Canada’s immigration system is missing its biggest economic opportunity.

Not because Canada lacks demand — but because it’s underusing the one category designed to create demand: business immigration.

Here’s the mismatch:
Business immigrants account for roughly 0.2% of Canada’s economic immigration.
That’s not a rounding error — it’s a policy choice with real consequences for innovation, investment, and job creation.

In Roundtable #5, Catalyst Canada brings together immigration lawyers Sarah Adler, David Crawford, and Charles Pley to unpack what’s broken in Canada’s business immigration framework — and what a serious fix could look like.

Hosted by Siavash Shekarian, Chair of CILA’s Business Immigration Committee, the discussion goes beyond slogans and into the mechanics:

The truth is, economic immigration is economic policy.
If programs like the Start-Up Visa underperform, if processing delays become the norm, and if oversight is inconsistent, the system doesn’t just lose applicants — it loses credibility.

And credibility is the currency of any immigration program.

The roundtable explores practical options that governments elsewhere have used to institutionalize evidence and feedback — including models like the UK’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and the U.S. EB-5 — and asks why Canada keeps treating business immigration as an afterthought rather than a pillar.

Real progress requires design that balances integrity with accessibility:

• stronger oversight without turning the process into a maze
• faster, transparent processing without sacrificing program integrity
• structured public–private feedback loops instead of sporadic consultations

Because when business immigration is built well, it doesn’t just select people — it builds capacity.

Canada can do better. But it requires a shift: from program-by-program tinkering to treating business immigration as a strategic economic lever — with measurable outcomes, continuous improvement, and accountability.