CPD – Tools for Your Toolbox: Advocacy, Ethics and Updates

Last month Ashton College organized the Continuous Professional Development seminar in partnership with the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants – Tools for Your Toolbox: Advocacy, Ethics and Updates. The seminar featured the most prominent immigration professionals sharing their insights and industry updates with over 80 participants practicing in immigration business.

The keynote speaker of the past CPD seminar was Harry Goslett, the guru of the immigration industry. Harry has over 25 years of experience providing professional immigration services to multi-national corporations, entrepreneurs and business immigrants, skilled workers, and other individuals. He is experienced in facilitating the cross-border movement of corporate executives and their families, intra-company transferees with specialized knowledge, skilled workers, investors, sports and entertainment personalities, and post-secondary students.

The author of multiple works, Harry Goslett has been recognized as the writer of two pioneering works published by Carswell: The Annotated Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada and The Annotated Citizenship Act of Canada. At the seminar, Harry’s presentation focused on the overview of the first book, its history, contents and the guidelines to effective use. Throughout his career, Harry has written extensively on immigration and citizenship matters and taught numerous groups of professionals on immigration policy. He was a true asset to our seminar.

Another well-known CPD speaker was Cobus Kriek. He is the director and the owner of Matrixvisa Inc., a boutique immigration law firm that specializes in economic classes of immigration. Cobus’s major areas of practice include Temporary Foreign Worker applications, Labour Market Opinions, Intra Company Transfers and submissions in economic classes such as Provincial Nominee Class, Federal Skilled Worker Class, Canada Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Trades Class. At the CPD, Cobus covered the updates, practices and procedures of LMIAs.

The third speaker was Michael Kim, the Director of the BC PNP’s Entrepreneur Immigration unit. Michael shared the updates of BC PNP Entrepreneur Immigration program, its history, processes, ideal candidates’ profiles and the 2018 year results. He also presented the new Entrepreneur Immigration Regional Pilot Program which will be launched in January 2019 within the scope of BC PNP.

Following Michael on stage came Monica O’Brien, the CAPIC Education Manager, and Ron McKay, the Director of Immigration Programs at Ashton College. At CAPIC, Monica plans and organizes seminars and liaises with local chapters to put together engaging events. For the National Education Plan, Monica ensures topics meet members’ needs, are CPD-relevant, and practical. Ron is responsible for all educational programs and courses at Ashton related to immigration field.

Monica and Ron’s presentation was dedicated to the general updates on the immigration stakeholders meeting. They provided the overview of the quotas, targets and processing updates for Canadian immigration programs in 2019. They also shared what can be expected in the industry next year in terms of numbers, immigration practices and trends. This was very valuable information for those working in the immigration and planning the development of their businesses and services for the upcoming year.

The last, but not the least came Marc Audet. Marc joined Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton at the end of 2013, where he is now managing two new subsidiaries, AURAY Capital Canada, an investment dealer member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), specializing in Canadian business immigration programs, and AURAY Capital International, a firm specializing in residency and citizenship by investment programs offered worldwide.

Marc presented the overview of business immigration programs with the focus on new immigration streams in Quebec. With new immigration laws that came into force in the province in 2018, the new forms and procedures were introduced in Quebec Entrepreneur and Quebec Immigrant Investor programs. Marc shared the insights on the new requirements, timelines and numbers in business immigration.

If you have missed the opportunity to attend the CPD in person or via online webinar option, you can still purchase the full video recording of the whole seminar at CAPIC. The video will be available for purchase till February 19, 2019 only. Please find more details here:

https://www.ashtoncollege.ca/programs/cpd-tools-toolbox-advocacy-ethics-updates/