True Patriot Love

00:00:00.000 today on true patriot love under the pillar immigration i am lucky enough to have near

00:00:12.560 rosenberg from canadianvisas.com good morning near good morning thank you for having me

00:00:19.040 yeah thanks for coming and uh hot topic of course you know we had read some great shows

00:00:24.160 in the last month so you know the canada 2025 budget is out so last time we spoke you know we

00:00:31.680 were talking about bill c12 and since then you know they've actually dropped with us the the budget

00:00:39.920 which is great and we've been doing shows throughout the week on it from economy to all

00:00:44.720 kinds of different issues um so immigration this was a one of the ones that went in there and

00:00:50.400 you know they created something called the levels plan so and and basically they gave us a bunch of

00:00:58.240 numbers hard to reconcile so do you mind you know to start the show what i wanted to kind of do is

00:01:04.000 kind of pick through it with you um and if i'm understanding it right because i'm trying to

00:01:09.360 still figure out a little bit um of where they're going and they're they're trying to give us

00:01:14.800 projections from 2026 to 2028 um and they're trying to balance as they say economic growth family

00:01:23.600 reunification and humanitarian commitment so do you want to kick off with temporary residents for a

00:01:30.080 minute sure um yeah so they they they're looking at reducing um the temporary residents in canada

00:01:37.680 uh to a little under five percent over the next couple of years um their intention is essentially

00:01:45.200 to alleviate some of the housing uh crisis or the housing shortage that we're having or that we're

00:01:50.560 seeing um reducing the reliance on health care um and so what you know this problem uh started back in

00:02:01.360 the 2020 uh year when they let all of the foreign workers and students come on in um and now they're

00:02:09.040 essentially trying to kind of push back on that and reduce those those numbers um as far as the the

00:02:16.720 students go um they're expecting to reduce the students by approximately 49 to 50 percent of uh what

00:02:25.200 we currently have today uh so we used to let in or we now have about 330 something uh international

00:02:33.040 students now they're looking at bringing those students down to about 155 000 um between uh 2026 and

00:02:41.040 2028 um they're even going to reduce it further uh during those years um foreign worker program um

00:02:49.520 they're restricting a lot of employers uh for hiring uh foreign workers and that's obviously uh going

00:02:56.480 to draw back on on the numbers that are that are coming in um they're uh reducing uh the foreign workers

00:03:06.640 i would say somewhere between uh 230 to uh 220 000 over the next couple of years uh that's a significant

00:03:16.480 decrease from what we've had in the past we we uh brought in a lot of foreign workers um and now

00:03:23.280 they're essentially bringing you know bringing those numbers down to a level that we we kind of never

00:03:28.960 seen before okay so hey help me out with the five percent for a minute because i was trying to figure

00:03:36.560 out so they're saying they're they're trying to rebalance uh to the five percent so the five percent of the

00:03:43.360 total population being you know if we had 40 million uh it'd be you know you're looking you know

00:03:51.120 two million people yeah um but again that that uh foreign uh uh i would say non-permanent residents

00:04:01.600 um includes also visitors right so um anyone that comes into canada whether they're international

00:04:07.920 students foreign workers or visitors they're they're trying to reduce the numbers because a lot

00:04:12.240 of visitors end up you know securing work permits or securing study permits so they're they're overall

00:04:18.240 trying to reduce that number um and we're seeing that we're seeing a lot of uh visa refusals uh for

00:04:24.640 even individuals coming in for for visiting purposes right right and is there students is part of that

00:04:31.200 part of that temporary worker um allocation includes uh take me through so students uh

00:04:38.240 temporary workers um and what's the what's the last one i missed the uh the mobility international

00:04:47.520 mobility program so so the international mobility program is is is part of the foreign worker program

00:04:53.920 um okay what they've done is uh you know most people who are coming to canada on a work permit require

00:04:59.440 something called a labor market impact assessment that is an application that an employer has to

00:05:05.280 submit and once uh esdc the employment skills and social development canada reviews that

00:05:11.440 application they either approve or deny the application for the employer if they approve the

00:05:16.960 employer the worker can apply for a work permit come to canada those are called lmia based work

00:05:22.480 permits they're closed work permits the worker can only work for those uh particular uh employer or

00:05:27.680 that that particular employer in that particular position and it specifies location and wages etc

00:05:33.680 whereas the international mobility program or the imp is lmi exempt so that could be anything for

00:05:41.760 intercompany transfers companies that are expanding into canada or have international operations that are

00:05:48.800 moving key staff or key uh executives specialized knowledge into canada then you have also part of that

00:05:55.840 imp program is also the french skills program so anyone that is you know proficient in french meeting a

00:06:02.080 specific level has a job offer in canada they're exempt from that lmia requirement so anything that

00:06:07.280 falls under the imp program is essentially exempt from having to go through that employer uh pre-approval per

00:06:13.840 se no okay i gotcha so so really they're trying to get they're trying to get that number down

00:06:20.480 uh to about two million so out of 41 million they're trying to get that number to roughly two million

00:06:25.120 people correct yeah okay so so now uh students well that's a whole other thing quite frankly because we

00:06:34.480 we built a whole you know you and i've talked about it on other shows we built a whole educational

00:06:39.840 industry around foreign students right so that's kind of a lot of that has disappeared now i think in the

00:06:45.760 last six to 12 months and that's gone so you know students coming over now are they mostly uh the

