Minister of Human Resources Diane Finley

The problem with doctors driving cabs has been staring this country in the face for decades now. The Conservative government, in conjunction with the provinces, is making a move to speed up the process of certifying foreign trained professionals, and it has been a long time coming.

While I was in university I worked evenings as a security guard and every one of my fellow workers was terribly overqualified. One was an engineer from India, another had fled tyranny in Belarus, with an MBA from Britain. He still had to eke out a living in a low paying job. All across this country there are qualified professionals who are disappointed in the life they have found here in Canada.

Just a couple days ago, Minister of Human Resources Diane Finley introduced a new framework, promising to speed up the process by which foreign workers have their credentials recognized by the ministry. This new system would allow professionals such as engineers, physiotherapists, pharmacists, nurses, architects, lab technitions and occupational therapists to have their credentials evaluated within a year of applying. In some cases, it may allow newly arrived immigrants to know the value of their credentials before they arrive in Canada. In the past it could take up to two years for foreign workers to know where they stand.

The legislation will not make any changes to the standards by which foreign certifications are judged, it only speeds up the process.

Nevertheless, this is clearly a worthwhile endeavor. It is estimated that undervaluing foreign workers costs Canada up to $15 billion dollars a year. Not to mention the enduring social costs, such as a shortage of qualified doctors and nurses.

On the other hand, there is a whiff of political pragmatism on the breath of Diane Finley. This move by the Conservatives is perhaps their greatest attempt to parlay to the immigrant communities of Canada’s urban centers. Despite the typical Liberal loyalties of these groups, this new framework may be enough to turn them Tory.

The federal Conservatives have been vying for support in Toronto ridings and at the same time are hoping to erode the Liberal base. Harper’s rock star tour of India with his Bollywood pals is showing dividends. Recent immigrants to the GTA are slowly showing an inclination towards voting Conservative. This is a result of long campaign to gain seats in the Holy Grail for Conservative strategists, Toronto, particularly in ridings with large immigrant populations such as Brampton.

Last year Harper made some controversial changes to immigration policy, which received mixed reviews by the newly settled Canadians. In order to address the massive backlog of unprocessed citizenship applicants, the Harper government announced that it would allow the Ministry of Immigration to effectively prioritize the application of those immigrants which possess skills that are needed in the Canadian economy.

In light of this massive backlog of applications at the Ministry of Immigration, one wonders how Harper plans to come through on his promise of quick and tidy evaluations of foreign credentials at the Ministry of Human Resources. There are thousands of foreign educational programs that have to be assessed to see if they meet Canadian standards. There are a multitude of potential problems when one considers that the initial aim of this effort was to harmonize standards for professional accreditation throughout the provinces and territories. How exactly is this new framework going to be implemented?

The answer may be that it won’t need to be implemented in order for it to pay off for the Conservatives. The program won’t be in place until next December, and the benefits won’t be felt until a year after that. Harper will almost certainly go to the polls between now and December 2011. The question is, will his efforts to court our newly arrived Canadians pay off, or will he get the cold shoulder from Toronto once again.

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Tags: Diane Finley, foreign credentials, immigrants

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 4:15 pm and is filed under employment, Federal Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.