Category Archives: Canadian job market

Canadian Immigration Department Finalizes Occupation List for Federal Skilled Trades Program

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Welders will be one of the occupations that will be accepted without a 100 application sub-cap under the new Federal Skilled Trade Program (Joe Mabel)

CICS News has learned that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has made a final decision on which occupations will be eligible for the new Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) that is scheduled to open on January 2nd.

CIC is expected to announce that the FSTP will give occupations one of two treatments; Group A occupations will be sub-capped at 100 applications per year for that particular occupation, and Group B occupations will have no sub-cap and will be accepted until the program’s total cap of 3,000 applications has been reached for the year.

Occupations within Group A will be:

  • Contractors and supervisors in electrical trades and
    telecommunications occupations
  • Contractors and supervisors in carpentry trades
  • Contractors and supervisors in other construction trades,
    installers, repairers and servicers
  • Carpenters
  • Contractors and supervisors in mechanic trades
  • Contractors and supervisors for heavy equipment operator
    crews
  • Supervisors in logging and forestry
  • Supervisors in mining and quarrying
  • Contractors and supervisors in oil and gas drilling services
  • Logging machinery operators
  • Agricultural service contractors, farm supervisors and
    specialized livestock workers
  • Supervisors, mineral and metal processing
  • Supervisors in petroleum, gas and chemical processing
    and utilities
  • Supervisors in plastic and rubber products manufacturing
  • Central control and process operators, mineral and metal
    processing
  • Power engineers and power systems operators
  • Water and waste treatment plant operators

Occupations within Group B will be:

  • Machinists and machining and tooling inspectors
  • Sheet metal workers
  • Structural metal and plate work fabricators and fitters
  • Ironworkers
  • Welders and related machine operators
  • Electricians (except industrial and power system)
  • Industrial electricians
  • Power system electricians
  • Electrical power line and cable workers
  • Telecommunications line and cable workers
  • Telecommunications installation and repair workers
  • Plumbers
  • Steamfitters, pipefitters and sprinkler system installers
  • Gas fitters
  • Construction millwrights and industrial mechanics
  • Heavy-duty equipment mechanics
  • Refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics
  • Railway carmen/women
  • Aircraft mechanics and aircraft inspectors
  • Elevator constructors and mechanics
  • Crane operators
  • Drillers and blasters — surface, mining, quarrying and
    construction
  • Water well drillers
  • Underground production and development miners
  • Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and related
    workers
  • Petroleum, gas and chemical process operators

The FSTP is intended to meet labour shortages in Canada’s resource sectors by creating a path to immigration for foreign nationals skilled in high-demand trades like welding and drilling.

Employment Rate of Canada’s Immigrants, Except Filipinos, Trailing National Average

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A Filipino family. Filipinos have the highest employment rate of any ethnicity in Canada, and are now the largest group of new immigrants in Canada (Henry Lopez)

A Statistics Canada report released last week shows Canadian immigrants continuing to experience lower employment rates than the general population, with the gap growing since the 2008 financial crisis.

According to the report, the employment rate of immigrants aged 25 to 54 in 2011 was 75.6 percent, while that of Canadian-born residents was 82.9 percent. Both Canadian born residents and immigrants saw their employment rate fall between 2008 and 2011, by 1.8 and 1.2 percentage points, respectively.

Immigrants from the Philippines bucked the trend, with the highest employment rate of any ethnicity in Canada, at 85.6 percent.

The Philippines has also recently become the largest source of immigrants for Canada, contributing 13 percent of the new immigrant population in 2011, ahead of India (10.8 percent) and China (10.8 percent), which will likely alleviate the immigrant-Canadian-born employment gap in the coming years.

Differences across provinces

Immigrant employment rates varied across the provinces, with Quebec having the worst rates, and Alberta and Manitoba the best.

The employment gap between the Canadian born and immigrants was lowest in the Atlantic region (0.8 percentage points), but the region’s immigrant employment rate was well below the leaders, Alberta and Manitoba, where the overall employment situation is much better and immigrants are employed at rates of 82.5 and 82.3 percent.

Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, had a below-average immigrant employment rate of 75.4 percent, significantly lower than that of its Canadian born population of 83.3 percent.