00:06:54.160 old standard colleges and universities has it kind of gone back to what it was you know five ten years

00:07:01.680 ago before covid say well we're still we're still seeing a lot of students coming in on on private schools

00:07:08.080 um and and studying in smaller um you know i i heard recently i was talking to a friend and i heard the term

00:07:14.160 um diploma what do they call it uh uh something diploma um uh diploma factories or something like

00:07:25.600 that where they essentially um i don't think that's the right term but but a diploma something where where

00:07:31.120 they essentially come to canada just to get this diploma or the certificate that allows them almost

00:07:38.240 like the ticket into canada they'll just do it just for the sake of doing it in in order to getting

00:07:43.920 um admission into the country and then from there they kind of transition to something else well you

00:07:48.720 know i i kind of talked to my friend and i said you know that might be true for some but it's not true

00:07:55.360 for everyone a lot of international students are coming here to study they genuinely are taking longer

00:08:01.360 degrees um more um higher level uh uh programs masters phd programs i mean we have a lot of clients

00:08:09.360 that most of our clients okay are not coming in for a random you know six month one-year diploma

00:08:16.720 they're coming in for two three-year degrees they're coming in for master's program phds

00:08:21.440 and a lot of them are coming in from countries uh where those programs are are not available to them

00:08:27.600 uh so they choose canada um but yes you do have the bad apples right and every like in anything where

00:08:33.280 they come in and they choose a program just so that they could come in and then they they don't

00:08:38.640 even go to school they they will look for a job and then they'll transition into a work permit

00:08:44.000 and so we're seeing we're seeing still students coming in for uh larger more advanced programs

00:08:51.360 but yes you do have uh of course those students that still come in for the private schools for the

00:08:56.320 smaller colleges for sure right yeah no no and you it's funny because you've seen uh like i said over

00:09:04.000 this last six to 12 months as you drive around you're starting to see spaces empty out so which

00:09:08.720 was former formerly a small campus uh for education that sat on a corner in a small six-story building

00:09:16.640 is now empty so you're starting you know when i drive around toronto mississauga i'm starting to

00:09:21.840 see them disappear um so you know my my assumption was that was all kind of cutting off um you know

00:09:28.960 which i think uh probably for for good reasons and and i think that's probably the right direction at

00:09:34.960 this point um when you're seeing people come now so it's interesting and and it i'm going to take two

00:09:41.600 kind of directions on this we put about 400 million dollars into the budget to bring to go out and

00:09:49.040 basically headhunt smart people to come to canada so and this year coming up in 2027 we have 200 and

00:09:57.280 i think it's 60 million dollars we've allocated to go find people and it's been all over the news the

00:10:02.880 last couple day we've pulled in some big shot professors uh to u of t in economics and i can't

00:10:09.440 remember the other industry but it was a very specific um and i assume they're kind of being recruited

00:10:15.440 under the program that we're talking about um you know are you as these people are coming are they

00:10:22.960 you know or are you seeing um a push to find kind of u.s citizens who have specific skill sets to enter

00:10:31.280 into canada um i mean i know that canada does go out and look for um you know specialized skills and

00:10:39.600 specialized knowledge um what we're finding is that we're having challenges with employers getting

00:10:47.680 approvals to bring those people in so what we're seeing is more of a reliance uh as you said on

00:10:54.320 uh countries that are lmi exempt such as the united states because if you have like we have a program

00:11:01.600 uh that you used to be called you know under the nafta uh now it's called the kusma um so the canada

00:11:07.280 u.s mexico agreement um there is an immigration uh sector in there or section in there and it

00:11:13.280 basically allows for movement of specific occupations um individuals in specific occupations into canada

00:11:21.680 and there's a there's a list of 60 occupations so if you're if you fall into one of those and you have

00:11:25.840 a job offer you don't need that lmia so it makes it easier uh for you to come into the country on that 0.94

00:11:32.320 type of work permit and so the the 60 occupations list hasn't changed since i started doing immigration

00:11:38.400 and that was close to 18 19 years ago um but uh you know part of that list is professors um geologists

00:11:49.120 uh in the sciences uh you've got mathematics um you've got um architects so it's those types of skills

00:11:58.640 that are under those programs um when we're looking at other com other countries that have agreements

00:12:04.960 like peru you have certain technical occupations um you have um advanced like uh you know refrigerator

00:12:15.840 repair personnel so those types of individuals um can come into canada in a much more easy route easier

00:12:23.120 route uh per se from those that are coming in like a nurse right a nurse requires an lmia um but 0.88

00:12:31.440 there's other challenges uh that we're seeing with skilled workers like nurses um where where it relates

00:12:38.880 to credentials so we are having you know we're seeing canada going out to look for these people

00:12:45.680 but even if they do find some of these individuals there's some red tape to bring them in

00:12:51.600 um and now with the the esdc's refusal to process policy we're having a major issue with employers

00:12:59.760 being able to hire these workers um even if you found the worker you may not be able to bring that

00:13:05.120 worker in you may still have that red tape whether it's from the esdc side or the ircc you can have

00:13:11.200 an employer who got approved for an lmia to hire you know 10 nurses and then now they can't bring

00:13:16.800 those nurses in because they're not they're not they're not eligible to work and so you have some 0.99

00:13:21.440 some of these instances show a catch-22 right you have to have canadian work experience to get

00:13:26.000 licensed you can't get licensed because you can't get the work experience so yes they're looking for

