Ladies and gentlemen, Canadian parliamentarians, good morning. Welcome to Quebec and to Montreal, a region where realities sometimes take a different form which must be taking into account. I am here today to discuss one of the realities we experience from the stand point of regulated professions.
You have received my brief directly, since I am aware of the rule to the effect that one does not transmit documents that are not translated into the other official language. The employees of the Parliament of Canada are rigorous in applying this rule. When it reduces access to information, it does trouble me somewhat. So I therefore sent you our brief directly. Thanks to the fine service of the translators, you will receive the English version, as was the case when we appeared before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in April 2005. You might also want to consult the brief that the Council tabled at that time.
These two briefs are quite similar, because in our opinion, these two orders of reference overlap. This only leads us to wonder whether parliamentarians talk to one another. Two standing committees are broaching more or less the same subject: recognition of foreign credentials for immigrants. This leads me to believe that the federal government is experiencing some difficulties, because two or three departments are getting involved in the same issue, namely Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. This may make us question the way the government does things, because one has to choose the right interlocutor. I see a lot of people smiling, which indicates that you understand what I am talking about.
Despite the rather broad mandate the committee has taken on, we only intend to deal with the issue of recognition of credentials and labour force mobility, since the Conseil interprofessionel du Québec is a group of 45 professional regulatory bodies in Quebec. We do not represent business people and we do not represent other groups that have an interest in the other issues that you wish to address. We only represent organizations that regulate professions. That is already quite a lot. If you follow the news, you will note that this is often the example that is given to cast a few stones or express good wishes on this issue.
Today, I would like to give you some examples of the reality of the situation, beyond perceptions and prejudices. Facts prevent us from thinking what we want, and it is important to know those facts. It is all the more important for parliamentarians. If you are taking a tour across Canada — which must be costing you a pretty penny — it is because you want to be aware of the reality. You want to make up your own mind about this reality. Well, we will explain some of these facts.
What is professional regulation? I know that the reality may be different in other jurisdictions, but in Quebec, which has its own Code des professions, professional regulation has relied on the notion of protecting the public, for the past 30 years or so, because there are risks associated with certain activities. It is important to monitor professionals as soon as they start their practice, in order to ensure competence at the beginning of their careers and throughout their professional life. This is a provincial jurisdiction, not just by tradition, but also because most of the time, such services must be delivered locally. The Fathers of Confederation understood this correctly 100 or 200 years in advance. They understood that it was good idea that the legislative assembly closest to the people be the one with oversight over professions in order to provide services close by.
To our mind, professional competence is the foundation of the quality of the professional act and the risk management associated with professional practice. From that standpoint, we assure quality for the people of Quebec through 45 professional orders, be it the College of Physicians, or associations of engineers, professional technologists for which my good friend André Lavoie worked a few years ago, or regardless of the field where there is a professional order. It is from this standpoint, that this legislative framework is applied in Quebec. For us, employability means competence within the context of risk and legal responsibility.
Now what about mobility? A professional licence is a tool for mobility, but since professional legislation is designed for the territory where it is expected that most professionals will practice, of course, the specificities, the criteria and the standards are Quebec owns.
I have some concerns about the way the health care system and physicians are overseen in British Columbia. I go there perhaps once every five years. For me, the nearby service is in Quebec, and it is Quebec legislators that I will call upon to reflect my concerns as a citizen with regard to the implementation of oversight standards for physicians who treat my loved ones, my family, my friends and colleagues. Therefore, professional regulation is a reality that is still mostly local and regional. There is mobility, there are inter-jurisdictional services, and in this regard, there are to be certain mechanisms in place.
Quebec professional orders fully participated in the drafting of the agreement on internal trade. Over two thirds of them signed agreements with their counterparts, where they exist, because there are institutional realities that vary from one province to the next. They signed mutual recognition agreements in order to facilitate this.
Quebec was even an avant-garde by lifting certain traditional restrictions associated with professional regulation, notably with regard to citizenship. Professional orders must adopt training equivalency rules in order to recognize the reality of the labour market and the experience acquired on the job.
For many years now, together with several stakeholders in Quebec, we led a reform, or one might say a revolution, regarding the recognition of the foreign credentials of immigrants. In fact, I have an exclusive for you: we have just received an award from the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment, for the actions that the Quebec inter-professional Council — in other words, all of the professional orders of Quebec — have taken since 2001 to promote recognition of prior learning by immigrants. Quebec is now the leader in this field in Canada among professional regulatory organizations, with regard to measures taken to foster recognition of immigrants.
What about the federal legislator and the federal government? The economic challenge, which is one of the consequences of the demographic challenge, must be a constant concern for any legislator in any level of government. When it comes to taking action, it has to be effective. Action must be taken wherever you find the people who can deliver the goods and where the problems and the reality arise.
In Canada, there are five economic regions whose systems and labour force structures vary. Of course, there are exchanges between the regions, but the fundamental realities, the geographic realities, the economic realities, the structures of the economy and the structures of the industry are regional in Canada. There have always been and there always will be five economic regions, and each one experiences its own reality when it comes to the labour market.
I do understand that the federal government is concerned with development overall, and with Canada's performance on the international scene and its competitiveness and that it wants to take action. But let us be careful here: when it comes to the constitutional areas of jurisdiction of Quebec or the other provinces, when it comes to being effective, it is hard to believe that it is preferable to manage things from Ottawa. We had high hopes, given everything the Conservative Party had said during the election campaign about respecting areas of provincial jurisdiction and working with the provinces. Unfortunately, the arrival and announcement of an agency for the recognition of prior learning which will be superimposed on what has already been done in many provinces and especially in Quebec, where mobilization is well anchored and delivers results, is very troublesome to us. We are worried about this. We feel that it is a waste of resources and pointless overlap.
We are here to tell you that things are going well in Quebec. We still have a great deal that needs to be done, but we are moving in the right direction. The Quebec government is well connected with its partners, the professional orders and support groups for immigrants. There have been reports, documents that are very clear, very concrete, and we are at the stage where we are taking action. If the federal government creates another structure, another place for discussion or intervention, there will be overlap, inefficiency and worse, it will mean that the problems will persist even longer. This is not beneficial to immigrants, nor to Quebec or to Canada. Let us work with the people who have the solutions and who are already in the field.
If the federal government wants to earmark money — and we all hope that this will happen — it should transfer the money to Quebec. Quebec already has a well-organized system and the results speak for themselves. So let's go forward then.