The poor showing of Ontario could be partially due to the declining proportion of the province’s immigrant population who are ‘economic immigrants’, meaning those admitted through a skilled worker or investor immigration program, as opposed to family re-unification and refugee programs.

While approximately 52 percent of Ontario’s immigrants are economic immigrants, the average across Canada is 70 percent, a proportion that Ontario’s provincial government wants the province to match.

Improved employment rates over time

The data released also shows that immigrant employment rates rise the longer they have been in the country, starting at 63.5 percent among very recent immigrants (those in the country for five years or less) and increasing to 79.8 percent among immigrants that have been in the country for more than a decade.

Previous analyses done by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) have found that proficiency in French or English is among the best predictors of employment and economic success for immigrants, so these findings are not surprising.

To improve the economic performance of those admitted to Canada, CIC is increasing the language requirements for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, which is scheduled to resume in early 2013.

Canadian Unions Seeking Roll Back of Temporary Foreign Worker Program

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Two major Canadian unions have asked a federal court for an injunction to prevent the federal government from granting work permits for the Murray River project until their case has been heard (Markus Schweiss)

Two trade unions have filed an application in federal court to force the federal government to reverse its decision to grant some 200 work permits to temporary foreign workers from China that a Canadian company wants to hire to run a new mine in British Columbia.

The International Union of Operating Engineers and the Construction and Specialized Workers Union, which together represent the majority of workers employed in Canadian mines, are asking for a judicial review to over-turn the Canadian government’s grant of Labour Market Opinions (LMOs) to HD Mining International, the operator of the Murray River project near Tumbler Ridge, BC, near the Alberta border.

The unions argue that the decision harms Canadian wage-earners and does not meet HRSDC’s own standards for receiving approval to hire temporary foreign workers.

Under Canadian immigration law, a company wishing to hire a temporary foreign worker is required to apply to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) for a LMO, which HRSDC approves if it meets five main conditions:

  • the wages and working conditions offered are consistent with prevailing norms for the occupation in Canada;
  • the foreign worker would fill a pressing labour shortage;
  • there is no labour dispute between a union and the employer in progress;
  • the employer made a significant effort to recruit or train Canadians or permanent residents for the position that the temporary foreign worker will fill;
  • the foreign worker will result in a net benefit to the Canadian economy and workers

According to an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun on Wednesday by Brian Cochrane, a business manager for Local 115 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, the unions have succeeded in forcing the federal government to disclose internal documents relating to HD Mining’s application for the LMOs:

We have been successful in court so far. We have been granted standing by the court to challenge the federal government on these LMOs, and we have succeeded in forcing them to release more than 85 pages of secret documents, despite their strong objections. We are now continuing to seek a full judicial review of the temporary foreign workers program.

HD Mining’s transition plan

Included among the documents disclosed is a transition plan that HD Mining International submitted to HRSDC in its LMO application, which outlines how it said it will replace its temporary foreign workforce with Canadians over a period of 14 years.

The transition plan calls for the first Canadian workers to begin working at the mine in four years, and for 10 percent of the foreign workforce to be replaced by Canadians every year for the next 10 years afterwards, as they are trained.

To demonstrate its intention of following through with its plan and eventually hiring Canadians, HD Mining recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Northern Lights College to develop an underground mining education program that will train Canadians for positions in the mine.

The transition plan is touted by the mining company as evidence that the use of foreign workers will be temporary, while the unions and other critics of the foreign worker decision say that the 14 year length of the transition period shows the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is being mis-used for long term labour needs.

Wider questions about Temporary Foreign Worker Program

The unions’ court challenge of the HRSDC’s LMO decision on HD Mining and the subsequent media attention it received spurred the federal government to announce a review of the entire Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to determine if it was too lenient in granting work permits.

The review comes amid a steadily increasing temporary foreign worker population, from approximately 100,000 in 2002 to over 300,000 today, which has drawn criticism from a diverse coalition that includes labour union advocates and free-market economists.

In one example, SFU economist and senior fellow at the free-market-leaning Fraser Institute Herbert Grubel last month called the TFWP a subsidy for business that comes at the expense of lower Canadian wages, a statement that is virtually indistinguishable from many that are coming from much more left-leaning labour unions.

