This paper reviews the history of Canadian immigration policies and documents that the present policies impose on Canadians a fiscal burden of $20 billion annually. The existence of this burden is attributed to flaws in the current immigrant selection process, some of which are addressed through recent changes in policies adopted by the government. These changes are discussed and viewed likely to reduce the fiscal burden by only small amounts. The paper proposes more radical reforms to the selection system to eliminate the fiscal burden in the future.
