Looks like the Canadian Immigration Minister wants to attract more tradespeople to Canada versus skiled/professional workers. Doesn't Canada already have categories for tradespeople and domestic workers like small business owners, nannies, maids, nurses ...etc)?
In addition, don't the provinces in Canada already have the power to recruit any immigrant for a job provided the immigrant has landed a job offer in advance? This could be for any job.
http://www.canada.com/montreal/mont...d=a5e64638-85b9-4eb3-8e3b-91a18f520a40&page=1
Open door to tradespeople
Volpe: Immigration policy shift should stress work skills rather than university degrees
ELIZABETH THOMPSON
The Gazette
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Immigration Minister Joe Volpe says Canada needs less university graduates, and more skilled tradespeople.
Canada's immigration system must be fixed to shift emphasis away from immigrants with university degrees to immigrants with more of the kinds of skills that Canada needs, said federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe.
In an interview with The Gazette, Volpe said that shift could mean changes to the selection grid currently being used to decide who gets to come to Canada and opening the door to many people with useful trades who currently aren't making the cut.
Volpe also wants to overhaul the way Canada's immigration system operates to change it from a passive, response-oriented system to one that is flexible, proactive and actively recruits people with skills that are in short supply in Canada.
"There is a perception that the system isn't working to its maximum benefit for Canada," Volpe said bluntly.
"So we have to fix it."
In recent years, Canada has changed its selection criteria for immigrants, putting more emphasis on university degrees.
That has made it difficult, if not impossible, for some skilled tradespeople without university degrees to get into the country.
However, Volpe seriously questions whether the current selection grid is working.
"The kind of people we were focusing on before, we were focusing on those who were best educated because we thought they would be the most adaptable in a changing economic environment," he said. "That wasn't wrong. The only thing is that what happened, as a result, is that we saw that as the economy was growing, we had a shortage of other types of skills and for that, our system is not prepared to do what is required - which is to be selective in recruiting."
The emphasis on degrees also has exacerbated the problem of university-trained and professional immigrants who arrive in Canada to find their credentials aren't recognized and they can't practice their professions.
Meanwhile, Canada has a shortage of people willing and able to do jobs like long-haul trucking, he said.
"You have to be able to have a better match between your intake and your requirements. We haven't been doing that."
The current selection system also prevents many people with skills Canada could use from immigrating, he said. For example, Volpe said his own parents wouldn't have met the current criteria. Nor would some other successful Canadians.
"Heck, you know (Mike) Lazaridis, the guy who put this together," he said, holding up a BlackBerry. "A multibillion-dollar operation. His parents wouldn't have qualified under the current system. Frank Stronach, a multi-gazillionaire, he wouldn't have qualified under the current system."
Lazaridis, president and CEO of Research in Motion Ltd., immigrated to Canada with his Greek parents when he was 5 years old. Frank Stronach was born in Austria.
To Volpe, the ideal immigrant to Canada is someone with ambition, industry and skill - and skill isn't necessarily defined by a university degree.
Volpe said another thing that must be fixed is his own department's attitude.
"The perception that everybody in the world wants to come to Canada is wrong. It's not real."
The immigration department has to abandon the idea of passively sitting back and waiting for immigrants to come to it, and instead get out there and recruit the kinds of immigrants Canada wants, he said.
Nor does it stop once they are recruited to Canada, he said.
"You've got to have people skilled in trades and particular jobs and particular professions and you've got to be able to integrate them. But you've got to be able to attract them as well. So you've got to be able to attract them, you've got to settle them, you've got to integrate them, you've got to use them."
However, Volpe admitted one of the hurdles he faces in his ambition to overhaul Canada's immigration system is the current backlog of about 700,000 applications in a variety of categories to enter Canada.
For example, Volpe said, Canada could have to change its selection grid to achieve some of the changes he wants to see, but fixing the backlog and the system would probably have to come first.
With current immigration levels, getting rid of that backlog could take time, he added.
"In a world where we're only taking in 235,000 per year, it's going to take three years for us to clear out our backlog. And if we want to focus only on economic migrants, it will take us more."
Meanwhile, Volpe also is working on ways to regionalize Canada's immigration, encouraging newcomers to settle in different places across the country.
