Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed the Canadian government’s new immigration priorities on his official website on December 16, 2021.
The priorities include:
- Trudeau calls on Fraser to “Reduce application processing times, including to address delays that have been impacted by COVID-19.”
- Create additional permanent residence pathways through Express Entry for international students and temporary foreign workers.
- Improve the family reunification process by introducing more electronic applications and introducing a program so that the spouses and children of sponsors can obtain temporary residence in Canada while they wait for their permanent residence applications to be processed.
- Ensure that immigration helps to support small- and medium-sized communities across Canada including by creating a new Municipal Nominee Program.
- Waiving the fees for Canadian citizenship applications.
- Create a Trusted Employer System so that Canadian companies can hire temporary foreign workers more quickly. Fraser is also being asked to improve the Global Talent Stream.
- Identify how Canada can regularised status for more undocumented workers.
- Continue to work with Quebec on helping immigrants build their French-language knowledge and also continue to promote Francophone immigration across Canada.
- Achieve Canada’s goal of resettling 40,000 Afghan refugees.
- Continue to pursue higher newcomer levels through the Immigration Levels Plan.