All the bile being expressed here against the programme ignores the fact that this is about highly-skilled workers needed for highly skilled jobs and for which Canada does not have a deep pool of candidates to draw on ... this isn't about average, every day jobs. Nobody hired under these programmes is "stealing" anyone's job.

I'm curious though, to know why the current hiring delay is up to a year - when I was hired from abroad 20 years ago (in a field for which Canada provides no courses whatsoever; a pretty obscure scientific field) I was in and working within three months and even that delay was due to my personal situation, I could have arrived and been at it within a couple of weeks had I been able. Sounds like this is just turning to the status quo ante.