be held on February 9, 2012, in Halifax, followed by others to be announced in due course.
