oceanMDX

More immigrants needed for workforce: Minister
FROM CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — Canada's labour minister says the country may need to consider doubling immigration levels to help fill enormous gaps in its skilled workforce.
And even that won't be enough to cope with the shortage of trained workers and lagging productivity, Joe Fontana said today.
As part of a broader review of workforce issues, Canadians must look at dramatically boosting the number of workers it brings in from overseas as well improving skills training for underutilized employees, Fontana told The Canadian Press.
"We will have to attract many more immigrants, and the country and the government already knows that," said Fontana, minister of labour and social housing.
"But even if we move to 300,000 to 400,000 to 500,000 (new) people — that ain't going to do it."
Workers already on the job must upgrade their skills and employers have to make better use of the existing pool of employees, many of whom are underutilized, he said.
"There are a whole bunch of under-employed people and therefore, we have to do an awful lot of training of the existing people-force that we have to make sure that they are in fact going to be able to do the jobs."
Canada would essentially have to double its current immigration levels if it were to reach that level of 500,000 new workers.
Canada admitted just over 221,000 permanent residents this year, Immigration and Citizenship Minister Judy Sgro said in her annual report to Parliament this week.
Next year's target is 220,000 to 245,000 new permanent residents.
But many newcomers still struggle to get their professional credentials recognized in Canada, Sgro noted.
"We recognize that it is vital that Canada continues to be a destination of choice for immigrants," she said.
"To achieve this, we must remove any barriers."
Sgro couldn't be reached for further comment on Fontana's suggestions Friday.
But critics were quick to respond.
Conservative Immigration critic Diane Ablonczy said the Liberal government must make better use of the skilled workers already here, before it tries to meet and beat immigration targets.
That means finding much more efficient ways of formally accepting professional certification and education from other countries. Otherwise a huge pool of skilled workers will continue to be wasted, Ablonczy said in an interview from her riding in Calgary.
She noted that far too many skilled workers — from medical doctors to university professors — are coming to Canada to find the only jobs they can get are stocking vending machines or delivering pizza.
"Do we really need any more PhDs driving cab in Toronto?"
The Immigration department has been working on ways improve integration of new workers, including better language training and recognizing foreign credentials.
Business and labour groups are calling on Ottawa to not only bring in more skilled workers but move to faster on accepting their credentials so they can apply their skills here.
Ottawa must also help employers boost overall staff productivity, said Fontana.
"Immigration isn't going to do it all. . .We've got under-employment and we need to fix that."
Lifelong learning and retraining and more flexible workplaces would help, he said.
"You make (workplaces) family-friendly places, you make them learning workplaces, you introduce hours that make sense, (introduce) flexibility," said Fontana.
"People — if they're too stressed, if they're too tired — let's face it, are not working to capacity."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...acodalogin=yes

oceanMDX

Well, what do you think about that?

wcitizen

Are businesses really looking for more new immigrants? If yes, why they are so reluctant on hiring immigrants and ask for Canadian Experience?

dingbat

Window dressing. I saw the same speech in 1991 before the influx of Hong Kong Chinese in the West. Businesses here (in my experience of 13 years in and out of Canada working and the last 8+ actually living here) do not want foreigners; they want them to do the jobs that home grown Canadians won't do. The UK did the same to Jamaican immigrants and Ugandan Asians in the 1960's and early 1970's. Until Canada integrates itself with the developed world outside the US, it will continue to discriminate and have no understanding of the transferable qualities of training and professional credentials obtained elsewhere.

Glaswegian

The thing is that you only get this effect for the first generation. You can tell I'm not Canadian the minute I speak - I'm sure its worse for visible minorities. If I thought for a minute my children were destined to be marginalised because they were not born in Canada then we would be gone! Its the one thing that will certainly make us move on no matter how much we like Calgary!

There is no point in accepting immigrants with high levels of skills only for them to stack shelves/drive cabs etc - and there is no point in formally accepting qualifications only to find that in reality employers dont accept them!

Mrs G

dingbat

I hope you are right about the first generation thing. My fifteen year old graduates in three years and I wonder how she will fare sometimes. You can tell she is English the minute she opens her gob too. Those immigrants I work with whom are visible minorities - no, marginalization continues to be an issue.

indybrit

Canada does lack in the area of training its workforce and quite frankly has no real structured apprenticeship program for skilled trades.
In the UK skilled trades have always been very well organized and supported. Kids going through an apprenticeship usually attend college and are paid as if they were at work.
Not so in Canada. When I arrived in Ontario 9 years ago I was horrified to learn that apprentices had to sign on unemployment while they were doing the college part of their apprenticeship. Not much of a way to entice people into the industry. It's actually very pathetic and it's absolutely no wonder why Canada lacks in the area of skilled trades.

CalgaryAMC

I have never seen any evidence that Canada has a shortage of skilled workers. It does, however, have the most severe shortage of jobs in the English-speaking world.

SANDRAPAUL

It all depends on how you dress the window. The UK has a quoted good record on unemployment as of now. The way the numbers are listed has been changed in favour of hiding the facts. The governement has over the last 7 years been a massive employer - paid for by tax payers money. These people are now being listed as being for the chop. Window dressing!

IckleHelen

Which industries are the shortages supposed to be in?

mrs. liftman

Healthcare. HA!

hot wasabi peas

I have the opposite experience. I co-founded a software development company and we had difficulties finding adequately skilled employees. After hiring some international university students (mainly from China/Hong Kong and Japan) through a university-work experience program, we actively helped those who wanted to immigrate to Canada through the process - because we really needed their skills. The company benefitted greatly because of not only their skill but because of a more global perspective they offered our business and products. (Plus I was introduced to my current addiction - hot wasabi peas). About three quarters of the highly skilled employees now are from the Pacific rim (China, Japan, Taiwan). All of the other grunts in the office doing not as highly skilled work are all Canadians (of various colours).

I don't deny that Canada's economic ties are primarily with the US but I think the trend (at least on the west coast) for a while now has been to foster ties with China/Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, etc. instead of Europe.

oceanMDX

There is no way that your children will be marginalized because they were not born in Canada. That I can guarantee!

For example, check out what Mike Lazaridis has achieved in Canada. His family immigrated to Canada when he was 4 years old.

oceanMDX

Of course you - as a social worker - only see the 2% (or whatever the percentage is) that have serious problems. You don't work with the vast majority that are managing to do okay.

oceanMDX

Actually, you have seen loads of evidence that Canada has a shortage of skilled workers - because I have shown it to you over time on this forum. For some reason, you choose to ignore that evidence. You don't have to take my word for it regarding the shortage, just try to find a family doctor in any community in Canada, or just read the news once in a while.

To your second point, do you have any documentary evidence for such a claim? In fact, Canada has had one of the best records for job growth in the G7 for several years now.

"Canadian job growth this year and next should be weaker than the blistering pace set in 2002 and 2003 as the domestic economy contends with global adjustments, Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said on Wednesday."

http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2004/...tr1341251.html

"The red-hot Canadian employment market churned out an eye-popping 53,000 new jobs in December, in stark contrast to the United States, which added an anemic 1,000 bodies to the payrolls, raising doubts about the staying power of the economic recovery there."

http://www.workopolis.com/servlet/Co...n=Bruce_Little