00:13:31.200 those individuals they're finding those individuals they exist right they're out there they want to

00:13:35.360 come to canada but there's a lot of uh bureaucracy and red tape around that right well that's a good

00:13:41.040 message you know because we're we are putting you know the the real push and we actually uh in the

00:13:47.200 budget spent a lot of time talking about why it's important for us to do that i i don't know if you

00:13:52.240 had a chance but the budget the budget's driven around investment in all new industries and you know

00:13:58.160 it's a it's a uh you know it's a country altering budget because our deficits and our actual capital

00:14:05.920 spend in this budget have hit an all-time high in order to try to get some productivity and returns

00:14:11.760 back into the country and and invest in the country so you know that red tape hopefully will go away i

00:14:17.520 know uh there's a number of announcements today on big capital projects you know and i think we're

00:14:24.720 kind of we seem to be pushing into mining and resources more so you know i wouldn't shock me to

00:14:32.240 see some of those 60 people on your list coming from you know geologists and people who have

00:14:38.080 technical skills in mining and trades and that are related but i hope so and i hope they're i hope

00:14:44.160 they're doing a good job because you know i don't know if we've been super strong in the last few years

00:14:49.120 on basically uh training people to be in those industries given you know we've had a lot of red tape

00:14:55.760 just to get people into those industries in canada let alone bring people into those industries so

00:15:00.720 no i hope so hey um temporary foreign workers so so these are the and you know we're we're kind of

00:15:08.160 talking about students and we're talking so what what jobs are you seeing like as people are trying

00:15:13.680 to enter into the country um what jobs specifically are you seeing so you're seeing uh are we still having

00:15:21.680 like restaurants are we still having issues with all those things are those all dried up yeah the the

00:15:29.200 hospitality industry the restaurant service based industries they are um problematic uh the esdc which

00:15:38.720 is the again the department that reviews the employer applications and kind of provides those pre-approvals

00:15:44.080 to employers will not um entertain uh an application from a uh for example from a restaurant that is looking

00:15:51.760 to hire uh workers um and so or chefs or um because they're they're refusing to process applications if

00:16:00.000 you're in a region that is six percent or more of unemployment rate so if you're if you're in maybe a majority

00:16:05.200 of canada right um is six percent or more um and there's very few uh exceptions to that uh and there are there are

00:16:12.240 exceptions uh to uh certain occupations like in healthcare um caregivers um but the the majority of

00:16:20.480 the employers that are are are looking to hire are not necessarily able to pay the higher wages which

00:16:26.400 exempts them from that um and we actually have a funny story um it it i don't know if i should say it's

00:16:33.120 funny or or i mean it's humorous at this point um we had a restaurant a very large uh international

00:16:39.680 um indian uh restaurant that hires international uh chefs and they uh bring in these specialty chefs

00:16:47.600 to work in their restaurants uh canadians are not available for this uh we uh submitted an lmi

00:16:54.320 application for this company we got the um refusal and so when we started to investigate why we were

00:17:01.360 getting a refusal the officer basically came back and said well you're offering you're offering a higher

00:17:07.440 wage than the rest of your staff in the restaurant and so the only and and mind you the only way to

00:17:15.680 go and apply for this lmia is to increase the wage to put yourself in a to pass the threshold to be in

00:17:23.120 the higher wage category so that's 36 an hour in ontario right the chefs were being paid 27 prior

00:17:30.960 so in order to allow the submission of this lmia application to be processed the company said we're

00:17:38.880 so desperate we're willing to pay the 36 an hour let's submit so now the com the estc the the government

00:17:45.360 is coming back and saying well we don't want to approve this because you told us that you're

00:17:50.720 increasing the wage in order to submit this application well yeah so i mean you're putting us

00:17:55.840 uh between a rock and a hard place right so now the company's out several chefs reducing hours of

00:18:02.080 operation which means that now canadians who are working at this restaurant and now being uh potentially

00:18:08.000 laid off or uh reducing their hours um so you're you're seeing a lot of this across canada we had a

00:18:15.360 major um a hotel chain that was trying to bring in service workers um they were refused because

00:18:22.160 they're and they they're just they're not a lot like estc is now focusing on language requirements

00:18:29.840 so you they're saying if your job requires english or french um and they they're very difficult with

00:18:36.880 saying uh with accepting um other languages that are part of the job duties they're they're forcing

00:18:43.520 english or french primarily uh so they're so some some applications are being refused because of wages some

00:18:49.280 are being refused because of language barriers and so you're having a lot of these issues between

00:18:54.560 esdc where they're not approving employers so this this you know this started six to eight months ago

00:19:04.400 we had a major reduction in lmi approvals and lmi submissions and it's coming from the top down

00:19:12.560 this is this is this is politics um that's what at least it seems uh they're they're not allowing

00:19:19.200 employers to submit applications and when they are allowed to submit an application they're refusing

00:19:23.600 them because they're choosing the method that allows them to submit the application uh because

00:19:27.920 they're desperate so you know you we're seeing employers having a very very very tough time

00:19:33.920 uh hiring foreign workers even those by the way the chefs that we applied for they were working in

00:19:39.840 canada they are working already so it's to renew and to extend their their status so what we're seeing is

00:19:47.440 even though they want to reduce bringing in new foreign workers they're almost essentially kicking

00:19:53.360 out those that are already here by wow not giving them an opportunity to renew yeah no no and it's

