Maybe TJ - but Canada immigration has seen a big change recently. Canadians are suffering from "immigration fatigue" and the federal government has responded politically. My sense is the Feds will continue to "talk up" immigration to garner immigrant votes while they actually institute measures to decrease the inflow. We are on the path to an Australia style immigration system (Prime Minister Harper has intimated that this is where we should be headed).
Now:
1) Must fully document where money you are bringing is coming from - if you can't show a clear and
legal paper trail, you don't get in by the immigrant Investor class (people have been refused entry
on this basis in the last few months).
2) As of 1 year ago immigrants must have excellent working knowledge of English/French -
including a fairly rigorous exam - no pass no entry.
3) No more family class immigrants (ie. can't sponsor relatives).
4) No more immigration by birth - so flow of pregnant immigrant ladies to Canadian obstetric
hospitals stops and children born in Canada cannot sponsor their parents.
5) Immigration Canada is targeting people 18-35 with real job offers from Canadian employers
- everyone else is out of luck.
5) Canadians filing tax returns must declare "worldwide assets" of more than $100,000 or risk heavy
fines or worse - what's more, if you choose to leave Canada an exit tax must be paid (basically
assumes you have sold all assets worldwide and you must pay Capital Gains Tax on this before
leaving). Wealthy immigrants beware.
What's more, in order to deal with the "immigration backlog" - government outright cancelled 180,000 and told them to "line up again."
From my vantage point (I see a lot of new immigrants in my work) in Vancouver there has been a palpable slowdown in immigration. Fewer new immigrants from China Taiwan and Korea, more from the Philippines, Eastern Europe, Ireland, the UK, South America and Japan.
Finally, in British Columbia it looks as though we are going to elect an NDP government next year - a socialist party that while in power in the 1990's pushed the marginal tax rate to 52%, the corporate tax rate into the high 20's and tabled a proposal on a "wealth tax" for all British Columbians, based on all holdings worldwide (real estate, offshore accounts, stocks, bonds, gold).
theglobeandmail.com
IOW - Vancouver/Canada = Non Freedom Rock. |
