More skilled workers needed in Canada to maintain growth of the economy
By Misbah Karim | Thu, 05/14/2009 - 23:57
Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney has said that Canada needs to maintain the immigration levels for the second half of this year.
After extensive meetings with several provincial and territorial departments conducting study on the demand of employment in Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has made a final decision that the number of Canadian visas would be almost 250,000 new permanent residents as per plan.
Minister Kenney said that the country is witnessing continuing shortage of labor and therefore, the government has decided that immigration won’t be reduced just for increasing it later.
The economy of Canada is heavily dependent on the intakes of skilled overseas workers in order to fill in for an ageing population. Kenney said that more than 600,000 foreign workers would be needed in British Columbia and Alberta alone in the next five years, as ageing population would retire and the economy would continue to expand.
The minister said that there are continual shortages of labor in certain businesses, certain regions and industries. Therefore, he said, the worst the government could do in these hard times is to starve those employers who are suffering due to labor shortages.
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