This month the government began its travelling consultations with local resettlement workers and businesses in an attempt to fix the immigrant investor and skilled worker programs.
The consultations, hosted by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration’s parliamentary secretary Chungsen Leung, recently stopped to visit the Windsor area to hear locals’ concerns over labour and immigration policy.
Leung said that Windsor’s unique agriculture- and manufacturing-based economies, as well as its proximity to the U.S. border, makes it a point of particular interest to Canada’s policy-makers.
During the Windsor meetings, local business advocates encouraged the government to bring more investor and entrepreneur class immigrants to the region, arguing that the supporting infrastructure is already in place to help them succeed.
“It’s a win-win situation,” said the Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Gordon Moore, regarding investor immigrants. “The chamber would work with them on a business plan to make them successful.”
Kathleen Thomas, who works with the Multicultural Council of Windsor-Essex and was also at the meeting, said that they offered several ideas in terms of foreign credential recognition, which she hopes the government will take into consideration as they plan ahead.
The government plans to continue their meetings on the issue.
Sources: Windsor Star