Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Marco Mendicino as the next Canadian Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Canadian Citizenship.
The 46-year-old descendant of Italian immigrants, Mendicino has extensive experience in the field of law and worked as a federal prosecutor for almost 10 years. It was he who put members of the Toronto 18 terrorist group behind bars.
Mendicino will now be responsible for the immigration policy promised by the Liberal Party of Canada during the recent federal elections.
The liberals won the minority government, which means that they will have to rely on opposition voices to fulfill their obligations to increase immigration, create a municipal candidate selection program, abolish citizenship fees, and turn the Atlantic immigration pilot into a permanent program.
350,000 immigrants by 2021
In their four years in the majority government, liberals increased their immigration rate from about 260,000 people a year to a target of 330,800 in 2019. These goals should increase by another 20,000 to 350,000 in 2021. Together, this may mean that more than a million people can appear in Canada in the next three years.
Free Canadian Citizenship Applications
Permanent residents currently have to pay $ 530 to obtain citizenship, plus $ 100 for their "right to citizenship."
The promise to completely abandon fees is part of a new effort to reform the Citizenship Law to make citizenship more accessible, regardless of socio-economic factors such as age and income.
Municipal Nominee program
Seeking to facilitate immigration into communities of "all sizes" throughout Canada, the liberals promised to implement a municipal candidate selection program.
The program will open at least 5,000 new places for future immigrants and "allow local communities, chambers of commerce and local labor councils to directly choose permanent immigrants."
Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program (AIPP) was created to curb population decline in Canada’s four maritime provinces.
AIPP allows employers in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to hire foreign nationals.
The pilot was extended for another two years in May, and now it should become permanent.
Member of Parliament, who was elected two terms
Since joining Parliament in 2015, Mendicino has served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities and has been involved in the development of the state green program and social program in Toronto and throughout Canada.
He was re-elected as a Member of Parliament from Eglinton-Lawrence on October 21, 2019 with 53 percent of voters support.
In 2017, he served as parliamentary secretary to the Secretary of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, where he helped advance federal priorities such as criminal justice reform, indigenous reconciliation, and restorative justice.
Mendicino worked for the Upper Canada Law Society and was president of the Bar Association of Justice, where he served for two terms.
He advocated for better laws on organized crime and access to justice in the House of Commons and the Senate.
