Immigration Minister Jason Kenney: Applications

Applications Dept: Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says about 100,000 applications are still in the system, down from 640,000 just a few years ago, according to CBC. The backlog was culled by a measure in last spring's contentious omnibus bill, which threw out 280,000 applications filed prior to 2008, a controversial move that saw the federal government refund $130 million in application fees and canada's Conservative government says a backlog of skilled immigrant applications, which has clogged the system for years, is declining rapidly and will be eliminated by the end of next year. Kenney told a news conference that the eradication of the wait list means a new immigrant labour pool from which employers and provinces can choose will be established ahead of schedule. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.