Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered the new Canadian budget in Parliament yesterday. Regarding immigration, the new budget pledges 22 million over two years, including legislation to speed up the processing of Permanent Resident applications and to make Canada's immigration system more competitive.

In his delivery to Parliament, Minister Flaherty stated:

"We are also making important new investments in immigration.

In Budget 2007, we made significant progress in this area by streamlining the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, enabling employers to bring in workers more quickly. We also changed the rules allowing skilled workers and foreign students to remain in Canada as permanent residents, people this country needs.

Today, we are going even further. We are changing the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to improve and speed up the application process.

It is not fair for prospective immigrants to wait for years before their applications are considered.

In addition, we are providing $22 million in new funding to support immigration initiatives over the next two years. This funding will improve the responsiveness of our immigration system and better it with our labour market needs."