Indo-Canadian relationship gets stronger, says Canadian High Commissioner

The Government of Canada is working hard to make sure that Indian Students who are all set to leave the country for higher studies in Canada get their Visas on time. 

Cameron MacKay, High Commissioner for Canada in India said: 

“It is the case unfortunately that we have a post-Covid pandemic backlog of visas in every category of visa. It is a very serious backlog. The government is dedicated to getting through that backlog as quickly as possible. We are investing more money and more people to get through it. Particularly this summer, we are making every effort to ensure that every young Indian planning to study in Canada will get their student visas on time. We are doing everything we can to achieve that”.

MacKay mentioned that:

• Indians are at the top of every visa category to Canada be it student, temporary residence, permanent residence, or tourists.
• Canada was renegotiating its air services agreement with India and hoped to have more direct flights soon. Currently, there are 25 direct flights between India and Canada every week. 
• India and Canada had a $100 billion commercial relationship led by $70 billion in terms of Canadian portfolio investment and prominent private sector investors who were heavily invested in infrastructure, hotel chains and renewable energy in India.
• Two G-20 countries – India and Canada with the size of our economies should have a larger economic relationship. It is an underperforming relationship and we would like to change that through a trade and investment treaty

There were barriers to Canadian businesses doing business in India, as per Mr MacKay

“Those are exactly the issues we are trying to address in the agreement…negotiations on tariffs and non-tariff barriers, investment and investment protection, trade and services etc. There are lots of opportunities to open up the economy on both sides,” he added.

On the political relationship between India and Canada, the commissioner said that the relationship has become very strong now. He indicated that the trade ministers of India and Canada met in March 2022 and they were speaking on the phone every month to push forward the trade and investment negotiations while recalling the meetings of the foreign ministers in Kigali and the Prime Ministers of both the countries at the G7 summit in Germany.

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