"If you go anywhere in Canada, they will tell you that part of the fix is that you can't possibly have people come to Canada and all of them end up in southern Ontario. Because then that doesn't do the rest of the country any good."
In addition, don't the provinces in Canada already have the power to recruit any immigrant for a job provided the immigrant has landed a job offer in advance? This could be for any job.
http://www.canada.com/montreal/mont...d=a5e64638-85b9-4eb3-8e3b-91a18f520a40&page=1
Open door to tradespeople
Volpe: Immigration policy shift should stress work skills rather than university degrees
ELIZABETH THOMPSON
The Gazette
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Immigration Minister Joe Volpe says Canada needs less university graduates, and more skilled tradespeople.
Canada's immigration system must be fixed to shift emphasis away from immigrants with university degrees to immigrants with more of the kinds of skills that Canada needs, said federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe.
In an interview with The Gazette, Volpe said that shift could mean changes to the selection grid currently being used to decide who gets to come to Canada and opening the door to many people with useful trades who currently aren't making the cut.
Volpe also wants to overhaul the way Canada's immigration system operates to change it from a passive, response-oriented system to one that is flexible, proactive and actively recruits people with skills that are in short supply in Canada.
"There is a perception that the system isn't working to its maximum benefit for Canada," Volpe said bluntly.
"So we have to fix it."
In recent years, Canada has changed its selection criteria for immigrants, putting more emphasis on university degrees.
That has made it difficult, if not impossible, for some skilled tradespeople without university degrees to get into the country.
However, Volpe seriously questions whether the current selection grid is working.
"The kind of people we were focusing on before, we were focusing on those who were best educated because we thought they would be the most adaptable in a changing economic environment," he said. "That wasn't wrong. The only thing is that what happened, as a result, is that we saw that as the economy was growing, we had a shortage of other types of skills and for that, our system is not prepared to do what is required - which is to be selective in recruiting."
The emphasis on degrees also has exacerbated the problem of university-trained and professional immigrants who arrive in Canada to find their credentials aren't recognized and they can't practice their professions.
Meanwhile, Canada has a shortage of people willing and able to do jobs like long-haul trucking, he said.
"You have to be able to have a better match between your intake and your requirements. We haven't been doing that."
The current selection system also prevents many people with skills Canada could use from immigrating, he said. For example, Volpe said his own parents wouldn't have met the current criteria. Nor would some other successful Canadians.
"Heck, you know (Mike) Lazaridis, the guy who put this together," he said, holding up a BlackBerry. "A multibillion-dollar operation. His parents wouldn't have qualified under the current system. Frank Stronach, a multi-gazillionaire, he wouldn't have qualified under the current system."
Lazaridis, president and CEO of Research in Motion Ltd., immigrated to Canada with his Greek parents when he was 5 years old. Frank Stronach was born in Austria.
To Volpe, the ideal immigrant to Canada is someone with ambition, industry and skill - and skill isn't necessarily defined by a university degree.
Volpe said another thing that must be fixed is his own department's attitude.
"The perception that everybody in the world wants to come to Canada is wrong. It's not real."
The immigration department has to abandon the idea of passively sitting back and waiting for immigrants to come to it, and instead get out there and recruit the kinds of immigrants Canada wants, he said.
Nor does it stop once they are recruited to Canada, he said.
"You've got to have people skilled in trades and particular jobs and particular professions and you've got to be able to integrate them. But you've got to be able to attract them as well. So you've got to be able to attract them, you've got to settle them, you've got to integrate them, you've got to use them."
However, Volpe admitted one of the hurdles he faces in his ambition to overhaul Canada's immigration system is the current backlog of about 700,000 applications in a variety of categories to enter Canada.
For example, Volpe said, Canada could have to change its selection grid to achieve some of the changes he wants to see, but fixing the backlog and the system would probably have to come first.
With current immigration levels, getting rid of that backlog could take time, he added.
"In a world where we're only taking in 235,000 per year, it's going to take three years for us to clear out our backlog. And if we want to focus only on economic migrants, it will take us more."
Meanwhile, Volpe also is working on ways to regionalize Canada's immigration, encouraging newcomers to settle in different places across the country.
"If you go anywhere in Canada, they will tell you that part of the fix is that you can't possibly have people come to Canada and all of them end up in southern Ontario. Because then that doesn't do the rest of the country any good."