Immigration Minister Judy Sgro, embroiled in a controversy over a residency visa awarded to a Romanian stripper, now says she plans to change the rules that exotic dancers can use to emigrate to Canada.

Under the present rules exotic dancing is classified as one of the jobs the Labour Department monitors for shortages, making it easier for people to emigrate and fill those jobs.

But on Thursday, Sgro said it's a difficult decision, but it's about to change.

Immigration Minister Judy Sgro responds to questions from the opposition. (CP Photo)

"When you talk to the women who are so desperate for a way out of [their] countries they say, 'Please keep this program because it does provide us with an opportunity – as much as we may not like it or approve of it – a chance of a better life.'"

Sgro says once the women get to Canada they often run into problems. "They don't have a lot of language skills and they're ripe for exploitation."

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan is just as uncomfortable having exotic dancing on an immigration list. "I am certainly not happy with any immigration policy that would single out sex trade, or exotic dancers to enter this country."

The opposition is unhappy too. They have called for Sgro's resignation after she gave a Romanian exotic dancer a ministerial permit, allowing her to remain in Canada.

Also, Sgro's chief of staff, when he was an executive assistant, met with a strip club owner to review a list of women the club owner wanted to bring into the country.

Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy questions why exotic dancers are a priority when "thousands of immigrants and their families are caught in the enormous immigration backlog. They and their MPs often can't get a response from the minister."

Sgro says she is changing the system and she plans to have applications from exotic dancers looked at on a case by case basis.

She says she also wants to make sure there are support systems in place once they arrive.

Federal ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro is conducting his own review of Sgro's decision to give the Romanian woman a ministerial permit.

It's not known when the commissioner will be finished with that investigation.