Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - April 2007
Canada's immigration system is the focal point of much consternation as labour shortages and near-record employment levels fuelled by Alberta's booming economy have employers clamouring for foreign workers.
The call, however, to reduce overall processing times is coming from both those wanting to immigrate to Canada and a wide gamut of Alberta employers, who are grappling with a chronic shortage of workers in virtually every industry. Many would-be emigrants and temporary foreign workers are encountering “widespread uncertainties and unreasonable processing times abound” in their application processes.
Many professionals in Alberta, including a former immigration officer, have also pointed out that the "processing times for skilled workers to come to Canada as economic immigrants are absurd and beyond words."
Alberta has an estimated 62,000 full-time and part-time positions -- in small-and-medium sized businesses alone -- that went unfilled for at least four months in 2006, twice the number from the previous year. Alberta has the highest long-term job vacancy rate in Canada, at 6.3%, with 42 per cent of small businesses reporting one or more vacancies of at least four months. Alberta also created 27 per cent of all new jobs in the country in 2006. It is still widely expected that the current labour shortage will become even more critical in the next decade.
According to provincial forecasts, 400,000 new jobs will be created in Alberta between 2004 and 2014, but only about 300,000 new workers will enter the labour market. As a result, over the next decade Alberta will be short some 100,000 workers.
Over the past six months, the federal government has ushered in a series of piecemeal changes to the temporary foreign worker program in an effort to address the “snail's-pace processing times and program complexities” that have left potential workers and employers frustrated.
The processing time to immigrate to Canada as skilled workers under the economic category -- one of three broad categories from which immigrants are selected as permanent residents by Citizen and Immigration Canada – are too long. Delays have been attributed to under-resourced federal government departments, security checks, and strict English and French language requirements.
There is a concern that the current economic permanent immigration system is far removed from the economic needs of the individual provinces and is therefore proving to be ineffective. At present the system is, as stated by Kelly, “not even remotely targeted to fill labour market demands” and the employment growth which has tripled in the past year.
Many have been advocating the forging of a “made-in-Alberta” solution to the labour shortage by creating a de facto provincial immigration department. This would entails persuading the federal government to expand Alberta's provincial nominee vehicle to basically allow employers the same degree of flexibility they have under the temporary foreign program. An employer would be able to nominate an individual in their home country for permanent immigration, and therefore allow for direct, immigration to the province.
It is widely anticipated that Ottawa will soon announce an immigration deal with Alberta that gives the province more control over the type of immigrant worker it needs, although the details aren't yet known.
Source:
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=630f0751-9d53-4869-95fb-4f6fe9f4a24c
