Population Drop Worries Officials

by: Brian Flinn bflinn@hfxnews.ca

Nova Scotia isn't attracting enough newcomers to make up for the thousands of people moving to Alberta. The province's population dropped by 1,863 over the last year, according to census data released this week by Statistics Canada. The oil-fuelled economic boom in Alberta drew people from most provinces, the agency said. In Nova Scotia's case, 3,930 more moved west than moved in from other parts of Canada. Immigration was up, but it still only drew 2,199 to the province. Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan also lost population.

Finance Minister Michael Baker said he's concerned. But there's not much the province can do. He said the economy is doing well and employment is strong. "The factors we are seeing are factors faced by almost every other Canadian province: outmigration, particularly to Alberta and somewhat to British Columbia," Baker said. Three years ago, Nova Scotia had to pay back $160 million to Ottawa when the population dropped. Equalization payments are based on population. Baker said the equalization formula has changed, so he's not anticipating much of a hit. But the province needs to reverse the population trend. The minister said the province is working on a program to encourage Nova Scotians who have resettled in other provinces to return. It is also trying to boost immigration.

"Those two strategies, in the short term, are the best we can do," he said. NDP immigration critic Leonard Preyra said thanks to the population decline, the province could end up with less money to maintain services. The outlook is worst for rural areas, he said. Young people and skilled workers are leaving. Communities shrink and lose services like schools. Then there's less reason for young families to stay. "We just can't afford to lose them," Preyra said."We're undermining the future." Immigration has increased since the provincial nominee program was created in 2002. But it's still tiny compared with other provinces. Last year, Nova Scotia got less than one per cent of Canada's immigrants. Preyra said the province isn't attracting enough new Canadians and does too little to encourage them to remain in the province after they arrive. "We're having a tremendous amount of trouble coming up with simple things such as literacy programs."

If re-elected, Ottawa Mayor would Hire 100 Foreigners

Bob Chiarelli said he will ask the City of Ottawa to hire 100 foreign-trained workers as staff apprentices if he is re-elected as mayor. Chiarelli said the hiring spree will be part of a five-point plan to help find jobs for the 7,500 new Canadians who arrive in Ottawa every year. "Forty-nine per cent of them have post-secondary training and most of them cannot be certified," he said. "That's a travesty. We need to fix it." The foreign-trained apprentices will be hired over four years for one year each, and will be paid $20,000.

Chiarelli said he will also: create 200 municipal volunteer positions for foreign professionals who want to mentor with a Canadian professional in their field, Create a special City of Ottawa web portal to help newcomers, Lobby for more funding for local college programs targeted at helping newcomers get jobs, Create a special committee to monitor the city's progress at getting foreigners hired and to propose additional steps.

Bilingualism a barrier, Pollock says... Barkley Pollock, who is running for mayor against Chiarelli, said the plan is a good start. But he said a main reason some groups are underrepresented among city staff is that they must speak both English and French in order to be hired. "What I've heard from Aboriginal and from minority groups is that the bilingual policy is a barrier at City Hall," Pollock said. He said he wonders, then, how the 100 foreign apprentices will get real jobs once their one-year apprenticeships are up. "Are we going to force language training on people or maybe have to soften the bilingual policy?" Meanwhile, another mayoral candidate, Alex Munter, says Chiarelli's plan comes after years of doing little to help foreigners gets jobs. He said that's proof the city needs a change.

A leg up for Skilled NewComers

by LAURA RAMSAY at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mohammad Yaser's story is a familiar tale of immigrant employment woe. Certified as a civil engineer in his native Pakistan, Mr. Yaser worked for six years there as a manager responsible for pricing and sourcing supplies and estimating job costs for a large construction company. But since immigrating to Toronto in January, 2004, the married father of two young children has been working as a security guard at a warehouse, unable to leverage his international education and work experience into a construction management job in Canada. "The problem seems to be that I have no Canadian education or experience," he says. Mr. Yaser's frustration at being unable to find work in the field he trained for is increasingly paralleled by concern among Canadian employers who are not able to find enough professionals and skilled tradespeople to staff their businesses.

Canada's community colleges are trying to tackle both problems by launching programs aimed at helping immigrant professionals and skilled workers find jobs here in fields related to what they were trained for overseas. Canada's immigration system has traditionally been "an elitist one" that gives priority to doctors and lawyers without addressing the skills shortage that is developing across all skill sectors and all parts of the country, says Gerry Brown, president of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. The average age of a skilled worker in Canada is more than 50, and more than 40 per cent of the work force is expected to retire in the next 10 years. Helping trained immigrants find appropriate jobs in Canada is one component of addressing the problem, he says. Mr. Yaser is hoping a new course being launched in January by Toronto's George Brown College will give him the domestic credentials he needs to get back into the construction business.

