Castanet

Louise Elliott
CBC News
Posted: Dec 10, 2012 5:02 AM ET
Last Updated: Dec 10, 2012 4:58 AM ET

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is set to unveil the details of a new program that should speed the arrival of tradespeople in Canada whose skills are in demand.

The program will give more weight to applications from people with skills that are desperately needed in many parts of the country, particularly in the West, according to industry groups and provincial government officials.

'It was easier under the points system to get in if you had a post-doctorate degree in ancient Greek pottery as opposed to somebody who has 20 years experience as a welder or an electrician.'—Michael Atkinson, president of the Canadian Construction Association

Applicants to the skilled trades program will not have to meet the criteria of the points system used for the rest of the federal skilled worker category.

Instead, it's expected the new program will instead give weight to applicants who:
Have a job offer in Canada.
Have basic proficiency in French or English, but not at the level required by the skilled worker points system.
Can prove they recently worked in the trade.
Can show their occupation falls within the federal trade classification system.

"These changes are a great step in the right direction," said Michael Atkinson, president of the Canadian Construction Association.

Atkinson argues it's one of several necessary fixes to an immigration points system that has placed too much emphasis on white collar jobs.

"It was easier under the points system to get in if you had a post-doctorate degree in ancient Greek pottery as opposed to somebody who has 20 years experience as a welder or an electrician. So that was a problem."

Atkinson argues that more tradespeople coming into the permanent immigration stream will reduce the country's reliance on temporary labour.

"The more the skilled worker program begins to become responsive to the needs of industry and employers going forward, the less reliance there would be on the temporary foreign worker program."

The need for skilled tradespeople is particularly acute in Alberta.

It's estimated the province will need 115,000 additional workers in skilled trades over the next 10 years.

Jeanette Sutherland, manager of workforce and productivity at Calgary Economic Development, says the present system has inhibited growth across the western energy, construction, manufacturing and hospitality sectors.

"Under the current federal skilled worker program there's not enough openings," she said.

"There's quite a process employers have to go through to make sure they match Alberta certification and credentialling standards… This is really going to add to our benefit."

Alberta seeking skilled workers

Sutherland believes the new program will be geared toward the kinds of jobs that Alberta desperately needs to fill, jobs that almost never got filled through the old system: "Pipefitters, welders, a lot of those skilled trades positions that are significantly in demand."

Sutherland expressed hope the government will expand the number of places in the skilled trades program in the coming years.

And she said she hopes the new program will significantly shorten the wait time for employers who often need workers quickly to complete time-sensitive projects.

Atkinson noted that changes to the immigration system need to be combined with efforts to improve the training and apprenticeship programs available to Canadian workers.

But domestic sources won't be enough, he said, as by 2020 Canada will need an additional 320,000 skilled construction workers.

"Only about half of those are going to come from domestic sources," he said. "So not that immigration is the total answer to our future labour challenges. It's an important part."

Atkinson added that the recently announced plan to create an "expression of interest" system online that would allow prospective skilled workers to register and have their accreditation approved in advance will also move the system in the right direction for tradespeople.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2 ... enney.html

Atkinson noted that changes to the immigration system need to be combined with efforts to improve the training and apprenticeship programs available to Canadian workers.

But domestic sources won't be enough, he said, as by 2020 Canada will need an additional 320,000 skilled construction workers.

2020 is only 7 years from now. Where are we gonna need 320,000 additional skilled construction workers? Don't we have skilled construction workers right now saying they can't find work? I am finding this very hard to believe.

I do agree we need to improve the training and apprenticeship programs - for Canadians. How about we do that first and get Canadians working and then relax the immigration rules later when we run out of Canadians to do these jobs?

You'd think it would be easier to train somebody locally to weld or to do electrical work...Electrical apprenticeship training is fairly cheap - most of the stuff you learn while you're actually working. Give existing electrical companies a subsidy to train as opposed to bringing somebody here from Timbaktu.

We don't need more skilled workers. The Harper Government wants skilled workers that will work for 1/4 of the pay that skilled workers get now in Canada. Thats all there is to it.

