New Minister

 Managing Risk

On November 4, 2015 we will have a new Immigration Minister.

The Minister’s first job will be to open the envelope which contains his marching orders from the Prime Minister. The instructions will be an innocuous rehash of past political promises and political correctness. 

Hopefully, the new Minister will have the wit to go beyond the party line generated by folks who know little about immigration as an economic engine..

My only bit of unsolicited advice is that while the Minister considers goals and aspirations that she/he come to terms with the level of “risk” that he/she believes the nation, and not his/her career, should accept.

The new Minister may wish to consider the risk management fate of two predecessors.

Jason Kenney, the last definer of Conservative immigration policy was totally risk aversive.

Kenney had one paradigm. His career. Kenney’s political agenda drove his immigration agenda.  No immigration challenge could be allowed to interfere with  personal ambition. If a program had potentially controversial implications then the program was killed. If people were complaining, then call centres would dismiss the complaints. If a program could not be justified by facts, it would be defended with lies. 

Kenney killed or hobbled every economic and most other programs. He replaced programs with goulash administration.He contracted out a big chunk of Canada’s immigration administration process to hustlers in Mumbai. He forbade Canadians to speak with Immigration officers. All contact is “online” and fruitless. There is no quality of service.

Kenney trusted the West not to derail his career .The West got what it wanted.

Kenney told me that he did not trust GTA business people. The GTA got nothing except 300,000 illegal workers.  

       

On October 19, 2015 Kenney paid the price for his risk aversion. He lost the GTA and all other large urban areas.

Joe Volpe was the last Liberal Immigration Minister.

Joe was a risk taker. Like Clifford Sifton, he saw immigration in terms of demographics, not narrow programs.

Joe’s experience and knowledge of immigration was both intellectual and bred in the bone. He trusted that Canadian families and the market place were better suited than politicians or bureaucrats to select and integrate new immigrants. The state was there to weed out the bad, not select the good.

Volpe used the power of the state to open the door to people selected by families and business and vetted by competent officials. The goal was to grow the country. 

  

Joe was not bound by fear of quotas or devotion to programs. He knew that they were made by man, not God. 

I didn’t always agree with Joe. But I never doubted that he understood what he was doing. And what he did was to manage risk in an aggressive manner. He was focused on demographic growth. A little risk could go a long way.  

Volpe’s legacy was solidified on October 19, 2015, when voters in urban Canada rejected Kenney’s pathological nonsense and elected a returned to Joe’s growth model.  

On November 4, 2015, the new Minister will be inundated with requests and demands. By Christmas, the Minister may be able to come up for air. That’s when, he/she, will come face to face with risk.

Good luck.  

Richard Boraks, October 30 2015

Michael Den Tandt: You want a ‘sunnier’ conservatism, Jason Kenney? What a comedian

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National Post, Michael Den Tandt | October 22, 2015 8:08 PM ET
More from Michael Den Tandt | @mdentandt

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark TaylorOptimism, it has been miraculously revealed, works, and Jason Kenney will be its new blue paragon, Michael Den Tandt writes.

Jason Kenney is a wizard in a scrum. Intellectually nimble, rhetorically agile, reflexively partisan, the Conservatives’ former “Mr. Fix-it” is everything one could ask for in a future party leader, yes? Of course yes. Kenney is also, it turns out, a comedian.
“We need a conservatism that is sunnier and more optimistic than we have sometimes conveyed,” he was quoted by The Canadian Press as saying, following his party’s historic drubbing at the hands of Justin Trudeau, a man Kenney himself has incessantly belittled and mocked, for years.
Apparently defeat has refocused the former immigration and multiculturalism minister’s mind on the better angels of his nature. Kenney, long believed to be angling for the Tory leadership in a post-Harper era, has had his conversion on the road to Damascus. He wishes to purge his party of its grim, Harperesque baggage. Perhaps he will be the wire brush, to borrow the Liberal expression from the post-Sponsorship-scandal era, to scrape the Conservative party clean. Perhaps he will tell jokes and smile and speak of building a greater Canada. Perhaps he, too, will hold a news conference in the National Press Theatre, during which he gently reminds shell-shocked journalists they have a role to play in democracy, and are not despised.
Optimism, it has been miraculously revealed, works, and Jason Kenney will be its new blue paragon.


