That's a great idea.
You know, I'm thinking of the RBC, which I'm a big fan of in this context. If you go to RBC's website—and actually, the federal government may want to do that on its job site, whatever the job site is—there's all sorts of information for newcomers to Canada. There's a little bit about banking, of course, but there's information and web links for newcomers to go to and get information--where you can go, even about the culture, the Canadian way, if you like, a bit about how we do things in organizations, how to write a CV. All those things are right there, and I think that's very, very important.
The other point you mention is one of the key barriers, not only the lack of foreign credential recognition but also the lack of Canadian work experience. From my experience in speaking with newcomers to Canada, this can sometimes be a greater barrier, and that I think is something that we as employers can control.
When we asked what advice they would give other newcomers to Canada, we were told by people who were engineers, doctors, nurses, who had senior management roles before they came to Canada, “Get any Canadian work experience on your CV, anything, just to show that you've held a job in Canada.” There's something wrong with that, from my perspective. So I think that's an issue.
We also heard, quite frankly, about some of the challenges. Again, this is en masse; it's not related to the federal public service alone. We heard from people coming to the country from outside that even their names could turn people off. They were concerned that even when they gave their name, “I'm so-and-so, from whatever country”, and their name was not anglophone or francophone, they were somehow immediately put aside. Similarly, we heard about it with accents, that if you have certain accents, it's the same sort of thing.
So I think we have a lot of work to do there, because again, Canada as a nation is competing with Australia. It takes 12 months I think to process a new immigrant to Australia. It takes 24 to 48 months in Canada, which is a problem.
And I recognize that in your riding it's a highly diverse, very exciting area.