Canada’s immigration system is flawed and needs to be fixed. A new report proposes how to go about it

Canada should revamp its immigration points system to better select those with the skills to boost productivity, a new report says, even if the changes might favour applicants from some countries.

 

Immigration has long been premised on newcomers being the engine of economic growth and prosperity, said the study by the Business Council of Alberta. But “cracks” have emerged with Canada’s recent population surge, which has magnified challenges in housing and health care.

 

“That’s always been the promise of immigration over the years, but it hasn’t delivered recently,” said Mike Holden, the council’s chief economist and vice-president of policy.

 

“We need to make sure we’re selecting the right immigrants because otherwise that national consensus and that perception of immigration is going to continue to fall.”

 

Prompted by concerns over Canada’s rising immigration intake amid a stagnant economy, researchers looked at how the country selects skilled immigrants and released the report on Wednesday. The council recommends “a prosperity-driven immigration system” to ensure it delivers on its promise and grows Canada’s per-capita gross domestic product.

 

Although the Canadian economy is getting bigger as a result of a surging population, primarily driven by immigration, the report said productivity — an indicator of living standards — has been weak for decades and, more recently, has turned negative.

“We’re not getting wealthier. There are just more of us around,” said the 40-page study, titled “Delivering the Promise.”

 

“Future prosperity requires that the Canadian economy generate more value, not just because there are more of us, but because each one of us is better off.”

 

In fact, according to the National Bank of Canada, the country’s real GDP per capita has been at a standstill for six years, which the report warns leaves Canada behind other immigration destinations.

 

Canada introduced the points system in 1967 to set objective eligibility criteria for immigrant selection and eliminate elements of discrimination based on race, colour or nationality in the past. It awards points for personal attributes such as age, language proficiency, education level and work experience that are generally considered assets to the economy and society. Candidates are selected based on their scores.

 

The mechanism has been tweaked over the years and evolved into today’s Comprehensive Ranking System, which ranks candidates in the talent pool against one another and selects the top scorers who meet the cut-off in each draw for permanent residence.

 

But Holden said some of the factors used in awarding points to speculate on an immigrant’s future success are flawed.

 

For instance, in the education assessment, candidates receive points for years in school rather than the quality of the school and program.

 

“Canada has some pretty deep need for skilled tradespeople and health-care workers,” Holden explained. “If you have a two-year nursing diploma or two-year trade certificate, you’re going to get fewer points than somebody who has a master’s degree in liberal arts even if the earning potential of the skilled tradesperson is much higher.”

 

Other factors such as the bonus points granted for having a sibling already here have no bearing on an immigrant’s economic impact, he said; the wage a person was earning before becoming a permanent resident would be a much stronger indicator.

 

He said the system must weigh the type and quality of skill, including field of study, education program and occupation that is most valued and in demand in the economy.

 

The report pointed out that any change to the points system could implicitly favour applicants from some countries over others based on quality of education and program. The limited predictability of the current system doesn’t benefit Canada or prospective immigrants, it added.

 

Holden emphasized that the goal of economic immigration is for Canada to bring in candidates with the highest value to the economy as measured by what their expected wages would be when they arrive.

 

“We shouldn’t be distracting ourselves with issues of where immigrants come from. What we should be focusing on is what they do when they arrive.”

 

The report said the Immigration Department should limit the number of streams and pathways for economic immigration. It recommended that programs meant to address other objectives such as attracting francophone immigrants to settle outside Quebec and newcomers to smaller rural communities should be left to provinces.

 

Given that the immigrants Canada needs the most might not even be in the selection pool, the study recommends officials to focus on targeted marketing and recruitment overseas to deepen the pool.

 

Having high-quality skilled immigrants not only helps boost productivity, but also attracts other high-calibre newcomers, said Holden.

 

“Canada tends to bring in a lot of immigrants from places like India,” he said. “India’s economy is growing rapidly and the gap between Canada and India is closing, which means the value proposition to Canada for a really high-quality economic immigrant is going to be narrowing.”

 

The federal government has made some significant changes to the immigration system in the last year, launching targeted talent draws through the points system to prioritize those with backgrounds in science, health care and constructions; reining in the number of international students and foreign workers in Canada to slow population growth; and taking into account temporary residents in its annual immigration level plans.

 

While those changes are generally positive, Holden said it remains unknown how they will come together. He said the government must immediately act on changing the points system to respond to the rapid drop in public support for immigration.

 

The business council’s own survey of Canadians released this month found less than half of the 2,300 respondents think immigration is good for Canada’s economy and standing in the world, society and prosperity; only 28 per cent believe the current approach is effective in its selection and support of immigrants.

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star