00:20:00.960 and you know it's interesting when you're talking about it i'm i'm we did the budget review the other

00:20:05.440 day and well in the deficit so we had a this year we're going to have a 78.3 billion dollar deficit in

00:20:11.920 canada for the federal government and one of the the big line items is the unemployment insurance and

00:20:18.560 they're now in 20 uh going up to 2030 they're projecting that unemployment kind of in 27 28

00:20:27.760 is going to go to somewhere up to nine to ten percent so they're they're thinking they're actually

00:20:34.080 they're actually planning it they're actually projecting it in the budget it's showing uh the

00:20:38.720 substantial increase in the unemployment insurance rates so you know imagine when that happens how

00:20:44.160 tight that's going to get because your your threshold of six percent will definitely not be

00:20:49.440 attainable anywhere in canada at that point and then and then the the issue becomes and i have a few uh

00:20:55.200 friends of mine who have coffee shops the issue then is quite frankly where do they get people to do

00:21:00.240 that so they can't even open full hours now because they they're just at a point where and you know

00:21:06.160 they're big brands quite frankly but they just can't get people so you know they shut down at

00:21:11.040 seven o'clock right and that's a shame because you know then then that really harms their business

00:21:17.200 and it goes back you know it's it it's it's interesting uh conundrum and i think we're going

00:21:22.800 to have this in a lot of industries in canada we're going to make this huge investment so you know we

00:21:28.720 have this this this uh 46 billion dollar capital investment that we're going to put into major

00:21:35.200 projects infrastructure everything else so where are we going to get the people

00:21:40.960 to actually build these projects that's the first thing and you know the existing population

00:21:46.400 are they going to be you know are they going to want to go into those jobs that's that's really the

00:21:51.680 the challenge we have because quite frankly a lot of people who are here right now who are canadians

00:21:57.040 have been to school they have a profession or quite frankly they were educated in some other

00:22:02.320 line of work they don't want to change so they don't want to go up to northern ontario and be in

00:22:06.800 a mine they don't want to go to bc and work on l and g factories right or you know it's just not

00:22:12.080 interest to them so you know that's the the big challenge we're having and i'm sure you know in the

00:22:18.080 u.s they have the same thing in canada for sure so i think it's i think that's the roadblock and and i

00:22:23.840 hope i hope we get better at it um permanent residents let's jump into there for a minute so

00:22:29.840 very confusing when you go through the numbers so we talk about um 380 000 and then we talk about 33 000

00:22:38.960 so i'm trying to figure out i was trying to i'm reading through it and i'm i'm you know there's

00:22:44.720 skilled worker the pnp's uh provincial nominee program there's the atlantic immigration there's

00:22:52.800 all these pathways and then there's the family class and then the refugee class so they break it 1.00

00:22:58.720 down economic immigration but what is the total number of permanent residents like what what are

00:23:04.960 what are they projecting and where do they want to go with that um my understanding is that they're going

00:23:10.800 below um 550 000 uh going forward um total um that includes all classes um they are um it we're seeing

00:23:23.600 that as well right so we're seeing that um under the kind of the federal express entry pool uh we're

00:23:30.720 seeing a lot less uh draws uh and that's kind of like a lottery system so you put yourself in a pool and

00:23:36.240 you wait until you get selected it's a points-based system um they're they're now coming out with i

00:23:42.400 mean that's their solution a part of the solution it seems uh to reduce the foreign workers that are

00:23:48.960 in canada if they can't remove them is to help them transition to become permanent residents and we're

00:23:55.520 seeing that through an announcement they made just last week or this past few days uh related to uh

00:24:01.440 provincial nominee programs where they want to focus more on provincial nominee programs uh which

00:24:07.040 is essentially an alternative to the federal program uh but those require uh foreign workers

00:24:12.880 or international students are already have experience in canada or have studied in canada

00:24:17.360 um so what we're what we're hearing is that over the next few years they want to reduce the numbers

00:24:23.840 uh from um more than 550 to under 550 um and that it it's showing as well you know as far as um how

00:24:32.720 quickly people become permanent resident they cancelled the entire caregiver program um which was uh expected

00:24:39.440 to allow caregivers who are in canada to transition to become permanent residents now they're not even

00:24:43.840 allowing that so so they're either cancelling programs or reducing the number of visas that they're

00:24:48.160 actually allocating yeah yeah i did hear about that and so so where's the the they keep bouncing around

00:24:56.080 this 33 000 number and i try is that one of the draw numbers they're talking about so i i'm trying to

00:25:01.680 figure out because i see here you know i see here they're talking about total admission stable at 380

00:25:06.960 then they then and they still keep you know the interesting one is and i find i find this kind of

00:25:13.200 interesting they still have the you know a significant 13 for refugees and protected persons

00:25:20.720 you know 22 for family class so that's if you're bringing your spouse partner or grandparents or

00:25:26.880 something like that or children i guess um but they're they seem to be they seem to be like you said

00:25:34.400 they're struggling to figure out pathways for people who are here and that's really kind of that's kind

00:25:42.080 of head scratching given you know even our last show you know when we talked about c12 right like

00:25:48.560 right so we have people here they've been educated they've been through the formal you know process of

00:25:55.600 coming here they put money down quite frankly leveraged themselves at home and then they're sitting here

00:26:01.120 and now we're trying to reduce i guess their ability to become a pr is that because we want the

