NORRIS ADVOCATES INCREASED COLLABORATION ON IMMIGRATION ISSUES HEADING INTO MEETING

Minister responsible for Immigration Rob Norris will call for increased collaboration on immigration when he is in Ottawa to meet with his federal, provincial and territorial colleagues Thursday, September 4 and Friday, September 5.

"We need to increase the number of immigrants coming to Canada in order to meet labour market demands and support our regional and national economies," Norris said. "When it comes to attracting skilled immigrants, we're competing internationally. To be competitive, we need to work collaboratively on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our immigration system and increasing Canada's profile on the international stage."

It is projected that by 2011, Canada will need 300,000 new immigrants annually to support our labour market needs. Recent federal immigration levels are in the range of 240,000 to 260,000.

Topics on the agenda include modernizing the immigration system; foreign credential recognition; language training and settlement programming.

"I'm looking forward to bringing Saskatchewan's perspective to the table," Norris said. "We are experiencing strong economic growth in our province, but in order to sustain that growth we need to address our labour market shortage. Immigration will play a key role in addressing this shortage, developing our workforce and growing the economy."

Saskatchewan has a target of 2,800 nominations for the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program during the 2008-09 fiscal year. Including nominees, spouses and families, this represents over 7,500 newcomers to our province.

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For more information, contact:

Shannon Dumba
Advanced Education, Employment and Labour
Regina
Phone: 306-787-1331
Email: shannon.dumba@gov.sk.ca