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Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander, outlined how and why Canada is moving to a new immigration selection system, known as “Express Entry”, at a Canadian HR Conference in Regina, Saskatchewan yesterday. Express Entry will come into operation as of January 1, 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been stuck in the 1970s, maybe even the 1960s, in immigration, receiving applications in a mechanical, robotic way from whoever happened to apply,\u201d said Mr. Alexander. \u201cWe couldn’t predict who would apply from year to year, but we were obliged by law to process every application that came in, in the order it was received.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister stated that Canada was moving from a supply-driven system to a demand-driven one that actively selects candidates based on needs identified by the federal government and provincial government, as well as Canadian employers.<\/p>\n
Express Entry \u2014 which is not a program, but rather a selection system, as Mr. Alexander explicitly pointed out \u2014 will apply existing economic immigration programs to alarge group of candidates. These programs are the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, and the Canadian Experience Class. \u201cThe immigrants that we actually invite to come to Canada, the ones whose applications we actually process, are the ones we know we actually need,” said Mr. Alexander.<\/p>\n
Mr. Alexander admitted that provinces, including Saskatchewan, have been seeking a greater quota of places under the Provincial Nomination Program. He stated, however, that the Express Entry system will be able to mitigate any concern. “Saskatchewan would be an excellent candidate to join us and put their provincial nominations against people who will be in this Express Entry pool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n