Seriously, now. If there is a single minister other than Stephen Harper who must wear the Conservative loss, it is Kenney. That’s due to his abilities and strengths, ironically enough, as much as his omissions and flaws.
It was Kenney who famously delivered Ontario’s 905 seats, where many hundreds of thousands of new Canadians reside, in the 2011 federal election. It was he, lovingly dubbed the Minister of Curry-In-a-Hurry, who managed to pull off the apparent miracle of streamlining and toughening Canada’s immigration and refugee system, while increasing support among the various communities most affected.
It was Kenney also who spoke up most loudly and clearly, among federal ministers, in the fall of 2013 when former Parti Québécois premier Pauline Marois hauled out her xenophobic charter of values, which later cost her the premiership. “If you want people to become a part of your society and fully participate in it, then you have to create a space (and) send a message that people are welcoming (and) including,” Kenney was quoted by CTV as saying at the time.
But two years later, in the heat of a campaign, there was Kenney front and centre in the bid to transform fear of niqab into votes. It was on Oct. 2, in fact, the day his colleagues Chris Alexander and Kellie Leitch unveiled their proposed “barbaric cultural practices” tip line, that Kenney said this to radio host Evan Solomon: “I believe it (the niqab) reflects a misogynistic culture that — a treatment of women as property rather than people, which is anchored in medieval tribal customs …”
Four days later, prime minister Stephen Harper doubled down, saying in an interview with CBC’s Rosemary Barton that he’d consider banning the veil across the civil service. There were no women wearing niqabs in the civil service, it later emerged, but never mind. This was the Conservative leader saying the wrangling would go on, and on. That very week, Conservative support began to slump, polls showed. It never recovered.
But there’s more. It was Kenney, in February of 2014, who defended the Conservatives’ $2.5-billion-a-year pledge to introduce income-splitting for couples, after then-finance minister Jim Flaherty publicly questioned how many it would help. Only the wealthiest 15 per cent who can live off one income, was what the C.D. Howe Institute had judged. This laid the table for Trudeau’s Liberals to offer their more broad-based middle-class tax cut. There was talk among senior Tories at the time that this left them vulnerable. But Kenney, the party’s leading social conservative, had won the argument.
Set against two such major strategic blunders, Rob Ford may be incidental. But it’s worth noting Kenney also clearly understood how toxic the scandal-riven former mayor was to the Tory brand. In November of 2013, at the apex of the Ford madness, Kenney publicly called on him to resign. He was one of a few Harper ministers — perhaps the only one — with the personal standing among the party’s base to speak truth to the Boss. Where was the great optimist, one wonders, when the disastrous Ford fiasco unfolded in the campaign’s final days?
If one were unkind, one might suspect Kenney sensed his mentor was going over a cliff and was not chagrined to see it happen, secure in the knowledge a leadership contest was imminent, which it now is. Which isn’t one bit surprising, politics being what it is. But sunny? Not so much.
National Post
The Source:http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/michael-den-tandt-you-want-a-sunnier-conservatism-jason-kenney-what-a-comedian
Comment:
"Wiping up after Jason Kenney


It’s not that I’m obsessed with Kenney. It’s just that I have to deal with his lingering mess.


Kenney tied up the system in knots. My clients are stuck in various stages of Kenney’s byzantine trades worker labyrinth. It will take time to unravel the consequences of Kenney’s tortured mind.   


As we deal with the mop up, it is important that the system accept that Canadian employers and their trades workers were severely prejudiced by the self-serving pathological liar who grabbed control of the Federal Cabinet’s Management Committee.


Dealing with the mop up includes concurrent vigilance. Never again should one man’s well financed instability be allowed to wreak havoc over the nation’s management. He cannot be allowed, on behalf of unscrupulous foreign benefactors, to manipulate himself into the leadership of the Conservative Party.       


