Immigration Announcements - a sign of things to come

We all know that Canada’s, and especially British Columbia and Alberta’s, labour markets, are suffering from a major shortage these days. In August two major announcements were made to address this problem. One announcement came from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”), and the other from the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (“BC PNP”).

These two announcements reflect the current trend in Canadian Immigration Policy. The Federal government is focusing on broader issues, while the provinces doing more and more of the work to actually facilitate entry of immigrants and workers that address real labour market shortages.

CIC announced the creation of Temporary Foreign Worker Units (“TFWU”) in Vancouver and Calgary. According to CIC, the TWFU’s will offer guidance to employers and human resources service providers in those two cities seeking to employ foreign workers who are exempted from the labour market confirmation process. This does not reflect a policy shift, but rather a re-allocation of resources. If the pilot project is successful, CIC will likely expand the program across much of Canada.

Essentially, employers will be able to vet applications for work permits to the TFWU’s or get advice on what kind of application to create in advance of a foreign worker showing up at port of entry to file an application for a work permit.

The impact from this project should be noticeable to some, but largely ineffective regarding our current provincial labour market shortages. The problem is that as the TFWU’s are generally designed to address intra-company transferees (typically well paid executives), the kind of jobs covered under trade agreements, like NAFTA, GATS and the Canada Chile Free Trade Agreement (engineers, geologists, dentists, lawyers, etc.) and those facilitated under other reciprocal arrangements. None of these agreements facilitate entry of construction workers, manufacturers, or other labourers in sectors that our economy is truly in dire need.

The BC PNP’s announcement in August is a very positive sign of things to come on the immigration scene. The BC PNP office has been given the green light to hire six new staff to deal with the ever increasing volume of applications received by that office. Of the six new hires, four are anticipated to work on strategic occupation cases, while the other two are earmarked for business applicants. Three new staff will be hired almost immediately and the other three will join in the not-to-distant future.

The BC PNP has the flexibility and desire to help employers in the province hire those key employees that they need to make their businesses successful, contributing to BC’s bottom line. Construction workers, including various trades are typically welcomed.

The BC PNP is available to almost all employers facing difficulties finding qualified persons to take good and typically decently paying jobs. Once nominated a BC PNP applicant may apply for a work permit that will bridge the gap between nomination and landing as a permanent resident. Under this program a foreign worker can typically start work within a few of months of filing an application in the PNP office.

So, as the Federal government off-loads its responsibilities, the provinces are forced to fill in the gaps. In many respects this trend reflects our political landscape – national identity coupled with regional diversity. We may actually be on the right track.