As one of many initiatives announced on April 18, 2005, the Honourable Joe Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, declared a two-pronged initiative to improve the situation for international students in Canada.

Also announced this month, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is introducing measures to speed up the processing of family sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents. The measures are intended to break through the backlog of applications in this class of immigrants.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced further spending on April 18, 2005, this time directed toward improving the processing of applications for citizenship.

Fulfilling its earlier promise, the Government of Canada launched The Internationally Trained Workers Initiative on April 25, 2005. The Initiative is a combined program between Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, CIC, the Prime Ministers Office, and the provinces and territories.