00:26:09.360 flexibility in case unemployment goes up is that like i'm trying to i'm trying to understand the

00:26:14.400 rationale on that we're sort of slowing that down saying okay you're kind of you're here but you know

00:26:19.680 you might be in the pr process for i've heard stories where people were in the pr process for eight

00:26:25.840 years so yeah it's yeah i mean the the i mean some of those programs um relate to either um parent

00:26:36.000 sponsorships uh that are delayed for four years um those exceed three four five years now um you have

00:26:43.600 the caregiver programs that from the past are still um lingering in the in the queue uh we have clients

00:26:51.040 that are waiting four or five years on permanent residency through those programs as well when they

00:26:54.800 originally promised one to two years um and now they're canceling them all together um the the i'm not

00:27:02.560 sure what that 33 000 number is um perhaps it's one particular category uh but i can say that you

00:27:11.760 know majority of uh the permanent right the majority so canada's looking to transition these uh temporary

00:27:19.680 workers and international students to permanent residents um but they're using uh a method which it's

00:27:26.480 either the pnp programs or um the express entry program the problem is what we're seeing is the

00:27:35.680 requirements to meet are difficult um we have some clients that come to us now and we'll we'll tell

00:27:43.440 them look fill out an assessment form let's assess you against a hundred a hundred and ten different

00:27:48.720 immigration options today right um which include all the pnps and they might qualify for one or two

00:27:57.440 perhaps pnp programs which is essentially uh provincial nomination and it may require an

00:28:04.240 employer support a lot of these uh pnps are now employer driven uh where the employer has to meet

00:28:11.040 a requirement like revenue or a number of employees now if you have a smaller business that doesn't meet

00:28:15.840 those requirements but is desperate to keep this employee they can't right and we're seeing that in

00:28:21.120 assisted living facilities we're seeing that in restaurants we're seeing that in smaller mom and

00:28:26.640 pop shops that that rely on the foreign worker uh to work especially in areas that are more kind of

00:28:32.320 rural um and then these employers don't meet those requirements and so we're kind of stuck so they are

00:28:39.680 reducing the numbers of permanent residencies uh visas overall the largest uh reduction that we're

00:28:46.560 seeing is the express entry program because in the past we used to have a draw every single week or

00:28:52.720 every other week uh for three four thousand uh individuals and that could be an individual that

00:28:59.200 has a family with three children or it could be you know a real true individual that's single um so now

00:29:05.920 they're doing draws one in a few one every few months um and it could be uh for 700 people it could be for

00:29:13.520 a thousand people um or it could be just for the french skills program so you've got a lot of people

00:29:19.040 that came to canada relied on these programs and now because of overnight changes there's no path

00:29:25.920 there's no path for them even if canada is saying we're going to spend more effort and we're going to

00:29:31.600 increase more allocation to the provincial nominee programs to select more individuals they're not reducing

00:29:38.880 the i would say the requirements they're they're there's the requirements are still the same for

00:29:46.480 the most part right we haven't seen major reduction now if you're not working in a particular occupation

00:29:52.400 or if you're not working in a particular location or if you're not working for an employer that meets

00:29:56.800 those requirements you can't apply so it's we're seeing that become a become an issue and and i think

00:30:02.800 part of the reason why they're trying to rely on those pnps now when they made that announcement

00:30:08.240 is probably partly because of that c12 because they're seeing a lot of these foreign workers 0.84

00:30:13.280 or these international students file refugee claims so they're saying you know let's have

00:30:18.560 a different solution to try and transition them right right no no it's interesting and can i ask you

00:30:24.720 this is you know i noticed on the read that quebec quite frankly so if you can speak french you know

00:30:30.800 i get that system you know you basically you have to figure out i know how you score in your

00:30:36.480 point system and then quite frankly you go into the lottery and then the lottery

00:30:40.880 is less frequent so you have a couple hurdles right you have an ever-changing point system that

00:30:46.800 seems to bounce around a little bit i think right from what i'm what i'm hearing um it might be

00:30:52.960 stabilizing a little bit and then once you get to that point system you just got to be lucky enough

00:30:56.800 to be picked in the lottery and then but is there a better place so then i guess number one if i speak

00:31:02.880 french i have a better am i and i do i have a better chance of being picked because it's free

00:31:09.680 it's interesting when they did the budget and you look through the the documents they actually uh carve

00:31:16.000 out quebec as a to be determined number of permanent residents so it's like okay we're not going to 0.94

00:31:21.600 commit to a number here the rest of canada you get x amount so under your 500 000 or you know 380 or

00:31:28.320 whatever it is over the time but you know and uh the rest of you but if you can figure out to speak

00:31:35.840 and and what do you have to do i guess this is the question is how do you qualify do you have to pass

00:31:42.000 a test in french in order for you to so do you write something like uh to go take a uh and a small test

00:31:51.520 to figure out your uh french uh language skills yeah yeah so so the to be determined number um it

00:31:58.800 were that to to be determined um you know from quebec uh quebec's always been likes to be different and

00:32:06.720 so quebec has its own immigration system um they have they rely on their own requirements and they've

00:32:14.560 created their own paths um and yes they rely strict primarily on french um they the programs in quebec

00:32:26.080 are tougher to meet you have to work in quebec you have to study in quebec you have to um um you have

00:32:32.320 to speak french and you have to have a certain level um we don't know what those numbers are um as

00:32:37.520 you said um but essentially the quebec so there are quebec programs for immigration if you live and

