I presume GP talks about tightening rules on immigration. Federal Skilled Worker program that was the main source of skilled immigrants to Canada several years ago was a point system where factors like your age, education, work experience, marital status, number of official languages you speak, and secured job offer were contributing to the overall score and your occupation did not matter.

Some time ago, this programme became limited to the specific list of occupations, with application limit per occupation and overall cap. And, software developers were not on the list. As of July 1st 2012, Canada temporarily stopped accepting applications until "early 2013" to implement some more changes.

Thanks.

After some Google-Fu I found the "proposed changes" you were talking about

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/...

and yes, software engineering is not on the list

http://www.canadavisa.com/new-instructions-federal-skilled-w...

The best option seems to be PhD! One can apply for permanent residency two years into their PhD programs.