Trudeau states his plan is:
- Nearly doubling the budget for family class immigration processing, in order to restore process- ing times to the levels achieved before the Harper decade.
- Doubling the number of new applications allowed each year, for parents and grandparents, from 5,000 to 10,000.
- Providing greater access to applicants with Canadian siblings, by granting additional points under the Express Entry system. We will also conduct a review of the program, ensuring that processing times are efficient.
- Restoring the maximum age for dependents to 22 instead of 19, allowing Canadians – often live-in caregivers – to bring their children to Canada.
- Granting immediate permanent residency to new spouses entering Canada, rather than imposing a two-year conditional status that puts spouses – often women – in a position of extreme vulnerability.
The reality is the only aspect that's not clearly beneficial is removing Condition 51, and even then, it's not nearly as black and white as many of you think.
And whether or not you believe it's lip service or not, I'll take the man who at least recognizes that the current state of Immigration in Canada needs an overhaul versus the man who seems to see no issue with it whatsoever. Not to mention, I am far more optimistic we see more attention paid to Syrian Refugees, and restore Canada to its former glory of being the most benevolent country in refugee crises.
You don't have to like Trudeau, but you have to at least respect that immigration will get some much-needed TLC, and we all stand to benefit. I don't think a single person who's undergoing this process thinks it's rainbows and unicorns, so if I get even a tiny butterfly out of this, I'm happy.
