The province of Alberta, with its booming economy and expanding cities, has been working to make it as easy as possible to bring in foreign workers to contribute to the provincial labour force. The Strategic Recruitment Stream, a new pilot project by the Alberta Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) can fast-track the issuance of Canada Permanent Resident visas to people who are in the United States on temporary work visas. No job offer required.

Attorney David Cohen has been vocal about his opposition to the Conservative government’s proposed legislative changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. At the request of the House of Commons Finance Committee and the Citizenship and Immigration Committee, he delivered an address outlining his legal perspective on the implications of the amendments. Video highlights of his address are available.

British Columbia (BC) is making immigration work. The provincial government has been in immigration headlines quite often over the past few months, with new initiatives and solutions to help newcomers make BC their home. From credential recognition services, to refugee settlement, programs for international students, better access to employment information and job-finding services, the BC government has been exceeding program targets and delivering exceptional service to newcomers.

With a recent string of apologies to various Canadian communities, the Government of Canada is recognizing the past wrongs of Canada’s former immigration policies. The Conservative government’s Historical Recognition Program has allotted $29 million to commemorate several of these important yet shameful events in Canada’s history.

The Canadian government announced last week that it will create a 29 million dollar grant program as redress for various shameful incidents in Canada’s history, relating to the way Canada treated prospective and landed immigrants. For example, from 1885-1923 there was a Chinese head tax which was a fee charged for each person wishing to immigrate to Canada from China. There was also the Komagata Maru incident in 1914, when more than 350 prospective immigrants from India were held on a ship in Vancouver harbor because they would not be admitted to Canada. In addition, in 1939 more than 900 Jewish refugees trying to escape Nazi Germany on the steamship St. Louis were denied entry to Canada, among other countries, and were sent back to Nazi Germany, where it is estimated a third of the passengers were executed. Ten million dollars will go the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Schevchenko as compensation for discrimination and the internment of Ukrainians and other East European ethnic communities during the First World War.