00:32:45.920 study and work in quebec but if you are a french speaker and you've got french proficiency you do

00:32:51.920 need to take that test um it's the the it's called the tef um i can't pronounce it forgive me i don't

00:32:59.520 speak french but the tef and the there's two other tests that you could take for french and if you

00:33:05.440 pass the per the prevailing minimums um you may qualify uh under the federal system under express

00:33:13.200 entry to be selected for a french category so they're now focusing even if you're outside the

00:33:20.320 province of quebec they're putting emphasis on french if you speak understand read write french

00:33:26.160 you can um benefit from additional points in the express entry pool and so if you have less points

00:33:34.800 then and somebody else who doesn't speak french you still may qualify you still may get selected

00:33:41.200 because they're focusing on a specific draw just for french speakers so the score could be 300 and

00:33:47.360 something 400 something whereas other scores required are five and a 500 and above today um so yes if you

00:33:54.560 speak french take this french test um you know put yourself in the pool and and you'll have a better

00:33:59.280 chance at at getting permanent residency there's also a foreign worker program under the imp uh

00:34:06.880 program uh category there is a french speaking uh section so if you take that french test and you pass

00:34:15.040 that minimum you have a job offer you don't need an lmia to uh work in canada so it's uh gives you an lmia

00:34:22.320 exemption and um you have to actually be working outside the province of quebec so there are there

00:34:28.480 are four programs now directed towards french speakers um and then there's the permanent residency

00:34:35.680 route as well yeah right okay and i've heard you know honestly too so pr for and uh so it's interesting

00:34:44.800 because down in atlantic canada you know when things were when immigration was kind of at as high

00:34:49.760 atlantic canada was seeing a huge number of immigrants heading down right so psw workers doctors

00:34:57.200 you know uh so that's all kind of again got caught in that six percent i guess pool now right that's yeah

00:35:04.960 so so that's slowed down so yeah absolutely um yeah we're yeah a lot so the the remember the the six

00:35:14.160 percent rule there there are exemptions to that there are certain exemptions like um if you're a

00:35:19.600 a uh psw or if you're a uh um a home support worker for example um yeah there are exemptions to

00:35:28.160 that so that your employer can still file an lmia even if you're a nun and uh in a in a region that

00:35:33.600 has six percent or more unemployment um but a lot of almost every other uh occupation is restricted uh so

00:35:43.200 unless you pay the higher wages unless you're an employer that's willing to pay the higher wages

00:35:47.760 you can't apply um but again like that story i mentioned earlier where we had an employer that

00:35:52.720 says yes we're willing to pay the higher wages they got refused because they're they're they're

00:35:57.200 paying higher wages so you're you're you're it's like um it's a it's a catch-22 for these employers

00:36:03.680 um but yes there there's employers in canada and a lot of them in the hospitality industry and look

00:36:09.360 in the forestry sector in the um in the construction uh sectors in the mining sectors you have companies

00:36:18.240 that can obviously afford a much higher salary these jobs demand a higher salary they are uh they are in

00:36:24.720 the higher uh earner category um so you don't have issues there submitting lmi applications because you're

00:36:31.920 a high wage bracket um but i almost feel like a lot of the employers in canada those are those are the

00:36:42.560 rare ones those are the exemptions right um you have a lot of employers across canada pharmacies uh

00:36:49.280 doctors clinics um assisted living facilities memory care units um just general employers that are looking

00:36:56.880 for caregivers um you've got restaurants you've got host hotels all of those industries are essentially

00:37:04.640 not able to qualify not able to apply because they're not able to pay the higher wages i mean

00:37:09.200 we had a con we had a client that's a fast food chain that wanted to bring in 15 workers uh they got

00:37:15.360 refused uh that sorry they they couldn't even apply there was they were under the refusal to process

00:37:20.640 because they were going to pay 16 an hour and the prevailing wage to qualify to submit an

00:37:26.080 application was like 24 26. what what fast food chain can do that um probably not many so that

00:37:35.360 that's the problem that they were facing you know right well that you know that that seems to be the

00:37:40.320 prevailing problem across north america right you you have help wanted signs in in basically the service

00:37:46.640 industries and uh no one can get jobs in kind of the professional professions are you seeing are

00:37:52.960 are you seeing you know doctors it's interesting because you know quebec i don't know if you're

00:37:56.480 following this whole thing in quebec if and i can just fill you in on it but uh you know the the premier

00:38:02.960 of quebec came out and he basically uh with the health minister said listen we gotta revamp the payment

00:38:09.520 scale so we're gonna we're gonna actually give you kind of this uh color-coded chart that talks about the

00:38:16.240 number of visitations you need to do a year with uh each of uh with the population of quebec uh the

00:38:22.880 citizens and then you know if you don't meet it there's going to be a clawback penalties and such

00:38:27.920 so it's interesting and there's been a quite a rally and they've all started a lot of doctors have started

00:38:32.960 to apply to come to ontario that doesn't have the same you know uh new payment fee schedule so

00:38:39.840 are you seeing anything with respect to doctors because i know quebec's got to be thinking i gotta

00:38:44.800 probably do a push on bringing doctors into the country now yeah i mean there there are um there's

00:38:50.720 a need for doctors um we've had a couple of clients that wanted to bring in doctors the problem that

00:38:55.840 they're facing is is the credentials um so yes you may have doctors who are already in canada working

