Overhauling of Canadian Immigration system targeted as a part of economic boost

The council which comprises of venture capitalists, business executives, institutional investors and academics, planned to propose a 20-point ideas in the coming months intended to boost the growth of Canada beyond the level of forecast, that is below 2 percent per year until 2030.

The three major recommendations of the council included increase in immigration targets by 50 percent to 450,000 people per annum. To create a new department that will try to explore avenues to bring more foreign direct investment and to build a national arm's- length infrastructure bank.

In a recent speech in Ottawa Chairman of the council Dominic Barton emphasised the need of giving jolt to the system by implementing these bold ideas. By expanding and improving the immigration process,  a key concern raised by fast growing Canadian tech companies can be addressed he said. 

Tobi Lutke, CEO of software firm Shopify Inc. could not suppress his frustration, as hundreds of new recruits in this year have been lost this year because of immigration delays. 
He said "The people we need to bring to Canada, are not building widgets that Canadians otherwise would. The people we are recruiting...are the teachers that help us scale [up]. If we want to build the best companies in the world here, we need to allow the best people in the world to move here."

Towing this line of thinking the council wants that employers in technology and other expanding sectors be exempted from the time consuming process of proving no Canadian could do a job for which they want to hire from abroad for senior positions or for specialised jobs like data science or digital marketing.

Foreign students who have studied in Canada should have easier access to immigration process. The council recommendations are not binding but council members have been working  in conjunction with ministers and bureaucrats since its inception in March.

(Reporting by Chandan Som)