Immediately after the October 19 election, Kenney weaseled himself back onto the stage. True to form, the troubled clown appeared in a new costume. He was no longer Jason the Hun. In preparation for his leadership campaign role, it was Jason as Mother Teresa.


The attached National Post article is a good analysis of Kenney’s most recent treacherous performance.


Hopefully, if for no reason other than political self-preservation, governments should no longer emulate Jason Kenney’s standards when dealing with Ontario employers and their trades workers.


On October 19, the GTA sent a clear message on immigration. Syrian refugees, foreign credentials and family reunification are legitimate issues. But the political gorilla in the GTA is the trades workers.


Jason Kenney may be gone… the toxic trades worker fallout remains. Failure to deal with trades workers will assure that the governments in Ottawa and Queen’s Park will suffer Stephen Harper’s fate.


While governments fear and ponder, we will continue to deal with Kenney’s mess."
Richard Boraks, October 23 2015 

Comment:

"Chris Alexander: A case study in what can go wrong

A lot of good people invested a lot of hope in Chris Alexander.

And it has come to this…the attached cartoon from the Corriere Canadese

www.corriere.com, expresses the legitimate relief of millions of Canadians as Alexander leaves public life.

Alexander comes from a Toronto family respected for its commitment and integrity. Growing up, he was subjected to the best of influences. His education and professional career prepared him for a position of serious social responsibility. Much was expected of him. He was in line to become leader of the Conservative party.  

So why did things go so terribly wrong?

Why did Chris Alexander, quite unnecessarily and with the zeal of an uneducated Austrian house painter, join Jason Kenney in hurting so many families and businesses? 

Why did Alexander, as a Minister of the Crown, endeavour to keep pace with Jason Kenney in setting this generation’s standard for rudeness, personal compromise, questionable financial gain, exploitive intolerance, boot licking and abuse of position?

The answer is that I don’t know what happened to Chris Alexander. I don’t know why a man of Alexander’s credentials would join an uneducated con artist like Kenney in the gutter.   

But I do know that many of us wish Alexander the best as he comes to terms with his behavior. He is still a young man with a young family. There is ample time for him to pay the heavy price required for personal redemption.

The Road to Damascus will be difficult... but there is no option for a man of Alexander’s background.

I wish him well."

Richard Boraks, October 22 2015

Trudeau and Ontario Trades Immigration

We will have to wait and see what the Trudeau administration will do with Ontario’s trades worker immigration.

It will not be easy dealing with Ontario’s trades worker mess. Trudeau will have to walk the mine field of 300,000 illegals who are already employed in Ontario. Then there are the thousands of employers who need more foreign trades workers.

Joe Volpe was the last Minister who tried to come to terms with the foreign trades worker gorilla. He came close.

Nobody expects the perfect answer to a long lingering, difficult situation.

However, the trades worker situation can be addressed with a number of possible options and opportunities.

The key to dealing with the trades worker situation is to be open and honest about the difficulties, the opportunities and the solutions.

I have only one request of the new government: Please be upfront.

We just went through years of Jason Kenney’s manipulative and increasingly hysterical deceit on the subject of Ontario’s trades workers.

Kenney paid the price for lying to all of the people all of the time.

Let us hope that wiser heads will now prevail.  

Richard Boraks, October 21 2015

ANALYSIS

Neil Macdonald: Government sensitivity over you hearing about 'sensitive' information

Deputy minister calls in the RCMP after media leaks at her department

By Neil Macdonald, CBC News Posted: Oct 13, 2015 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Oct 13, 2015 5:00 AM ET

If information had been divulged by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander's department as a matter of public accountability, there'd be no need to call the police to investigate the leaking of said information, writes Neil Macdonald. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press)

Canadian democracy has, we are told, been maliciously undermined at Citizenship and Immigration, and the department's top public servant is determined to set things right, on behalf of the Canadian people.