00:39:03.360 moving from quebec to ontario i personally haven't had the experience of assisting anyone in that

00:39:08.560 situation uh but we know that there are there is movement right between quebec and ontario today

00:39:14.480 um some of them are going into quebec a lot of them are coming out of quebec

00:39:18.960 uh but there is that red tape and that bureaucracy of of credentials um and that that's not just with

00:39:25.680 the doctors that's with almost every profession that requires some sort of certificate of qualification

00:39:31.760 or a trade certificate of some sort um and so yes uh we're seeing the need but again there's

00:39:38.880 there's that barrier uh to prevent them from you can get an lmi for a doctor today very very easily

00:39:45.120 um but that work that doctor may not be able to work yeah they're driving uber right so they're

00:39:51.120 they're here driving over you know it's interesting because uh in the budget we put uh like i mentioned

00:39:56.960 to you a lot of money into recruiting people so we you know we it's upwards of 400 million dollars

00:40:02.960 to 2030 we spent for next year three million dollars on uh figuring out how to get people who have uh

00:40:11.120 different credentials in different countries qualified in canada so that's how little we

00:40:16.160 actually put in i was i was shocked that that was uh in the budget uh when i saw it i was like that's

00:40:22.800 that that means they're not interested so uh and that's too bad quite frankly because you know situations

00:40:29.120 like you're seeing in quebec right now you know the people of quebec could be you know uh decimated

00:40:34.560 with respect to health care if he holds if he holds his ground and he sticks to the pay schedule i

00:40:40.160 think they're you know there's a couple hundred leaving this week um it's going to be a challenge

00:40:46.080 hey near i wanted to talk just before we wrap up i wanted to talk a little bit about c12 you know last

00:40:51.360 time uh and you know it's moving so i know the budget is kind of dwarfed it you know and last time

00:40:57.520 we spoke it was fresh um any thoughts and and and you know we haven't touched on kind of the asylum

00:41:04.320 seekers in the in the whole equation here so you know kind of you want to they kind of this goes hand

00:41:11.920 in hand a little bit because of people transitioning from program to asylum anything new on that front

00:41:18.800 that's that's popping up anything that you want to share with the listeners nothing that's new

00:41:24.320 necessarily since the last time we spoke um i know that it's it's been passed essentially on the

00:41:29.520 second reading in the house but um they're they're i think it's going to pass um i personally think

00:41:36.720 it's going to pass um and the bill is going to essentially allow uh amongst other things it's going

00:41:42.000 to allow the government of canada to essentially close programs or temporarily shut down programs even

00:41:49.280 if applications are in process uh they'll just cancel certain applications um a lot of applications

00:41:56.640 you know uh whether it's the startup visa program the investor programs stuff like that they could

00:42:01.520 they could shut it down um anything from uh you know having a visa could be revoked um having a work

00:42:08.400 permit could be revoked if if the government feels like they just don't want to proceed with a particular

00:42:15.200 program they can put a pause to it they could stop it um i i don't know um you know how whether or not

00:42:26.320 they will do certain things like that um but i think that having that right to do that is um it's very

00:42:33.760 scary because people can come here and invest and and um you know not just invest money but invest their

00:42:40.560 time and invest you know and pay taxes and everything and all of a sudden they could be found

00:42:45.040 to not qualify for a program that they expected to target um or that they were targeting so um it's a

00:42:52.480 very um you know it's a very scary thing to think that the government can just eventually do whatever

00:42:58.640 they want to do uh with the immigration program and without having you know going through due process

00:43:04.320 um so it's just you know it's one of those things that uh we'll have to see if if if it if first of

00:43:11.440 all if it passes uh i think it will uh we'll have to see if they'll actually you know act on it you know

00:43:18.400 yeah no and this is you know my concern on the last show is you know most of these people have

00:43:23.200 switched into asylum because quite frankly their their avenues were being cut off and now you know when

00:43:28.960 this passes that's that's a challenge for a lot of people um hey before one other question i had

00:43:34.800 and it really is to do with uh something that we're seeing in the us so the us has been pretty over the

00:43:40.880 years um i guess uh steadfast in creating investment programs for green cards so you know you put your

00:43:50.560 money into an urban development program you lock it in for a couple years and basically you're you're

00:43:56.240 allowed to get a green card to stay um canada like programs like is there anything that people should

00:44:03.360 be yeah canada had canada had a um canada was very popular was the quebec investor program which

00:44:12.000 essentially mirrors uh the uh us what you're referring to is the eb5 program the employment

00:44:17.840 based five program which is you know you put money in you you know it's locked in for a few years and then

00:44:24.080 you don't have to operate anything you just invest money into either a project that they're running

00:44:29.120 or uh some sort of regional like you said urgent uh regional development program um and then after

00:44:36.560 several years you get you get the green card you get permanent residence so quebec had a very similar

00:44:40.640 program uh they closed it right they closed it um they closed it several years ago uh and i i don't

00:44:47.760 remember if they reopened it now um but if they did uh it's a very very difficult program to qualify for

00:44:54.800 it's like the us is i think 500 000 or 550 000 all in um yeah whereas the uh and you have to have like

00:45:02.000 a million dollars net worth quebec used to be uh an 800 000 investment with 1.6 million dollars net worth i

00:45:10.800 think they went up with that so um and i i i don't so canada doesn't like those programs canada wants

00:45:18.160 if you're going to come and invest canada wants you to operate can this is not a um a passive investment

