Bill C-43, the Implementation Bill for the 2014 Federal Budget was introduced in parliament yesterday.
Is a massive omnibus affair and there are several changes to the Immigration & Refugee Protection Act in the proposed bill.
Highlights:
Employment & Social Development Canada gets a greater share of power in immigration system:
* ESDC will get authority from the Act on selection criteria, also on creating terms and conditions for temporary permits, levying fines and conducting investigations.
* Authority for ESDC to add too / manage employer blacklist
* Social Insurance Numbers will become part of the PR and TFW processing and compliance tracking. The amendments adds SINs specifically into the information sharing provisions of IRPA, seemingly opening up sharing of them between ESDC / CIC /CBSA. They are also opening all information sharing to include the provinces. Many will note that current instructions are for applicants to “black out” their SINs on CRA documents provided.
Fees as related to Temporary Foreign Workers
* They are removing the $1000 LMIA fee from the constraints of being a “user fee” – no longer saying that it is the direct cost of the processing of LMIA applications. People (like me!) have commented that there is no way that they could prove the cost of processing an LMIA just went from $275 to $1000 and that this new fee couldn’t be justified. Now they are saying that they shouldn’t have to justify it.
* Creating the authority to charge employers a fee on LMIA-exempt work permits to cover costs of electronic tracking, and compliance measures (as part of previously announced program being rolled out later in 2015)
In my opinion the big change is the power sharing between CIC and ESDC, granting the employment folks authority in many areas that were only for CIC before.
It may be possible that ESDC’s new role relating to selection criteria gives us a window in the plans for Express Entry as well, and the use of ESDC’s data into that system.