Deputy Minister Anita Biguzs has declared herself "deeply concerned." What has happened, she says, is an ethical erosion of the very cornerstone of the trust and democratic function of government.

• Citizenship Department leaks to media probed by RCMP
• New passport processing system suspended after glitches, security gaps revealed
• Syrian refugee crisis makes unexpected return as campaign issue
• Poll Tracker: Follow the latest numbers

Now, before you go leaping to conclusions, Biguzs was not talking about the prime minister's political staff overriding the professionals in her department who were choosing which Syrian refugees will be lucky enough to end up in Canada.

Anita Biguzs, deputy minister of citizenship and immigration, has called in the RCMP to investigate leaks from her department to the media. (Citizenship and Immigration Canada)

Nor is she talking about the near-total absence of public transparency in her department, which has made it nearly impossible for a member of the public to reach anything other than a voice mail message. ("If we started taking public calls, we'd never get any work done," a departmental spokeswoman told me a few weeks ago, with no evident irony.)

No, what has provoked Biguzs's anger, and determination for a reckoning, is that someone under her command apparently had the gall to tell a journalist — and thereby the Canadian public — about the PMO overriding the professionals in her department.

Leaks during campaign

Biguzs is also deeply concerned that someone told Radio-Canada — and thereby the public — a few weeks earlier about security issues with Canadian passports.

"Leaks such as these are unethical and are against the law," declared Biguzs in a memo (co-signed, for dramatic effect, by Richard Wex, an associate deputy in charge of "values and ethics").

"As such, we have contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who have now launched an investigation. The trust that the public, our partners and elected officials have in us is the cornerstone of our democratic functions."

Her memo about the leaks was promptly leaked to Radio-Canada, no doubt undermining democracy further in Biguzs's estimation, and making the need for police action even more urgent.

Now, it's hardly news that government ministers and mandarins loathe leakers and sometimes try to hunt them down.

But given the curtain of unprecedented secrecy that has dropped between Canadians and their federal government in the past 10 years, Biguzs's declaration that democracy is under threat at her department is something that might have inspired George Orwell. Or Franz Kafka.

Think about it:

The Prime Minister's Office took the exceptional step last spring of muscling aside immigration officers who are trained in applying Canadian immigration law, because the prime minister was concerned about the "integrity" of what they were doing.

This was hardly a top-secret operation by the PMO, the disclosure of which would endanger our national security. Had it been, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander would not have confirmed the story after it was reported by the Globe and Mail, which he did, and Stephen Harper would not have justified it publicly as a matter of routine governance, which he did.

Yes, it was brought forth during an election. But that was actually pretty timely. The question of Canada's policy toward Syrian refugees has at times dominated the campaign, and voters are hungry for details, and if the PMO intervention was just routine governance, what's wrong with the voters knowing about it?

In any event, Canadians got to hear the details, and the prime minister's explanation, and can now factor that information into their vote.

Some might call that democracy.

'Sensitive' vs. 'classified'

Similarly, when Radio-Canada reported in September that the government had authorized the continued issuance of passports under a new system that senior officials had warned contained security flaws, Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson immediately declared that ensuring passport security is a top priority.

The flawed program was then suspended.

Again, the public was given information, and the government's explanation.

But to Biguzs and her fellow mandarins at Citizenship and Immigration, the public should never have been told any of these things in the first place, and the fact that it was constituted a grave crime.

Interestingly, Biguzs's memo does not call the information leaked "classified." She calls it "sensitive." There's a big difference.

Classified information is an official secret, determined by security professionals to be potentially injurious to national security. (Or at least that's supposed to be how it works.)

Disclosing an official secret is a crime.

"Sensitive information," on the other hand, is anything the government doesn't want the public to know, and, as noted, the government that Biguzs has served for a decade doesn't want the public to know much.

Prosecuting embarrassment

Using Biguzs's logic, federal scientists who decide the public should know about a scientific finding about the quality of the air we breathe or water we drink are unethical underminers of democracy, too, unless they seek permission to speak, which is rather difficult to obtain nowadays in Ottawa.

