Canadian Government reveals New Immigration Priorities

The mandate letter is the most important policy document for Canada’s immigration department. The mandate letter specifies key issues which includes the Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan, which new immigration programs are  to be created by IRCC, improve the IRCC’s application processing times, and some other. The mandate letter came shortly after Canada announced a historic new 2021-2023 Immigration Level Plan, in which Canada will bring about 400,000 immigrants per year, the highest in its history.

The main reason for the supplementary mandate letter is that the Canadian government has started a new session in Parliament in September and it is meant to incorporate new objectives borne out of the COVID-19 crisis.

Key priorities outlined in today’s letter include:

• Continue will welcome immigrants for supporting Canada’s economic growth and post-COVID recovery by expanding pilot programs to welcome refugees through economic class immigration streams; expedite the family reunification; and work on sectoral and regional pilot programs.
• Continue to provide permanent residence pathways to the ones who have provided health care in long-term care homes, medical facilities, or who performed other essential services during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Continue to work for protecting the health and safety of Canadians by managing Canada’s ports of entry responsibly and compassionately.
• Identifying additional permanent residence pathways for temporary foreign workers.
• Working with the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion to protect workers who are vulnerable to COVID-19 and to secure all the workers for filling labour force needs in farming and food processing.
• Continue to work with Canada’s provinces and territories to provide settlement supports to newcomers including French-language training.

The supplementary letter adds to the goals outlined in the December 2019 mandate letter which IRCC continues to pursue. The crux of today’s release is that Canada will continue to operate its immigration system to the best of its abilities even during the pandemic so it can harness the skills and talents of newcomers to support its economic health after the pandemic is behind us.