Canadian government shares new immigration priorities

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provided a new supplementary mandate letter to immigration minister Marco Mendicino. The mandate letter is an important policy document for Canada’s immigration department. It outlines the goals that Mr. Trudeau is asking Mr. Mendicino and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to pursue during his time in power.

The mandate letter has the key issues, ie. Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan, new immigration for IRCC to create, improving IRCC’s application times. The release of the mandate letter comes close behind the recently announced Canada’s 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan which targets over 400,000 immigrants per year. This new mandate is in addition to the one that Trudeau provided in December 2019.

Key priorities in the letter are:

• Plans to expand pilot programs to welcome newcomers to support Canada’s economic growth. This is to welcome refugees through economic class immigration streams and expediting family reunification.
• Continue to implement measures to provide permanent residence pathways to those who performed essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Identify additional permanent residence pathways for temporary foreign workers.
• Continue to work with cabinet colleagues to protect the health and safety of Canadians while managing Canada’s ports of entry.
• Work with the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion to protect workers who are vulnerable to COVID-19 and to secure workers to fill labour needs in farming and food processing.
• Continue working with Canada’s provinces and territories to support newcomers as they settle.