Policy & Positions Manual
Policy Priority Area - Skills and Labour Shortage
The Need for Continued Reform of the Canadian Immigration System (2008)
The chamber movement has been the leading voice calling on governments and businesses to realize the scope of the challenge facing the province through a looming skills shortage in every sector, every industry, and in every region of BC. Until recently this call has been unheard.
Scope of the challenge
Employment in BC has risen by 371,400 jobs since December 2001, almost 90% of which are full-time positions. BC has had the highest employment growth rate in Canada during this period.
BC’s unemployment rate dropped to an all-time low of 3.9% in February 2007. Seven out of ten occupational categories had unemployment rates ranging from 0.5- 3.3%, well below what is considered the “full employment” level of 4-5% unemployment.
The numbers speak for themselves as to the need for skilled labour injection into Canada in order to maintain a competitive business climate. With baby boomers starting to retire, there will be a net increase in need to fill positions in both the white and blue collar sectors. In short, BC is facing a demographic time bomb that will see the province’s labour force participation rate fall from 72.8 to 67.3% by 2015. Perhaps more worrying is that this shift will occur as the province creates 1,000,000 new jobs over the next 12 years, with only 650,000 students in BC finishing grade 12 during the same time frame.
The Chamber will continue to work with government and businesses to enhance business’ ability to access under-represented groups such as aboriginals, youth at risk, and the disabled. However, the most important element of addressing this challenge will be immigration. Net international migration is now the single largest contributor to population growth in BC and it is estimated that by 2011 a full 100% of the net labour force growth will be through international immigration. The challenge is the fact that the current immigration system is simply not ensuring that we attract the quality of immigrants required, and those that are attracted are not being used to their full capacity.
Quite simply, the current immigration system is not capable of attracting ready-to-work immigrants with the required skills base to BC in a timely manner.
With this in mind the Chamber must congratulate the Provincial and Federal Government for beginning to address the concerns of business, particularly those in the west. We have seen:
- A new Canadian Experience Class;
- New Expedited Labour Market Opinion program;
- The overdue launch of the first phase of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office; and
- Expansion of the provincial Nominee Program that will see BC accept 15,000 high demand occupations by 2010/11.
While these initiatives have been welcome, they have been dealing with elements of the challenge and have so far ignored the core issue – the process itself. The Chamber believes that amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, as outlined in Bill C50, will go a long way towards addressing this missing piece.
As many other industrialized countries are finding themselves grappling with the same demographic crunch, they too will be competing for the same limited pool of skilled immigrants. Canada will face increased competition in attracting and retaining skilled workers that are essential to our international competitiveness.
The Chamber believes that the significant progress we have seen from both the Provincial and Federal Government represents a rebalancing of the system with economic priorities becoming the foundation of the immigration system.
However, the needs of the economy today will not be the needs of the economy tomorrow. As we have seen with the institutional refusal to undertake changes to the point system, without a more flexible approach we will almost inevitably return to a situation where the system quickly falls behind the needs of the economy.
The Chamber believes that we need to attract immigrants with managerial and professional skills. The province and our country are facing a skills shortage from the boardroom to the shop floor. Any system that does not recognize the need to address this simple reality at all levels is failing to address the needs of the economy; the intended focus of the immigrant program.
At present, the pass mark for qualifying as a skilled immigrant to Canada is 67%. This is assessed by reviewing education, skills, language and family. Conducting a quick test on the governments self assessment tool shows that a skilled tradesman with high school education, fluent English, and three years experience will not qualify as a skilled immigrant unless he has French language skills and immediate family already in Canada.
In addition to these limitations, immigrants applying for a working visa are also challenged with the Federal Government’s process. First, an individual must apply for a working visa which is a lengthy process (6 months). Unless the individual can make a case that their skills are in demand and a Canadian is not available to take the position, the immigration case is rejected. The problem with this system is the process involves both Human Resource and Development Canada (HRDC) as well as Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). If HRDC statistics show a lack of demand, the case is lost. Unfortunately, the statistics do not factor in localized or specialty needs. They are based solely on surveys and reports which are often flawed as CIC and HRDC do not collaborate with firms that require the skills.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the Provincial and Federal Government work together to:
- overhaul the permanent immigrant system by reviewing the point level required and by restructuring the allocation of points to emphasize the skills required by the economy;
- enhance the overall training strategy to ensure that visa officers receive sufficient and appropriate training and have the necessary tools and means to assess immigration applications more effectively and efficiently;
- provide education overseas to better prepare immigrants for integration into Canada;
- review the connection between HRDC, CIC and business desiring a specific skill and seeking to hire an immigrant due to lack of local talent to ensure the process is driven by a true reflection of supply and demand, rather than process driven;
- review the permanent and temporary immigration system with a view to enhancing small businesses ability to find and recruit foreign workers; and
- continue to expand the Expedited LMO Program to include other occupations where a identifiable shortage exists.
