Voies vers la prospérité: Canada

The head of Thunder Bay’s Multicultural Association expects to see more clients when the local Citizenship and Immigration office closes at the end of May. Cathy Woodbeck said her staff already works with newcomers who need help filling out application forms and navigating the immigration system. […] She added that, although people will lose the face-to-face contact with local Citizenship and Immigration staff, many clients in dire need of one-on-one assistance (such as communication in English) often come to the Multicultural Association anyway — so the association will continue to provide that face-to-face help.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/04/13/tby-citizen-immigration-cuts.html

New changes to the government program for immigrant investors will put more power in the hands of the minister in charge of immigration. Right now, that’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who is announcing plans to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act so he can create specialized programs to quickly respond to market demand.

This article is no longer available online. Please contact the media source directly for more information. Original Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/feds-to-overhaul-immigrant-investor-program-to-give-minister-more-power-147356415.html

Non-profit agencies helping newcomers settle in Manitoba are wondering how the federal government plans to take over settlement services. “There was no indication this is what they were thinking of doing,” Wanda Yamamoto, executive director of Manitoba’s largest refugee-settlement agency, said. Welcome Place just signed a one-year contract with Citizenship and Immigration to provide settlement services until March 31 next year, she said. “Hopefully they’ll honour our contract,” said Yamamoto. “Who knows after this year?”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/agencies-fearful-of-feds-takeover-147282665.html

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney wants to make wealthy investors pay more for the privilege of Canadian permanent residence, launching a series of consultations in Vancouver Friday on how to retool the program to better benefit taxpayers. “We think that program has been massively underselling Canada,” Kenney told The Sun’s editorial board on Friday. “There are millions of millionaires around the world who would like to immigrate to Canada and we could do much more in generating economic benefit from those who come in through such a program.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/thewest/Immigrant+investors+must+more+privilege+Canadian+residence+minister/6456967/story.html

The decision to cancel the settlement agreement with Manitoba is distressing. While this does not necessarily mean that settlement agencies will see a decrease in funding, this agreement was signed in 2003 because it recognized that the Manitoba government could better assess needs of immigrants to this province. The agreement gave Manitoba the ability to maximize the impact of settlement funds through, among other things, co-ordination and development of programs with the non-profit sector.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/immigration-whammy-is-not-the-first-147282895.html

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada office in Winnipeg, which processes applications for immigration and visitor’s visas is not closing, the federal government clarified Thursday. Confusion reigned this week when the Public Service Alliance of Canada was told CIC offices in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Lethbridge were all closing and being amalgamated into one office in Calgary. However, the office in question is actually a small administrative office that handles human resources, IT and a few other administrative tasks. A source from Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office told the Free Press most of those tasks are mainly done by email and phone, so it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint to amalgamate them.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/local-immigration-office-staying-147282985.html