Canada opens door to skilled trade workers: Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Building an Immigration System that Works for Canada -- New Federal Skilled Trades Stream to Begin Accepting Applications on January 2, 2013

The program criteria are built around four requirements that ensure applicants will have the right skills and experience needed to succeed here in Canada. In order to qualify, applicants will need to:

1.have an offer of employment in Canada or a certificate of qualification from a province or territory to ensure that applicants are “job ready” upon arrival;
2.meet a basic language requirement;
3.have a minimum of two years of work experience as a skilled tradesperson, to ensure that the applicant has recent and relevant practice as a qualified journeyman;
and 4.have the skills and experience that match those set out in the National Occupational Classification (NOC B) system, showing that they have performed the essential duties of the occupation.

Eligible occupations will include electricians, welders, heavy-duty equipment mechanics, and pipefitters, among others. CIC is currently working with the provinces, territories and federal government partners on the list of skilled trades’ occupations that are experiencing acute labour shortages and which will qualify under the program. This list will be announced prior to the program opening on January 2, 2013.

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Attracting the best and brightest skilled workers

CIC Wins Technology Award for the Come to Canada Wizard

Canada welcomes largest number of parents and grandparents in almost twenty years

Federal budget 2012: Skilled immigrants urge investments into talents already in Canada

Nicholas Keung, Immigration Reporter, Toronto Star, Sat Mar 31 2012

Naseem Ahmed Pasha, 44, from India, finished medical school at Mysore University and practised for three years in India, followed by nine in Saudi Arabia. He's passed the Canadian exams but can't get into the requisite residency.

Every evening after dinner, Naseem Ahmed Pasha would don his dress pants and dress shirt, and say goodbye to his three boys, telling them he was leaving for work in hospital.

By the time Pasha, a family doctor from India, got to his worksite, he would change into his uniform, the uniform of a security guard, for his 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at a Toronto condominium – for $8.50 an hour.

Before Pasha arrived Canada in 2006 under the skilled immigrant program, he was confident he would soon be able to use his skills and contribute to this country in a meaningful way.

After all, he has a medical degree from India’s University of Mysore and practiced medicines first in India and then in Saudi Arabia for 15 years. In his two years as a security guard here, he studied and passed all the qualifying exams and had his credentials certified.

Yet today, instead of treating patients and curing diseases, Pasha is sweeping floors and lifting heavy merchandise at a Toronto home improvement hardware store on survival wages.

“It’s a very tough pill to swallow,” said the 44-year-old, choking back tears. “I wasn’t prepared for this kind of jobs. But coming here, you have to survive and put bread on the table.

“I didn’t tell my kids because I come from a culture where being a doctor is an honourable and noble profession. Now my status has dropped, doing blue-collar jobs. It would have a bad impact on my kids.”
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On the same shelf:

Marni Soupcoff: Why so many immigrant professionals are driving cabs . And what Jason Kenney can do about it, Mar 29, 2012 nationalpost.com

Extract:
The federal government’s new plan to hire a private firm to assess the educational credentials of potential immigrants is wise....

This is a far cry from a solution to Canada’s problem with smoothly integrating immigrants into the labour market, however.

In some ways, it’s beside the point since it has no impact on the biggest challenge for new Canadians seeking work: the protectionist provincial, municipal and professional occupational licensing requirements that make entering a trade or profession an unnecessarily long, expensive and difficult (if not impossible) process.

These regulations are more about raising government revenues and coddling industry insiders from competition than they are about helping the public.

The problem is that they get so little attention or scrutiny that they remain in place unchallenged year after year – at great cost to both the country’s economy and new Canadians trying to make a living for themselves and their families.

At a minimum, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney should commit to assembling statistics on the economic impact of the country’s professional licensing requirements.

Here is a small sampling of Ontario’s occupational licensing regime and the hoops through which foreign-trained workers have to jump in order to get a job in the province:

Someone who wants to do any teaching, researching, selling or giving advice about crops or livestock must register with the Ontario Institute of Agrologists as a “professional agrologist.” ...

Someone who wants to work as a dietician must register with the College of Dietitians of Ontario.

Someone who wants to work as an accountant must become a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

Is it any wonder there are so many immigrant professionals driving cabs?
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New rules to fast-track skilled immigrants

The revised list (eligible skilled workers' category) is now reduced (for e.g, removed from this category are:  0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers / 3131 Pharmacists ):

be a skilled worker who has had one year of continuous full-time or equivalent part-time paid work experience in at least one of the following eligible occupations within the last ten years:

• 0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers (Cap reached)
• 0811 Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture)
• 1122 Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management (Cap reached)
• 1233 Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners
• 2121 Biologists and Related Scientists
• 2151 Architects
• 3111 Specialist Physicians
• 3112 General Practitioners and Family Physicians
• 3113 Dentists
• 3131 Pharmacists (Cap reached)
• 3142 Physiotherapists
• 3152 Registered Nurses (Cap reached)
• 3215 Medical Radiation Technologists
• 3222 Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists
• 3233 Licensed Practical Nurses
• 4151 Psychologists
• 4152 Social Workers
• 6241 Chefs
• 6242 Cooks
• 7215 Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades
• 7216 Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades
• 7241 Electricians (Except Industrial & Power System)
• 7242 Industrial Electricians
• 7251 Plumbers
• 7265 Welders & Related Machine Operators
• 7312 Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics
• 7371 Crane Operators
• 7372 Drillers & Blasters - Surface Mining, Quarrying & Construction
• 8222 Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service

See also:

Dentists eligible for immigration to Canada under the Federal Skilled Worker program

38 job categories listed in bid to clear backlog; critics say the move offers'no solutions'
Nov 29, 2008 04:30 AM Toronto Star

If you're planning to move to Canada, you'll have to check the list first.
Thirty-eight in-demand occupations were unveiled by the Harper government yesterday, setting out a new selection criteria for skilled immigrants, allowing those with relevant skills to be fast-tracked into the country.
The occupations include jobs in the field of health, skilled trades and the finance sector. Details of the long-awaited "ministerial instructions" were posted on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website (http://www.cic.gc.ca/), and come into effect immediately. continue reading @ Toronto Star

See also:

• Fast-Track Occupations List