When the government added a new immigration category that allowed the immigration minister to move applicants to the front of the line, “a rules-based system was replaced with a discretion-based system,” say economists David Green, Philip Oreopoulos, Craig Riddell, Mikal Skuterud and Christopher Worswick in an op-ed. The minister-controlled category system is “opaque” and vulnerable to lobbying, they say, arguing the shift, combined with provincial nominee programs and a collapsing international-student pipeline, is squeezing out high-skilled immigrants and discouraging global talent. Calling the current framework “a bungled system,” they urge returning to a system that prioritizes candidates with the highest future earnings and re-establishes trust in Canada’s education-driven immigration pathway.