Much of public opinion is also cool to the foreign worker program, with a CBC/Nanos survey this month showing that 68 percent of respondents said they were against allowing temporary foreign workers into the country if there were Canadians looking for work who are qualified for the same jobs.

Despite the opposition, there is no sign that the demand for temporary foreign workers from Canadian businesses will slow down soon, as companies in the resources sectors find it difficult to meet their labour needs in often inhospitable locations, and various occupations that are undesirable to Canada’s workers for the wages offered face labour shortages.

Federal Government Backed Volunteer-Led Effort Promotes Canadian Start-Ups

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The Startup Canada National Tour at its finale in Vancouver. The tour took Startup Canada to 40 Canadian cities where it consulted with over 20,000 people over six months (Cyprian Szalankiewicz)

Startup Canada, an entrepreneur-led government-backed non-profit organization, announced its action plan for increasing entrepreneurship in the country on Tuesday. The organization unveiled blueprints of a national network to support and connect entrepreneurial communities and a media campaign to create a strong entrepreneurial culture in Canada.

The action plan is the product of the Start-Up Canada National Tour which took the organization across the country from May to September 2012 and solicited input from over 20,000 entrepreneurs in 40 cities on how to create a national entrepreneur brand and foster Canada’s start-ups.

The action plan calls for three initiatives:

  • Startup Canada Connect: a social network to connect entrepreneurs
  • Startup Canada Communities: the creation of local entrepreneur communities, beginning with a pilot in 10 cities, which will organize local events, provide contacts to mentors, and support entrepreneurs as they develop their businesses
  • Startup Canada Campaign: a national media campaign to tell the stories of entrepreneurs in order to raise awareness of the role they play in Canada’s economy and promote them as role models in the country

Startup Canada is looking to launch the initiatives, including the Startup Canada Connect online social network, by May 2013, and is seeking to finance them through corporate sponsorships and crowd-funding.

Its current sponsors, which supported the Startup Canada National Tour, include Gowlings, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, Artik Promotions, PubliAir, and KA Media.

The organization launched its crowd-funding campaign on Tuesday through the Indiegogo platform: http://www.indiegogo.com/startupcanada and is looking to raise $100,000 in 34 days.

The action plan has been promoted by several federal officials, including Minister of State Small Business and Tourism Maxime Bernier, who spoke at an organization event in Montreal, and Industry Minister Tony Clement who was a speaker at an event in Ottawa, in Tuesday’s kick-off for the Startup Canada blue-print.

Canadian Farmers Income Increased by 53% in 2011

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Canada's prairie provinces produce the majority of agricultural products in Canada. The province of Saskatchewan is sometimes known as the 'breadbasket' of the country for producing nearly 60 percent of grain grown in the country

Canadian farm income increased by 53 percent in 2011 from 2010 according to Statistics Canada. Realized net income, meaning farm income after operating expenses and depreciation, amounted to $5.7 billion last year, with farmers making gains despite a large increase in costs.

The 2011 gains follow a 19 percent increase in income in 2010 and a 19.6 percent decline in 2009 following the global financial crisis.

Agriculture and agrifoods is an important sector of the Canadian economy, accounting for 8 percent of its GDP, over $40 billion in export revenue, and nearly one in eight jobs in the country.

Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers in the world. Its prairie provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, produce a bulk of the agricultural products in the country. Nearly 60 percent of Canadian grain is grown in Saskatchewan, while nearly 50 percent of Canadian beef is produced in Alberta.

The prairie provinces have outperformed the rest of Canada in economic growth over the last several year and have among the best labour markets in North America.

Federal, Provincial Governments Reach Agreement on Future Canadian Immigration System

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Provincial immigration ministers met over two days in Toronto last week to discuss details of the new Expression of Interest (EOI) immigration system (Citizenship and Immigration Canada)

Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments concluded two days of meetings on Friday with an agreement on the future of Canada’s immigration system which will give the provinces a central role in immigrant selection.

On the agenda for the FPT immigration ministers were the details of the upcoming Expression of Interest (EOI) model for the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, which Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is planning to implement by the end of 2014.