Of course, when a government does want reporters to know something, the information is suddenly not sensitive at all anymore, and democracy is well-served by its disclosure, sometimes even — and I speak here with some experience — when it's an official secret.

In the case of the immigration and passport stories, apparently, the government was embarrassed, so the RCMP are now stalking the department's hallways, further intimidating an already scared group of bureaucrats.

Politicians, including Harper's Conservatives, love to talk about the supreme importance of accountability. It is a word that has been milked, flogged and ridden practically to death.

So Biguzs and her political masters might want to ponder this: If the information about the refugee review and the faulty passports had been divulged in a timely fashion, as a matter of public accountability, democracy would not only have been served, there'd be no need to call the police.

Comment:

Boot licking in the bunker

It’s bad when an Immigration Minister decides to ignore the rules and instead orders his officials to select immigrants according to the Minister’s whims. This is what Jason Kenney and Chris Alexander have been doing. Thus is why we went to Federal Court.

It’s a very bad thing when senior Immigration officials, like Deputy Minister Anita Biguzs, order the police to hunt down those immigration officers who still believe in the rule of law and the democratic process.

The job of a Deputy Minister is to protect her department against becoming an extension of a political party. It is the job of a Deputy Minister to remind her boss of the limits of a Minister’s authority. If the Minister choses to cross the line as a matter of course, then the Deputy should resign, or at least keep her mouth shut when the Minister is rightfully taking political heat for breaking the rules.

Ms.Biguzs long ago chose the third rail option. She has been the politicians’ hand maiden in ignoring the rules in favour of immigrant selection by undefined, politically driven “shared values”. She clearly decided that her career path was best served by boot licking.

As the “enemy” enters the gates in advance of October 19, Ms.Biguzs has fanatically chosen to join Kenney and Alexander in the “shared values” bunker. She has ordered the police to ferret out the traitors in her office.  

October 19, 2015 will rid us of Jason and Chris.

Ms. Biguzs should do the right thing and leave the public service.

Richard Boraks, October 13 2015 

Jason Kenney … a respite, not a farewell

After October 19, 2015 Jason will lose his grip on Ottawa.

However, I will not live long enough to see the day when Jason is not abusing the public trust.

Since he is unemployable in the real world, Jason will try to become Conservative Party leader. Given that he is not grounded in reality, Jason will be formidable in opposition.  

But thank God for small mercies. We will soon be getting Jason out of the way for at least a short period.

The new guys may not do better .But at least we will not be subjected to never ending pathologic Ministerial lying or excessive foreign control of the immigration process.   

Jason Kenney truly believes that he is well positioned to survive by lying to all of the people all of the time. Jason’s life plan is based on the concept that bullshit will consistently baffle brains. His self-assurance is based on an arrogance which accompanies his lack of education combined with the support he has nurtured from powerful overseas interests requiring a useful traitor in Ottawa.

In any event, the gig is up for at least a short while.

It is gratifying, that as he leaves the building, one of Jason’s core lies has been exposed. Despite his well delivered, self-serving assurances, Jason has not in fact been the steward of record high immigration levels. The below article confirms that Jason’s assurances, yet again, are nonsense.  

 http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/29/canada-got-nearly-30000-fewer-immigrants-in-past-year.html

Jason … until next time. 

Richard Boraks, October 7 2015

Aga Khan moves to Portugal

In an announcement that will have Portugal’s estate agents limbering up for the race of all time, the Aga Khan has announced that he will be moving his official residence to Portugal within the next five years. The news came on Wednesday, as the leader of the Shia Muslim order was due to meet with Foreign Affairs minister Rui Machete to sign an agreement to establish his global headquarters in Portugal.

As Machete told Público: “It is natural that an institution with an annual budget of between €600-€900 million will bring something to Portugal.”

For now, clues on possible locations for this new investment are being kept under wraps. Público has revealed only that the Imam of the Nizari Ismailis is talking about ploughing money into health and social protection services in Portugal “within the next five years”.

