Indian Immigration to Canada should be encouraged

Former Canadian immigration minister Monte Solberg says that immigration solves many problems in Canada, including labour shortages.

"Immigration should be encouraged between India and Canada to build strong connections between the two nations," he said, adding that health care workers were in particular demand.

Canada offers a variety of skilled immigration routes such as the Provincial Nominee program; This allows skilled Indian workers to gain permanent residence in Canada through sponsorship from a Province or Territory which is experiencing skills gaps in certain sectors. There is also an independent points based system called the Federal Skilled Worker program.

He also talked about lesser known immigration routes into Canada used by Indians such as the immigrant investor scheme.

Solberg said that people wishing to come under the immigrant investor scheme to Canada could gain permanent residence quite easily. He went on to say that the success rate for applications under the immigration investor scheme from Punjab, for example, was at 100 percent.

According to Solberg, immigration policy is unlikely to change in the near future.