The EOI model is an immigrant selection process which requires those seeking to immigrate to first file a simplified application, or “Expression of Interest”, with immigration authorities.

From that pool of applicants, the most promising candidates, based on the immigration department’s selection criteria, are then selected, and invited to submit a full application with includes documentation to prove their claimed qualifications.

The EOI model was first adopted by New Zealand and then more recently by Australia. CIC believes it holds the promise of eliminating the application back-logs that have plagued Canada’s immigration department over the last decade while admitting immigrants with the language, education, age and skill profiles needed to be successful in the Canadian labour market.

The FPT meeting, which was attended by all provincial and territorial immigration minister with the exception of the immigration minister of Quebec, gave unanimous approval for an EOI model for Canada in which provinces and employers select the most promising candidates from the list of EOI applicants, who are then selected to be among the limited number of applicants to be invited to submit a full application.

Co-Chairing the FPT Meeting was Alberta Minister of Enterprise and Advanced Education, Stephen Khan, who voiced the provincial ministers’ support for the plan:

“On behalf of the provinces and territories, we look forward to continuing our work with the Government of Canada to transform the immigration system, making it faster and more responsive to provincial/territorial needs.”

Immigration Minister Calls on Regulators to Reduce Barriers for Canada’s Immigrants

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Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is seeking the cooperation of Canada's self-regulatory organizations in making it easier for new Canadians to get licensed to work in their field in Canada

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney attended the annual conference for Canada’s self-regulatory organizations (SROs) today and asked for their cooperation in helping recent immigrants to Canada become licensed in their field.

The Canadian Regulators Conference, held in Ottawa on November 8th and 9th, is organized by the Canadian Network of National Associations of Regulators (CNNAR), an association made up of some of Canada’s largest SROs, including the Canadian Nurses Association, the Ontario College of Teachers, and the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada.

CNNAR’s annual conferences are intended to foster information sharing on strategies and best practices among regulatory organizations, and are likely seen by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) as an ideal platform to promote its message of the need to increase regulatory recognition of foreign credentials and licensing of foreign-trained professionals.

Canada’s SROs have been under some criticism recently for occupational regulations that have hampered the labour market integration of Canada’s immigrants.

A report from the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network (CLSRN) this month estimates that licensure barriers that prevent immigrants from working in their field of study cost the Canadian economy $2-5.9 billion a year in lost productivity and tax revenue.

Immigrating to Canada to Escape American Election Results

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Resource hubs like northern Alberta's oil sands offer prospective immigrants numerous jobs, which can be the best first step to immigrating to Canada

When Americans look for a country to flee to in the event of their favoured candidate losing the presidential elections, they inevitably look to Canada, their (mostly) English speaking cousin to the North.

For the past three decades, it has been predominantly supporters of Democratic candidates that have made the immigration ultimatum, as Canada has been perceived to align with their party on foreign policy, income redistribution, and cultural issues.

This election season though, the warnings of immigrating to Canada have taken on a more bi-partisan quality, as Canada’s lower government debt levels, stronger economy, tighter control over illegal immigration, more reserved culture, and what many perceive as overall more functional governance, appeals to many conservative-leaning voters.

The growing appeal of Canada to American conservatives also stems from a strong personal dislike that many of them have for Obama, for reasons both ridiculous/bigoted – e.g. conspiracy theories of Obama being a secret Muslim – and ideological.

Whatever the appeal, the number of Americans who actually follow through with their threats and make the move is few. There is no statistically significant spike in immigration levels from the U.S. following presidential elections.

The length and complexity of the Canadian immigration process requires a significant investment of time and a long-term commitment that political passions typically do not motivate.

Immigration Pointers

If you are an American and, having read all of this, still intend to move to Canada, keep these points in mind:

  • Getting a job in Canada is the most practical way for Americans to become landed immigrants. Having Canadian work experience confers significant advantages for foreign nationals applying for Canadian permanent residency through several immigration programs.
  • Occupations not traditionally viewed as prestigious, like heavy duty mechanics and welding, can give you the best opportunity of getting a job offer and a work permit in Canada, which will start your process of becoming a Canadian.
  • Less populated provinces with booming resource-industries, like Alberta, have better job markets and easier paths to immigration than the immigrant magnets of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

As an American, you can take comfort in the fact that you will likely have an easier time immigrating than the nationals of many other countries, as proficiency in one of Canada’s official languages (English and French), is one of the most important criteria in Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s assessment of a permanent residence application.