With his Aga Khan Foundation already established here (in Lisbon’s Rua do S. Domingos), this latest agreement follows six intense years of diplomacy, stresses Público, in which Canada was a “tough competitor”.

Machete told the paper: “The Ismaili Imamat community is an example of tolerance and has an important network of contacts.”

Portugal’s decision to open its doors even wider to the Imamat Ismailis was “a commitment to a religious entity characterised by its tolerance”, he said.

“Shia Muslim Imami Ismailis, generally known as Ismailis, and believed to number 15 million , belong to the Shia branch of Islam.

“During its history, this community has included populations of different cultural traditions, and is based principally in southern and central Asia, southern Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America, in a total of 25 countries,” he added.

As Público explained, the “institutions of the Aga Khan’s network” known as AKFED operate in various countries and range from industrial concerns (in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Pakistan, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania and Tajikstan) to financial services, through Habib Bank Ltd - Pakistan’s largest private bank, and other agencies in Bangladesh, Kenya and India.

The network is also involved in touristic promotion, says Público, and has an airline as well as media companies in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

According to the Aga Khan Foundation website, the organisation “focuses on a small number of specific development problems by forming intellectual and financial partnership with organisations sharing its objectives. With a small staff, a host of cooperating agencies and thousands of volunteers, the Foundation reaches out to vulnerable populations on four continents, irrespective of their race, religion, political persuasion or gender”.

natasha.donn@algarveresident.com

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• portugal news
 
• Aga Khan
 
• Rui Manchete
 
• portugal
 
• AKFED
 
• Aga Khan Foundation
 
• Ismaili Imamat community
 
• Shia Muslim order global headquarters in Portugal

- See more at: http://portugalresident.com/aga-khan-moves-to-portugal#sthash.QNu7wm9I.dpuf
The Source: http://portugalresident.com/aga-khan-moves-to-portugal

Comment:

Shared Values

Jason Kenney, Portugal and the Aga Khan  

What is the practical cost of Jason Kenney’s pandering to systemic bigotry?

I try not to confuse issues with personalities.

But Jason Kenney simply makes it impossible to separate the man from the issue. In fact, he demands the linkage.

Being a man of limited education (he is a high school graduate from a school where his father was the principal) Jason extrapolates a little smoothly delivered knowledge into dangerous zones. Since Jason believes that he is a man of values, rather than understanding, it stands to reason that he must rule based on those values.  For example, rather than deal with issues such as immigration  or foreign affairs on an analysis of Canada’s best interests, Jason keeps on  insisting that Canada’s policies must be based on the perceived shared values, or lack thereof, that he may or may not share with others on this planet.

Because there is no law or manual defining which values are shared (and thus good), and which values are clearly bad, we have to wait until Jason lays down the law.

Jason’s laws are based on two lists. It’s almost like a Russel Peters parody. One list is the good guys. One list is the bad guys. Irish good. Jews good .Ukrainians good. Germans good. Commonwealth pretty good. Chinese bad. Italians bad. Russians bad .Muslims bad.  Portuguese and Latin Americans irrelevant, etc, etc

While Jason performs his Russel Peters gig , the world reacts.

Canada worked hard to get a UN Security Council seat. Canada worked hard to  get the Aga Khan to set up his foundation in this country. In both cases, Canada lost out to “irrelevant” Portugal.

 Why?

Because Jason talks loud, stupid and racist while Portugal talks realistic, quiet and respectful. 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Richard Boraks, 2 October 2015

Canada’s Express Entry program for skilled immigrants showing growing pains

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Robert Liwanag | October 1, 2015 4:56 PM ET
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“There’s a lot of confusion as to how this system works and it’s become unusable and unfriendly to employers, particularly if you’re dealing with small or medium-sized firms,” said Sarah Anson-Cartwright, director of skills policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

A new federal program aimed at matching economic immigrants with jobs in Canada is having difficulties getting the attention of the group it is designed to help.

