Can Express Entry And Immigration to Canada Get Easier Post The Federal Election?

Canada’s current immigration policy is in stark contrast to the policies of other European countries
All three political parties in Canada are pro-immigration
Under the Liberals, Canada’s immigration rate has almost touched 1% of the total population
Can the election have an impact on immigration and express entry?

Canada is set for elections to elect a new federal government in October, later this year. Along with a new government, this election could also bring about changes in the country’s immigration policy. Let’s find out the connection between Canada election and immigration.

The current immigration policy has made it a leader on immigration issues and since all the three political parties are pro-immigration, it will be interesting to see the changes that come about.

Canada’s Political Parties And Their Views On Immigration

Canada has three main political parties; the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the New Democratic Party. All three political parties are in favor of economic immigration but have different approaches to how they would see this done.

Party	Stand On Immigration
The Conservative Party	Favors skill based immigration
The NDP	Yet to make statement. Compassionate approach to immigrants
The Green Party	Believes in setting immigration criteria based on the existing job opportunities in the country.
The Liberal Party (Ruling Party)	Favors immigration and promotes permanent residency

The Current Liberal Immigration Policy

The current Canadian government is being run by the Liberals. Under then, the Canadian immigration policies have stood in stark contrast to the policies of many other countries. They increase the country’s immigration targets because of which Canada will welcome over 1 million immigrants as permanent residents by 2021.

This pushes Canada’s immigration rate to almost 1% of the total population. They have also reduced the duration of time taken to acquire Canadian citizenship. Family reunification and medical rules have been updated amongst other immigration norms.

The Express Entry system which manages the immigration of Federal Skilled Trades Class, Federal Skilled Worker Class and Canadian Experience Class has undergone several changes in the past four years.

This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people applying for Canadian permanent residency.

Invitations Sent For Canadian Permanent Residency From 2016

Year	Invitations Sent
2016	33,782
2017	86,023
2018	89,800

The Liberal government also introduced a number of changes to Canada’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). This is the system used to determine where a candidate’s stands in the Express Entry Pool.

The last Conservative government had rewarded candidates who had job offers backed by the Labor Market Impact Assessment with 600 additional points on the CRS. This effectively guaranteed them being invited for permanent residency despite a job offer not being required.

The Liberals reduced the number of points offered for such job offers to a maximum of 200 points. Apart from this change benefiting candidates with a better overall score, it also led to a more diverse pool of candidates being invited for residency.

Overall, the changes they made to the CRS led to an increase of almost 400% in the number of invitations sent to Federal Skilled Worker Class candidates.

The Conservative’s View On Immigration

The Conservative view on immigration favors a system that is orderly, fair, compassionate and able to meet Canada’s labor market needs and an immigrant’s ability to be self-reliant.

If they were to come into power, they would like to link the number of people entering Canada with their skills that can be beneficial to Canada’s economy. This view on immigration is part of the reason why the Express Entry system was introduced by the conservative government in 2015.

They have not expressed an opinion as to whether they would change overall immigration targets in place or the Express Entry CRS if they were to be voted into power.

The NDP’s View On Immigration

The NDP is yet to clarify their view on how immigration should be approached. However, their view typically emphasizes a compassionate approach to immigrants. They also take a favorable approach to issues such as family reunification.

The Green Party’s View On Immigration

The Green Party immigration policy is based on the belief that Canadians have incredible potential and skill and that the country is fair, just and open.

If they form the new government, their policy states that genuine standards for immigrants based on the job opportunities currently existing would be established.

They have also said that they will work towards eliminating the valuation of foreign credentials for all immigration-related reasons. Immigrants could also find it easier to get their professional credentials recognized.