McGuinty's Preferential Immigrant Hiring Scheme, Who Actually Benefits?

With the fall election off and running, Dalton McGuinty has released a policy that is even stranger once you look into it. From my take, a $10,000 tax credit is available to employers that hire immigrants for their first job. Not surprisingly that's led to it being labeled as affirmative action and histrionics have ensued.

What's really strange is who is eligible. Here's a quote from a CBC article: "But the credit doesn't apply to those who aren't Canadian citizens – it applies to new Canadians who live in Ontario and have been in the country for up to five years."

Now that's strange. Landed immigrants aren't eligible, only citizens, but only for their first job. After arriving, citizenship typically takes several years. So basically to be eligible for this credit, one has to arrive, not work until citizenship is gained and then apply for a job before the five years is up. That does not seem like many would actually use this. The only people I see using it, are those that come on a student visa, start the process for landed immigrant status and become a citizen and then use this when the studies are done. I'm assuming the purpose of the program is to make it look like immigrants will be helped for electoral purposes, when in fact almost none will benefit.