As Canada’s skills gap continues to widen, with an insufficient number of workers for the jobs available and inadequate temporary entry policies, Express Entry was established to help try to change that.

Run by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and launched in early January, Express Entry is designed to speed up the processing times of applications from economic immigrants. The system applies to the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class and parts of the Provincial Nominee Programs.

“I think it addresses the key challenge of trying to navigate the immigration process, which was quite time-consuming and expensive in the past,” said Rohail Khan, CEO of Skills International, a professional career and talent management firm with its Canadian headquarters in London, Ont. “Now you’re trying to match people with the right skill sets instead of the old lottery process.”

But a recent survey held by Skills International revealed that 71 per cent of employers in Western Canada had never even heard of Express Entry.

Under Express Entry, applicants can submit their profile to a pool, as well as the Canada Job Bank, a nation-wide database of job postings. Employers will then be able to review the job bank and provide offers to candidates. Applicants with approved job offers are later invited to formally apply for permanent residence in Canada.

“If you’re not doing it from an employer vantage point, we’re continuing the problems of the past where we’ve permitted people with the wrong skills to come into Canada only to have them take up survival jobs,” said Khan.

Remaining candidates without hiring employers are ranked using a point system based on a variety of factors, such as age, education and language. This means that a younger person will score higher than an older person, for instance, while a candidate who has an interested employer would score 600 points. The maximum score a candidate can get on his or her profile is 1,200.

“There’s a lot of confusion as to how this system works and it’s become unusable and unfriendly to employers, particularly if you’re dealing with small or medium-sized firms,” said Sarah Anson-Cartwright, director of skills policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “But in principle, if we can get some fixes through the LMIA requirement and point system, it could be a way for immigrants to come into our labour market and get recognized.”

A Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is a document that employers in Canada may need to obtain before hiring foreign workers. Under Express Entry, the LMIA process ensures that foreign workers can only be hired if a qualified Canadian worker cannot be found.

According to a mid-year report released by CIC, a total of 41,218 foreign nationals were active in the Express Entry pool as of July. CIC was not available for comment.

Montreal corporate immigration lawyer Colin Singer, however, noted that while the program was implemented with the best intentions and will be able to prevent application backlogs, employers would not likely want to hire someone they haven’t met.

“[The government] may have looked at it from an immigration standpoint, but in terms of employment, it’s very different here in Canada than it is in, say, New Zealand,” Singer said in an interview. “We have 10 different jurisdictions and numerous sub-labour markets all across the country.”

Almost half of invited candidates through Express Entry hail from Asia, with India and the Philippines ranking as the top two source countries – 20.8 per cent of invitations so far have been given to Indian Nationals and 19.4 per cent of invitations to Philippine Nationals, respectively.

“[The government] has the potential to get its numbers and they won’t have as many backlogs or problems delivering finalized cases, so from that perspective alone, it’s a success,” said Singer. “You’ll need to look at it from many different angles though to really assess and at this point it’s too early to tell – we’ll need a full two years.”

rliwanag@nationalpost.com

The Source: http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/canadas-express-entry-program-for-skilled-immigrants-showing-growing-pains

Comment:

Jason Kenney, Express Entry and Employers

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has finally stated the obvious. Express Entry is a scam perpetrated against employers.

The scam was organized by Jason Kenney.

The goal of Express Entry is not to service Canadian employers. The goal is to assist Jason’s Indian friends.

Under Jason’s veneer of conservative integrity lies a solid core of self-serving state authoritarianism. Jason is the boss. Other employers don’t count.

A couple of years ago, Jason looked me right in the face and calmly confirmed that employers are not to be trusted when it comes to selecting economic immigrants. I asked Jason if he was a communist. Jason took my question as a joke. It wasn’t.

Jason does not trust employers because he knows best how to serve his own needs. After all, although he has never met a payroll or even held a real job, he has the intellectual capacity to run a country…he has a high school diploma given to him by his dad … who was also his principal. That’s enough to know what’s right.

So the Chamber of Commerce need not worry. We’re in good hands"

Richard Boraks, 2 October 2015