Douglas Cannon is a Partner at Elgin Cannon & Associates, and a veritable expert in both avoiding and defending refugees and protected persons against applications under s. 108 of the IRPA — to “cease” their status on grounds that:

(a) they have voluntarily reavailed themself of the protection of their country of nationality;
(b) they have voluntarily reacquired their nationality;
(c) they have acquired a new nationality where they enjoy protection;
(d) they have voluntarily become re-established in the country in respect of which they previously sought protection in Canada; or
(e) the reasons for which the person sought refugee protection have ceased to exist.

For a more detailed perspective from Doug, we highly recommend his article in the Canadian Association for Refugee Lawyer (CARL) Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, starting at page 43. To read the legislative amendments referenced by Doug in this episode, see here.

On the closing conversation about claiming CPD points, we are currently looking into the new LSBC requirements and will post on LinkedIn once we have a definitive answer.

A discussion of Canada’s 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan and the 2024 Report to Parliament on Immigration, in which the Trudeau government cut planned permanent residence levels by 20%, imposed caps on the number of international students and workers that would be allowed into the country and declared that they expect 1,000,000+ people currently in Canada to leave in the next few years as a result of their changes.

Alice Craft is a Research Associate in the Immigration knowledge area at the Conference Board of Canada. She recently published a paper titled Small Business, Big Impact Immigrant Hiring and Integration in Five Canadian Cities.

We discuss the key findings of that study — namely, that:

• In fast-growing small and mid-sized Canadian cities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in multiple sectors identified skill shortages as their most common employment challenge.
• SMEs are using practical and inclusive strategies to evaluate newcomers’ education and experience, but they rarely intentionally reach out to newcomers or work with immigrant‑serving agencies during recruitment and onboarding.
• SMEs prioritize English/French language skills, particularly spoken communication, when hiring immigrants. Language skills are particularly important in client-facing roles or those involving safety regulations.
• Negative experiences and limited understanding of immigration processes discourage SMEs from engaging with the immigration system.
• Affordable housing and access to public transit and child care compound labour market challenges for both job-seeking immigrants and SMEs looking to hire and retain talent.

We also discuss her recommendations.

Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at Ivey Business School, Western University. He is the host of the Missing Middle podcast.

1:20       Mike’s speech to the Liberal Cabinet in August 2024 re. the impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) on housing.

5:15       Mike’s thoughts on recent changes to the TFWP.

6:45       What is the impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program on housing in Canada?

8:00       Discussion re. zoning and development fees.

13:00    What level of immigration would be ideal in order to reduce the impact on housing?

18:30   Consequences of promoting pathways to PR for international students.

24:00    Are recent changes to Canada’s international student program the end for private colleges?

28:00    Is the recent decline in rents attributable to the international student program changes?

34:00    Should there be a hard cap on Canada’s foreign worker programs? Also discussion re. stats manipulation.

48:00    Distinctions between new foreign workers and companies trying to retain existing ones.

54:00    How does Mike respond to allegations that he is anti-immigrant.