Mike Colle, who last June became Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, engineered a historic immigration agreement with the Liberal government late last year. The accord was another first for Canada and entailed the promise of $920 million in federal funding to Ontario over five years.

Providing the Tories still come across, Colle will use the funds for bridge programming to enable immigrants to adjust to life in Ontario in training, support and language services.

For far too long, Colle said, immigration has just happened. He mentioned the points system which remains static long after saturation point has been reached for certain occupations Foreign trained engineers, he said are a good example.

In Ontario, for instance the pioneering of midwifery in childbirth cases offers opportunities for foreign midwives who can quickly be retrained.

Immigrants with skills in languages other than English or French can be valuable, too since they can provide vital business links. He pointed to a current Ontario government television commercial that shows how a young immigrant woman working for a business here in Canada can converse readily with a prospect. in Mumbai because she is Hindi speaking.

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