Should immigrants to Canada have to speak either English or French?

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney wants to get tough on language.

During a press conference, Thursday, Kenney chided the provinces for their lax language requirements with regards to the Provincial Nominee Program, an immigration scheme which allows provinces to choose immigrants based on local labour needs.

"I guess what we're saying to (the provinces) is it doesn't make a lot of sense to invite someone to Canada who doesn't speak any English," Kenney said according to the Canadian Press.

"It's a partnership, not an Ottawa-knows-best situation, but at the end of the day we are going to be quite assertive in saying that we do think it's best to have a standard, national language benchmark."

Immigration lawyer Narendar Kang says that in British Columbia, at least, the PNP works just fine without the language requirements as the Federal Government would like to now impose.

"Employers in B.C. have an established track record of recruiting employees with specialized skills without English fluency. For example, an Italian granite worker renowned for his meticulous workmanship would no longer qualify given a lack of fluency in English or French," Kang told Yahoo! Canada News.

"The language requirement is not really relevant and amounts to an artificial barrier to the (province's) economic needs. The business or employer is best positioned to know and once qualified by the BC PNP authorities, that ought to be the end of the matter without Federal meddling."

Newspaper editor Paul Dhillon told Yahoo! that Kenney's announcement has more to do with conservative ideology than good policy.

"It's a continuation of the Conservative's agenda to reduce immigration from the two big hubs of Asia - India and China. They have cleverly brought in changes to curtail immigration," says Dhillon, editor of the Indo-Canadian Link.

"Eventually there will be a backlash from the immigrant communities against the Conservatives over these drastic changes."