00:45:25.120 sort of scheme can that that was the quebec program that's why they didn't like it uh they had a lot

00:45:30.320 of applications several year backlogs um and so they kind of said you know no more with the quebec

00:45:36.480 quebec investor program um there are individual programs through provinces so ontario used to have

00:45:43.920 an entrepreneur program i think it's going to come back they stopped it a couple years ago

00:45:48.000 i think it's coming back um but you have other programs like in british columbia you have programs

00:45:52.800 in manitoba you have them in alberta but they are very specific to you operating the business uh you have

00:45:59.840 to have a certain net worth you have to have a certain investment amount uh and sometimes in like in bc

00:46:05.600 you have to actually submit a proposal and you have to wait until the government reviews your

00:46:09.280 proposal and says yes we like the idea or we don't like the idea and if they like the idea they'll

00:46:13.600 give you a work permit you'll work for a couple of years develop the business and then they'll nominate

00:46:17.760 you once you've shown that you've met your um once you've shown that you've met your uh obligations

00:46:24.240 as far as what you said in your business plan that you were going to do uh where it's hiring employees

00:46:29.040 it's investing it's operating the business and so canada has these business programs um

00:46:34.240 um and and there are there is a demand for them um but again they're you have to meet a lot of

00:46:40.400 different requirements it's not like in the united states where it's just put some money in have a

00:46:44.800 net worth go to a regional program uh whether you speak english or you don't speak english canada is now

00:46:50.880 is is is looking at all the factors they're looking at your education level they're looking at your

00:46:55.760 your investment amount they're looking at where that business is going to be located right is it going to

00:46:59.760 be in a rural area in a re in an urban area is it going to be in this region or is going to be in

00:47:04.400 that region is it going to be agriculture is it going to be you know service based so they there's

00:47:09.520 there's many different restrictions every province essentially has their own um list so if they do

00:47:15.680 have a business program it's not an open for all it's typically there's there's requirements that

00:47:20.720 you've got to meet and you've got to follow a particular procedure in order to uh uh qualify for it

00:47:28.480 moreover some of these provinces require you to even come to canada and do an exploratory visit

00:47:34.320 and meet with the provincial officials before uh you even invest any any amount of money so um it it

00:47:41.680 and and they want you to operate the business it's almost like an owner operator type of of situation

00:47:46.560 there canada doesn't unless the quebec program came back and i'm probably not in the loop about

00:47:51.760 it because we don't really deal with it anymore we used to have a few clients in the past for it um

00:47:56.640 but because it took more than four five six years clients were saying well we're going to put eight

00:48:02.800 hundred thousand dollars we're we're not going to see that money back for five six seven eight years

00:48:08.320 and there's no guarantee um this is a this is a a moot a moot uh a moot uh discussion so majority of

00:48:16.240 our clients never ended up going with the quebec investor program that was a very popular thing i want

00:48:20.960 to say more than 10 years ago um maybe even 15 years ago is a very very popular uh uh program um

00:48:28.960 now it's it's probably dead in the water and if they're going to restart it then the requirements

00:48:33.200 are going to be much much much higher you you may have to have a two million dollar net worth

00:48:37.120 and a million dollars in something investment um so they they are uh uh looking at provincial programs

00:48:44.720 for business but there's no passive uh types of investments right right yeah i know i noticed in

00:48:51.920 the budget they talked a little bit about the the real estate foreign buyers uh again you know we did

00:48:57.600 that we shut it off and quite frankly then they talked about it i haven't you know the real estate

00:49:03.200 market up here right now is in pretty rough shape so i think they're trying to figure out a way to

00:49:07.040 reinvigorate it but you know that we'll see that's that's something we got to watch yeah near yeah they

00:49:12.400 did they did they did sorry they have a i wanted to to throw this and they did have something called

00:49:17.200 a startup visa program they still have it um and that startup visa program is uh it requires you to

00:49:22.880 have like an incubator um and you have to um be in more of a technology sector uh there's a lot of fraud

00:49:30.160 within that program a lot of um uh uh fake uh we'll say fake businesses uh get these approvals um and uh

00:49:40.720 they they they they're there's not a lot of visa allocated to those it's very a small number of

00:49:47.120 approvals that are happening um but i think they're trying to get rid of that or cancel it altogether

00:49:51.760 because there's just a lot of it's not a very good program it doesn't work very well from what i've

00:49:56.240 seen from what i've heard um it it's not a it's not a successful program and that's a startup visa

00:50:01.200 program for technology for the most part yeah yeah that's been a you know whether it be tax credits or

00:50:07.360 the incubators that they've always been a challenge i think in canada for for as long as i've been

00:50:12.640 back here but uh near thank you again i appreciate it um near rosenberg uh canadianvisas.com uh really

00:50:22.240 appreciate your time i always learn a lot when we do these um and you know we're trying to do more

00:50:27.520 on the pillar of immigration so i look forward to talking more over the next few weeks as uh as the

00:50:33.440 budget gets passed you know the budget the third reading of the budget is going now uh i haven't

00:50:38.160 seen any adjustments so but if something pops up quickly i'll make sure you're back on the show and

00:50:44.320 i'll set something up so thank you for podcasting with us and uh for our listeners please uh you know

00:50:51.440 stay tuned for the next show subscribe and uh enjoy your day

Immigration Cuts, PR Delays & Bill C-12 — What You Need to Know

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