GrooveTunes wrote:We don't need more skilled workers. The Harper Government wants skilled workers that will work for 1/4 of the pay that skilled workers get now in Canada. Thats all there is to it.

while your 1/4 is obviously an exaggeration, the amounts that current Canadian workers make is way too high to be competitive, even with our US neighbours. Back in the golden era when the Canadian dollar was at $.75 to the US, workers here could earn more and still be cheaper than the US, but those days are gone. Contracts were priced with the USD higher than the Canadian. Time for labour to wake up, and stop all the anti-Harper stuff. Harper didn't kill your markets, you did.

yes we are uncompetitive with the states.
we are also uncompetitive with china
would you have us lower our standard of living to third world status to compete?
free trade and bilateral agreements are all about the flow of cheap labour across national boundaries.
it is all designed by business and government to undercut wages and concentrate the nations wealth into a few peoples hands instead of the majority of canadians benefitting from the bounty of this land.
In the seventies a blue collar workers standard of living was double what it is now.
they are trying to turn us into peasants again.
and i can blame the government for that.

Are we not raping our country fast enough ,do we really need to import help,the rest of the world needs all this energy not us.This expansion into selling our resources wholesale and doing nothing to develop finish product industry will leave us hollow and void of skilled talent .we used to be so much better.

Untill the unions priced themselves out of the market and are being unreasonable

just when did the unions join the dark side of the force

Unions can be corrupted as can all organizations, but they are accountable to their membership.
They represent working people in collective bargaining agreements.
Without them things can get dickensian really fast.
Anyone for 12 year olds working in coal mines?
government (and not just the conservatives) have been working with big business to erode union power through free trade and immigration policy .
They want you to earn less and pay more.
If we started bringing in , lawyers. Teachers, Healthcare workers, and civic employees to work for 15% less than the agreed rates the country would come to a standstill.It would be unacceptable.
but if you are a plumber or a welder tough luck!
There would be no shortage of trades people if we had an organized system to produce skilled workers.
the only shortage is people willing to work for survival wages.
Oh ,and merry christmas!

grammafreddy wrote: I do agree we need to improve the training and apprenticeship programs - for Canadians. How about we do that first and get Canadians working and then relax the immigration rules later when we run out of Canadians to do these jobs?

http://www.bladerunners.info/

The Bladerunners program which was started under the NDP in the 90’s has had some great success. Similar outreach programming had been in place for multi-barried adults. Even after program costs these programs were providing taxpayers with immediate savings (getting people off welfare) and long term returns (less crime, growth to tax revenue base, etc.). For some reason these programs were scaled back, some even cut, when the Liberals took over.

The argument I like is the one where are workers are getting paid too much. While it could be argued to have some merit in the auto industry, making such naive blanket statements is quite entertaining. Of course, what we need to do is pay everybody less. Across the board for everybody’s job, and then the cost of living will automatically fall as well. Instead of improving people’s lots, let’s get us all down to the lowest common denominator. These immigrant workers can show us how they do it (eight people living in a two bedroom apartment for example). We should really quit expecting so much.

Training in construction was awesome in 90s,but now construction is needed less (kelowna overbuilt now)people leaving for Alberta. Training in service industries is needed .We need to fix and renovate all this cheap crap we built.My education becoming a construction tradesman was sweet. Changing to a serviceman I had to go to the school of hard Knocks.

Unions are rich and powerful .They have millions just to create media propaganda.I think there role should change and they should spend there millions on training instead.

yeah sure its all the unions fault.
Nothing to do with banks and financial instruments designed to impoverish the middle class.
nothing to do with government agencies deregulating markets so they become so dog eat dog that everything falls to the lowest common denominator/
yeah its all the unions fault for not training skilled workers that can live on $15:00 an hour with no health or employment insurance so we can be competitive

yeah sure its all the unions fault.

why is is it when a suggestion is made people assume you are suggesting its the only solution .there are many good ideas that's just one that's out in center field.i suggested the unions spend their millions on something useful not cut wages.