The course, Construction Management for Internationally Educated Professionals, is a three-semester, postgraduate program designed to help new immigrants who were trained elsewhere as architects and engineers to develop the language and workplace skills needed to land entry-level management jobs in the Canadian construction industry. Mr. Yaser will be one of about 27 students in the new program. "This is a great opportunity for me," he says. The program doesn't attempt to certify new immigrants as either architects or engineers, both of which are regulated by professional bodies that set the rules for foreign-trained professionals, says project manager Suzanne Kavanagh. The goal is to help immigrant professionals land their first job in a construction-related field by "Canadianizing" them - teaching them about Canadian building codes, Canadian building materials as well as labour laws, human rights legislation and health and safety requirements.

As they get closer to graduation, the students will focus on interviewing techniques and workplace skills, Ms. Kavanagh says. "These are very capable people but they need to build up their confidence and familiarity with Canadian industry," she says. Poor English is the primary barrier preventing skilled immigrants from landing relevant construction-management jobs, she says. Technically qualified students whose English skills are not at the level required for college admission can take a career-specific language course that begins next month. It focuses on the vocabulary and concepts specific to the construction industry, Ms. Kavanagh says. Canadian colleges are also going abroad to assist new immigrants. Next month the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) will launch a program designed to help smooth the employment path for professional, trade and technical specialists from China, India and the Philippines who have already been approved by Ottawa to immigrate to Canada. Those three countries were selected as test sites because of immigration patterns and the type of skilled workers they produce, says Katrina Murray, project director of the Canadian Immigration Integration Project, which is financed with $4-million from Human Resources Development Canada.

Ms. Murray says the ACCC program is designed to help skilled immigrants make a career transition to Canada and get a jump on the acclimatization process. "The major goal of the program is to ensure they have a more realistic understanding of what they are getting into," she says. Information about the pilot project will be mailed along with the letter that Citizenship and Immigration Canada sends to people informing them they've been approved as immigrants. Free information sessions are to be held in the three test countries, and immigrants will be grouped according to what province they're moving to (about 60 per cent typically head to Ontario). They'll hear an overview of labour market conditions, labour laws and other information relevant to working in Canada, Ms. Murray says. After identifying gaps in work skills, the program helps find ways to address them such as providing a referral to language assessment services or links to the governing bodies of professional associations. Mr. Yaser isn't thinking at this point about recertifying as an engineer. He's just looking forward to landing a job back in the project management field. "I'd like to find something in Toronto, or maybe Alberta. I hear there are many places hiring in Alberta."

Canada- Destination for Immigration Aspirants

If you are a skilled person and aspiring to go abroad you stand better chances then many others. It is true for all countries from Canada to Australia and Britain. Global competition is accelerating, particularly for highly skilled knowledge workers. Because of Canada\'s new knowledge-based economy, the selection criteria have been established to attract more highly skilled, as well as those with a broader range of skills as independent immigrants. Canada needs immigrants, to respond to demographic factors such as its low birthrate. A study says, in twenty years time, there will be three retired persons for every young, working person. It has opened its door to attract hundreds of thousands of skilled workers from abroad to make up a manpower shortfall.

Canadian Government's immigration target of 200,000 per annum, where as the Citizenship & Immigration Canada, issued 2,62,199 visas to newcomers in 2005. Moreover, in the recent bill, the goal has been increased to 300,000, and the parameters for acceptance are being changed in order to meet this increase. Skilled workers now make up more than half of all immigrants, 156,310 out of a total 2,62,199 immigrants entering Canada in 2005. India is second top most source country for Skilled Worker Immigration category. Immigrant inflow percent figures China as top source with (16.1%) immigration, India (12.6%). Further, a new "in-Canada" landing class has been created for temporary workers, foreign students and spouses of those already established in Canada and wishing to stay. Canada is not alone in seeking skilled immigrants. Many other developed countries face the same or even more severe declines in manpower force growth. Countries like Australia & UK are also becoming very aggressive in seeking skilled immigrants.

Immigration No Cure: C.D. Howe Institute

Contrary to a widespread perception, immigration policy can do little to help Canada meet the public policy challenges posed by rapid population aging, according to a study from the C.D. Howe Institute. Although there are many reasons for Canadians to welcome more immigrants, the study argues, immigration on its own can do little to alleviate the likely consequences of aging on the age profile of the population and on government finances.

The Backgrounder, "No Elixir of Youth: Immigration Cannot Keep Canada Young," is written by Yvan Guillemette, Policy Analyst, and William Robson, President and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute. They use a detailed Canadian demographic model to project the impact of various levels and age mixes of immigration on the old-age dependency ratio over the next 50 years. Boosting annual immigration to 1 percent of the population, as proposed by the former federal government, would notappreciably affect Canada's age structure. The study is available at www.cdhowe.org/pdf/backgrounder_96.pdf For further information: Yvan Guillemette, Policy Analyst, or William Robson, President and CEO, (416) 865-1904; cdhowe@cdhowe.org