Canada Immigration News

The latest figures from the Canadian government show that there are now over 300,000 workers in Canada with work permits allowing them to work for one or two years under the Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The number of work permits has grown rapidly in recent years. In order to work in Canada under the TFWP, workers must first apply for a TFWP work permit and then a Canadian entry visa.

The number of TFWP workers in Canada trebled between 2002 and 2011. Over 192,000 Temporary Foreign Workers entered Canada in 2011 alone.

Canada's construction industry is suffering from a shortage of workers. A Canadian construction industry association, BuildForce Canada, has estimated that there may be a shortfall of 250,000 workers by 2021. Most of these workers will be required to replace 210,000 workers who will retire during the next eight years.

Jason Kenney, the Canadian immigration minister has said that his department, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), will investigate allegations of abuse of the Canadian Intra Company Transfer Program (ICTP) which have been made by insiders in the Canadian IT industry.

Canadian government ministers have announced a U-turn in their policy on temporary foreign workers. The announcement comes after two high profile cases which seemed to show abuse of the system have caused negative headlines for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

A Canadian judge has ruled that the country's immigration minister, Jason Kenney, did not break the law when he terminated applications for permanent residence visas from some 280,000 applicants in July 2012. On Thursday 18th April 2013, Justice Donald Rennie said that he understood that those affected would see Mr Kenney's act as 'unfair, arbitrary and unnecessary' but said that it was not illegal and so he had no powers to overturn it.

The Canadian government's main skilled immigration programme, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), will re-open on May 4th 2013. It was closed down temporarily by Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney in June 2012. At the time, Mr Kenney said he would reform the system and re-open it in January 2013. He later announced that this date would be delayed until May 2013.