[REPRODUCED FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS]

Ontario is set to introduce legislation that would make it easier for immigrants to get licensed to work in professions that match their areas of expertise.

Labour Minister Monte McNaughton says the proposed legislation would, if passed, prevent many regulatory bodies from requiring immigrants to have Canadian work experience to get licensed.

It would also standardize English-language testing requirements and ensure licensing applications are processed faster.

McNaughton says the changes would help remove barriers immigrants often face when trying to work in their professions.

“It really is an injustice when you think of only 25 per cent of immigrants in Ontario work actually in jobs and professions that they were trained for,” he said in an interview.

“It’s all about improving their lives, ensuring that they get bigger paychecks and more worker protections.”

McNaughton says Ontario is facing a labour shortage as some 293,000 jobs are unfilled across the province.

The proposed legislation would apply to licensing bodies governing engineers, architects, teachers, accountants and social workers, among other. But it would not affect those regulating medical professions, including those that licence doctors and nurses.

The legislation would also help internationally trained workers in 23 trades, including electricians, plumbers and hoisting engineers.

Licensing bodies would still be able to apply for exemptions that could require Canadian work experience, but that would need government approval, McNaughton said.

“They have to make a health and safety case, which would come to the minister for approval,” he said, noting that he hoped to see the changes brought by the legislation take effect in two years.

The director of engineering training projects at ACCES Employment, an organization that help newcomers find suitable jobs in Ontario, said removing the Canadian work experience requirement would help immigrant engineers get licensed and hired a lot faster.

Gabriela Tavaru said immigrant engineers cannot work in their profession before they get their professional license, regardless of how many years of experience they had before they came to Ontario.

“Starting a job, performance evaluation, the whole system, it’s new. So it’s a little bit too difficult for any immigrant and especially for regulated professionals like engineers to navigate this process and get a job,” she said.

She said a maximum of four years of international experience is recognized by the licensing body for engineers in Ontario, but a minimum of one year of Canadian work experience in the field is also required. Immigrant engineers have to work for a year under the supervision of a licensed Canadian engineer to gain that experience.

“This is the problem: you cannot get a job to get your license,” she said. “They cannot be engineers. They cannot sign contracts. They cannot be called engineer, but they can work, for example, as estimators, project managers, field coordinators.”

In a recent economic outlook report co-authored by Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge, Canada’s economy is projected to strongly rebound this year as COVID-19 vaccination rates rise and things return to more pre-pandemic conditions, with growth easing slowly between now and the end of 2023.

Dodge says that he expects growth to accelerate in the second half of 2021, with real GDP growing 5.5 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2021. For 2022, the outlook is for 2.6 per cent during 2022 and 1. 9 per cent during 2023.

Economic output should return to its pre-pandemic level by the third quarter of 2021 and back to its pre-pandemic trend level by the end of 2022.

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The Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, tabled the 2021‒2023 Immigration Levels Plan, today.

The 2021 to 2023 Levels Plan aims to continue welcoming immigrants at a rate of about 1% of the population of Canada, including 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023.  Of those, the following are the number of immigrants that will be admitted under the Express Entry system (the system used to process Immigration Applications of Federal Skilled Worker/Federal Skilled Trades/Canadian Experience Class applicants):

2021:    81,000-110,250
2022:    96,250-112,900
2023:  100,000-114,500

Highlights of the plan include

• an increase in admissions over the 3 years of the Plan
• a focus on economic growth, with about 60% of admissions to come from the Economic Class
• a continued focus on innovative and community-driven approaches to address diverse labour and demographic needs across the country
• additional points for French-speaking candidates under Express Entry, to promote the growth of Francophone communities outside of Quebec

According to the Minister, “[t]he 2021–2023 Immigration Levels Plan will help cement Canada’s place among the world’s top destinations for talent, creating a strong foundation for economic growth while reuniting family members with their loved ones and fulfilling Canada’s humanitarian commitments”.