“Our immigration has very much been driven by Maple Leaf, and of course, most of the workers that they’re looking for are low-skilled workers,” said Leslie Allen, executive director of Westman Immigrant Services. “Many of them will not be coming in with very much English, if any at all.” […] “If Maple Leaf basically has to resort to only having foreign temporary workers coming in, then we will be having groups of people coming in for a period of two years and then leaving. It could really impact the numbers of people who are actually going to stay here in Brandon.”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/english-test-for-immigrants-worries-brandon-148365965.html

Canada will accept 1,000 refugees referred by its visa offices, if private sponsors step up, he said. The government is also offering financial support for their first six months […] Last year, Ottawa capped the number of new private refugee sponsorships to deal with a backlog of 23,200 cases. That cap of 1,350 refugees meant the United Church of Canada, for example, could only sponsor 18 refugees.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/more-refugees-approved-sponsors-needed-148365405.html

Nine out of 10 wealthy immigrants accepted into Quebec’s investor immigrant program never come to Quebec, federal immigration minister Jason Kenney said Friday. “I do think it is peculiar that the province that was given power to select immigrants primarily to reinforce the French fact in Quebec is in fact flipping Asian people into Vancouver,” Kenney said during a meeting with The Gazette editorial board.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Rich+Asian+imigrants+spurn+Quebec/6494980/story.html

When Laura Brittain began articling with Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) in Toronto, she decided to keep her options open. Going through an articling rotation was all she needed to confirm that immigration law – and in particular working with refugees – held the greatest appeal for her.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/jobs/Helping+immigrants+exhilarating/6495575/story.html

Manitoba wants to keep control of immigrant services and is asking for help on a grassroots level to keep it. The federal government recently informed the province that the Canadian-Manitoba Immigration Agreement would be cancelled and that it is taking back control over settlement services next year.

http://www.portageonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26659&Itemid=33

Kenney said Ottawa wants to control immigration settlement services — like it does with other provinces — because it spends $36.5 million under the agreement with Manitoba. Manitoba has delivered the program, which includes language classes and job-search skills, for more than a decade. Kenney said the provincial nominee program’s strategies to boost Manitoba’s population and drive the economy won’t change. The program allows the province to nominate immigrants whose skills match provincial needs and is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of newcomers.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/immigration-spat-heats-up-148224265.html

Kenney announced a change to citizenship rules which would require prospective Canadian citizens to provide what’s called objective evidence of their language ability with their application […] They will be asked to submit evidence they completed secondary or post-secondary education in English or French; they could also provide results of approved third-party tests, or proof of success in government-funded language training programs.

http://www.thespec.com/news/canada/article/709518–plan-to-enforce-language-requirement-for-immigrants-draws-fire

Manitoba wants to keep control of immigrant services and is asking for help on a grassroots level to keep it. The federal government recently informed the province that the Canadian-Manitoba Immigration Agreement would be cancelled and that it is taking back control over settlement services next year. Provincial Immigration Minister Christine Melnick was in Portage la Prairie Thursday night talking about the change and the concerns they have on a provincial level.

http://www.portageonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26659&Itemid=33

Kathleen Weil, Quebec’s immigration minister, and herself the daughter of a doctor who immigrated to Montreal from the United States, has had enough of constant suggestions by Yves-François Blanchet, the Parti Québécois language and immigration critic, that newcomers embracing English threaten Quebec’s French character.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Stop+targeting+other+language+talk+Immigration+Minister+Kathleen+Weil+says/6486131/story.html

As part of the Harper government’s upcoming immigration reforms, employment insurance recipients may be forced to take jobs that would otherwise be filled by temporary foreign workers. The federal government wants to reduce disincentives to work and create a “greater connection” between the EI program and the temporary foreign-worker program, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the National Post editorial board this week.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/recipients+forced+take+foreign+worker+jobs/6488677/story.html