If a party host asked ‘would you please come to my dinner get together, but don’t expect a place to sit, or any refreshments, or even a hanger for your jacket’ you might be justified in concluding that your host is a tad inhospitable, to put it mildly. How about a country that asks, ‘skilled and professionally trained immigrants, please come to work in this country, but we won’t recognize your education and credentials, and don’t expect to work in your chosen profession unless you’re ready to jump over a lot of costly and time-consuming hurdles.’ Does that sound too inviting?
And yet, Canadian governments, both federal and provincial, have been extending that frosty welcome (pun intended) to potential and actual professional, well educated, and skilled immigrants for decades. Is medical or automotive mechanic training so much better in Canada compared to the rest of the world that we absolutely insist new immigrants retrain anew so they can continue working in their chosen profession once they arrive in the Great White North, at our behest? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
It looks like the lack of wisdom in that policy paradigm is starting to really resonate with the Federal government, which just took further steps towards reducing unnecessary obstacles, and significantly easing the onerousness of having credentials earned in another country recognized here in Canada for several essential healthcare professions. Just over two months ago, Ottawa renewed its commitment to the Foreign Credential Recognition Program by agreeing to fund fifteen community-based programs that provide “internationally educated professionals with the support and experience they need to pursue opportunities in Canada’s health care sector”; a worthwhile and overdue effort to expedite the entry of foreign trained professionals into the Canadian healthcare industry. The new cash infusion of $86 million has three stated goals:
– Improve Canada’s system for recognizing foreign credentials
– Help skilled immigrants with labour market entry, integration, and achieving long-term success
– Facilitate the ability and mobility of new immigrants to work in different provinces
Though the Foreign Credential Recognition Program has been around since 2010 and has provided varying amounts of funds to nearly a hundred projects the additional millions will specifically support credentialing, mentorship programs, and eventual workforce entry for immigrants with training as nurses, medical lab technologists, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, paramedics, and dentists. Also, the new funds are being disbursed Canada wide and should help attract qualified immigrants to all the provinces, including here in the Maritimes where skill shortages in the healthcare industry are especially severe.
If the extra support proves useful and achieves its goals, it should be extended to other industries and sectors that are also clamoring for more skilled workers. It’s no secret for example that the Canadian construction and transport industries have been ringing alarm bells for years about ongoing difficulties in recruiting enough workers in general, and a lack of skilled labourers in particular. How about another targeted funding top-up to the Foreign Credential Recognition Program for skilled trades people, such as professional welders, electricians and carpenters? Surely Canada could use more immigrants-cum-skilled workers with that kind of know-how to help build more homes and ameliorate the current housing crises.
To that end, if the Foreign Credential Recognition Program can markedly add to the supply of skilled healthcare workers over the next few years, the federal government should take steps to seriously ramp up and widen the program so it can prepare a lot more skilled immigrants for new careers in their chosen fields of work, here in Canada.
- Employment and Social Development Canada (Jan 2024). Foreign Credentials Recognition Program. <https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2024/01/foreign-credentials-recognition-program.html>.
- Recognition of the Foreign Qualifications of Immigrants. <https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2021/bdp-lop/bp/YM32-2-2020-86-eng.pdf>.
- Foreign Credential Recognition Program: Approved Projects. <https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/foreign-credential-recognition/approved-projects.html#wb-auto-4>.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