Protectionist Workplace Regulations Marginalizing Canadian Immigrants -Vancouver Sun

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A new CLSRN study finds that occupational licensing requirements are preventing many Canadian immigrants from working in their field of study

An article in Monday’s Vancouver Sun blames trade and professional associations for hampering the economic integration of Canadian immigrants.

The story, by columnist Don Cayo, cites a new report by Canadian researchers that finds that occupational licensing is preventing immigrants to Canada from working in their field of study, at a cost of $2-5.9 billion a year to the country’s economy.

The Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network (CLSRN) report notes that a full 20 percent of workers in the Canadian labour market now work in an occupation that requires a license, and that these licenses create significant barriers to entry that take up to a decade for a new immigrant to overcome.

Drawing from several studies authored by CLSRN researchers, the report finds that the average Canadian immigrant experiences an immediate drop in the skill level of their occupation upon arriving in Canada, and that even after four years, only 20 percent of women and 25 percent of men are working in their pre-immigration occupation.

Commenting on the report’s findings, Cayo says the mismatch between immigrants’ work experience and their post-immigration occupation is due to self-regulating trade and professional associations imposing licensing requirements in order to limit competition to their members:

Self-serving self-regulators are capable of a lot of sanctimonious bumph — and of greatly complicating accreditation procedures — to minimize the competition and protect their comfortable sinecures. Simply put, the old boys are way too prone to put down the “new kids on the block.”

He argues that unless self-regulating labour associations reduce regulatory barriers to entry in their fields, the government should repeal their regulatory powers.

Occupational licensing and the immigrant income gap

The income gap between recent immigrants and native-born Canadians has grown from 20 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 2011, despite the proportion of recent immigrants with a university degree increasing from 10 percent in 1980 to over 54 percent in 2007 – or more than double that of native-born Canadians.

One possible explanation is the shift to an immigration selection criteria that favours foreign professionals who are trained for occupations that are regulated in Canada, like teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, engineers and veterinarians.

Canadian Non-Partisan Think Tank Finds Oil Sands Greatly Benefit Country’s Economy

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A technician at Syncrude, the largest producer of crude oil derived from the Athabasca oil sands (Syncrude Canada Ltd.)

The Conference Board of Canada (CBoC), the largest non-partisan think tank in Canada, has published a study today showing that development of northern Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands will create over 3.2 million person-years of employment in Canada over the next 25 years, a third of them in provinces other than Alberta.

The CBoC report projects $364 billion in investment will be made into developing Canada’s oil sands deposits over the next 25 years, which will create 880,000 person-years of employment in projects directly related to oil sands development and 1.45 million in production of goods/services linked to the investment through the supply-chain.

The combined 2.3 million person-years of employment are projected by the study to earn $172 billion in income, which will generate another 880,000 person-years of employment through the wealth effect of the employees spending their income.

The report estimates that over 90 percent of the direct-effects employment, 70 percent of the supply chain employment, and 59 percent of the wealth effect employment will be generated in Alberta, where the investment activity will occur.

Other Canadian regions will benefit in the order of Ontario, deriving the largest benefit, then BC, Quebec, the Prairies, and Atlantic Canada, which will see the smallest gain in oil-sands-investment-related employment.

The CBoC report only studied the projected effects of the oil sands investment, and not the oil production itself, which it estimates will be even larger than the investment activity.

The report projects Canadian oil exports will increase by 2.9 million barrels of oil per day (mmbd), from 2011 levels, to 4 mmbd of oil by 2035, increasing direct employment in the oil and gas industry to 175,000.

Continued immigration into Alberta

The employment effects predicted by the CBoC study suggest that high-levels of inter-provincial and international immigration into Alberta will continue for the forseeable future.

Alberta led Canadian provinces last year with a population growth rate of 2.5 percent, thanks to having the highest per capita GDP and, alongside Saskatchewan, the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.