Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is Helga Loechel, and I am acting director of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
I want to thank the committee for this opportunity to provide an update on CIC's role in health human resources. Today, I will focus my remarks primarily on the FCRO's overseas interventions in support of federal, provincial and territorial governments' initiatives on foreign credential recognition.
I think we all recognize that immigration has been and continues to be vital to Canada's growth and economic strength. In recent years, Canada has accepted approximately 250,000 new permanent residents each year.
However, recognizing the foreign credentials of internationally trained individuals continues to be a challenge across the country. In Canada, provinces and territories are responsible for assessing and recognizing credentials. Currently there are more than 440 regulatory bodies across Canada governing approximately 55 professions. There are also more than 200 accredited post-secondary institutions that assess educational credentials for academic placement, as well as five provincially mandated assessment agencies that evaluate education credentials for the purposes of both academic placement and workforce entry.
In fact, more than 53 provincial and territorial ministries are involved since this issue spans immigration, labour market, health, and education ministries. There are literally thousands of players on this file, when you include employers, who are also important assessors of the credentials and work experience in regulated and non-regulated occupations.
The Government of Canada has established a relationship of leadership and trust with the provinces, territories and regulatory bodies on priorities such as labour mobility and foreign credential recognition.
Although foreign credential recognition falls within provincial and territorial jurisdiction, the Government of Canada has a responsibility for immigration and its impact on the Canadian labour market and economy. As such, the Government of Canada continues to have a central leadership role in facilitating advancements on foreign credential recognition.
The government established the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, the FCRO, in May 2007 to provide internationally trained individuals with the information, path-finding, and referral services they need to have their credentials assessed as quickly as possible so they can find work faster in the fields for which they have been trained. Additionally, the FCRO provides a coordinated focus at the federal level to work with provinces and territories, regulatory bodies, and employers to coordinate federal, provincial, and territorial efforts; share best practices across the country; and avoid overlap and duplication on an issue that is extremely complex.
On January 16, 2009, first ministers agreed to take concerted action to provide for the timely assessment and recognition of foreign credentials through the development of a pan-Canadian framework for the assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications. CIC, along with HRSDC, and provincial-territorial labour markets and immigration ministries, participated extensively in the development of the framework. As part of this work, the FCRO is taking a leadership role on all matters related to pre-immigration initiatives. To that end, the FCRO received additional funding--$13.7 million over two years--in Budget 2009 to contribute to the development of the framework.
Specifically, the FCRO will support the development of harmonized standards and will clear pathways to foreign credential recognition for targeted occupations, beginning overseas. It will strengthen the scope of the overseas platform and develop a pan-Canadian information centre, a website that will showcase and promote the sharing of foreign credential recognition promising practices across the country.
Prior to the establishment of the FCRO at CIC, HRSDC laid the foundation for consistent foreign credential processes overseas through a pilot with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, ACCC. In October of 2010, the FCRO will build upon the pilot and expand funding to provide FCRO services not only to federal skilled workers, but also to provincial nominees in China, India, and the Philippines, as well as to support the creation of a fourth location in the U.K., beginning no later than 2011. The U.K. location will serve the British Isles, the Gulf, and Scandinavia. Combined, these offices will cover a larger pool of immigrants and could access close to 75% of federal skilled workers and 44% of provincial nominees.
Our FCRO offices overseas will provide a platform for governments, employers, and licensing bodies to expedite the accreditation process and significantly contribute to quicker success for immigrants entering the labour market. The FCRO is also offering important services to immigrants domestically, including the provision of information on foreign credential recognition processes in Canada. These services are offered in person to clients in Canada through the 329 Service Canada centres and 245 outreach sites, as well as by a toll-free telephone number through Service Canada call centres.
Information on foreign credential recognition is also available on the FCRO website, which includes the “Working in Canada Tool”, which is an online search tool that provides individualized information on specific occupations, communities, and labour market conditions, as well as information targeted to both internationally trained individuals and employers. Between the FCRO launch in May 2007 and September 2009, the FCRO website received over 732,000 visits, mainly from overseas.
Although foreign credential recognition remains a challenge for most immigrants seeking entry into the Canadian labour market, governments are coming together to support initiatives that will play a crucial role in promoting the future growth of the country and in providing immigrants with the tools and services they need to begin the assessment and accreditation process while still in their country of origin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope this has provided you with an overview of CIC's role in foreign credential recognition.