The federal budget, Economic Action Plan 2013, provided some funding to help CIC deal with a growing number of applications in both its temporary resident and citizenship streams. The department will receive funding of $42 million over the next two years for the Temporary Resident Program and $44 million for the Citizenship Program to enhance its capacity to process applications. This will be funded through increased fees, which do not currently reflect the cost of the service. We will be reviewing these fees and aligning them more closely with costs.

Also impacting CIC, in Economic Action Plan 2013, is funding for Canada’s International Education Strategy, aimed at strengthening Canada’s position as a country of choice to study and conduct world-class research. A world-class international education sector, with appropriate pathways for students and researchers to transition to permanent residency, such as the Canadian Experience Class, is essential to attracting top-level talent.
 
The budget also promised that a pilot program would be developed to test a new approach to attracting immigrant investors. This builds on last year’s budget, which promised that business immigration programs would be reformed to target more active investment for Canadian growth companies.
 
Commitments made under the Government’s Beyond the Border Action Plan were also supported in the budget. These include better information sharing with the United States; implementing an Electronic Travel Authorization system to improve screening of all visa-exempt foreign nationals (excluding U.S. citizens); and establishing an entry and exit information system with the United States, whereby the record of land entry into one country can be used as a record of exit from the other.

 

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