Evidence of meeting #11 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was fcr.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Are you referring to the suite of labour market agreements and labour market development agreements we have with the provinces? I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
No. They would say if there's a particular type of training that's necessary; they talked about language skills being one of the barriers, funding assistance, maybe access to student loans and what have you.
4:25 p.m.
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
As I indicated in my opening remarks, in budget 2011 we recently announced an initiative to provide loans to recent immigrants and Canadians who have studied abroad. The reason is that when they come back to this country often they don't have a credit rating and it's very hard for them to access funding of that sort. We will shortly announce the details of that initiative.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Thank you.
Mr. Cuzner, your time is up.
Ms. Leitch, please go ahead.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for coming back again. It's greatly appreciated.
I know we don't have a significant amount of time until the end of this session. We're all working under this new environment of fiscal restraint, and I think we're all acutely aware of the economic uncertainty and the instability, not necessarily in Canada but in our neighbour to the south as well as in Europe.
As we move forward, with that being top of mind, what are some of the non-monetary items we can use to address this issue in the current framework? We always seem to go back to the funding component, but I think we all know that part of this is about will and what we can do and maybe rejigging what we already have on the chessboard. Do you have some suggestions or recommendations on the things we can do that are not fiscally directed?
4:30 p.m.
Director, Health Human Resources Policy Division, Department of Health
I will perhaps begin, and my colleagues may be able to suggest some other options.
We have worked hard with some of our provincial and territorial counterparts to encourage regional collaboration as well as individual provincial and jurisdictional collaboration. We in fact have a western forum that deals with issues related to the internationally educated health professionals, and another one in the Atlantic. Those are showing some efficiencies in having people work together on some parts of what they would like to do.
We are fortunate at Health Canada that our internationally educated health professionals initiative has ongoing funding, 90% of which is allocated to the provinces and territories. We work with them very closely to develop projects that meet their specific needs. We have another portion of our funding that looks at pan-Canadian projects. Those are the kinds of things I've talked about, for example, with the Medical Council of Canada.
There are obviously other things that could be done. We are hoping through some of the work we are doing that we will have more information available--for example, a website people could go to. Right now I know you've heard there are varying types of websites and there are variations in the quality. We are building to that, and some of the work we have done will be able to support those kinds of innovations in the future.
4:30 p.m.
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
In terms of all of the work we're doing, obviously money is often at the core of the partnerships we have with many stakeholders. There are a lot of by-products that emerge from those agreements we have. For instance, when we work with a number of provincial governments—I kind of call that seed money—there is a discussion and a change in mindset that evolves. We create what I would call a critical mass of understanding on specific occupations.
Because of those discussions and proceeding with the occupations, we've built a common understanding where there used to be differential barriers. After a year or two of discussion and identifying what the problem is, some occupations have come to us and said that what was not possible a couple of years ago is now possible because of what we've done. Certainly in the medical profession the labour mobility chapter has brought some significant changes that a couple of years ago couldn't have been considered. Now what you have is the whole medical community talking about one uniform standard across the country, which is a remarkable achievement.
There are many examples like this. I'm thinking of some professions that.... We don't force the professions out, but we have a discussion when they are requesting four years of experience plus one year of Canadian experience. Why ask for that when they are assessing whether or not that person is competent? We are working with the profession to try to establish processes that ensure that what we assess are the competencies and not the number of years they've spent in a particular field. That's a much more efficient way. What you build when you do that is good common will going in the same direction.
Jonathan, do you want to handle a few things about this?
4:30 p.m.
Jonathan Wells
Sure. I can talk about a very fresh example from our consultations with the representatives from the engineering technicians and technologists. Over a three-year period roughly 14,000 newcomers arrive in the country who self-indicate that they are engineers. There's perhaps not a term that is more flexibly used in occupational jargon than the term “engineer”. A very low-cost but very high-impact initiative is to establish linkages between the professional engineer associations and the certification bodies for engineer technicians and technologists that would enable individuals to be routed in a much quicker way.
We heard from individuals who had gone through the credential recognition process, and they expressed confusion over whether they should apply to this or that, or where they should go. Having connections between the regulatory bodies and increased collaboration are fundamental principles that are being put into effect by the pan-Canadian framework. These are low-cost but high-impact initiatives that assist people in finding their spot within the Canadian labour market much quicker.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Thank you, Mr. Wells.
I will get a concluding remark from Mr. Walsh and we'll end with that.
4:35 p.m.
Director, Foreign Qualification Recognition, Foreign Credentials Referral Office, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I would echo my colleagues' remarks that unfortunately most of the substantive changes we'd like to see in the area of FCR are monetary-based, whether it's more money for bridge training, MRA development, or moving assessment of applicants overseas.
I do agree there is a lot to be gained from the partnership and dialogue we're trying to build among stakeholders here. I think the regulatory bodies are looking for ways to deal with these challenges. To that extent, we can bring them together to share best practices on something like the IQN network, which FCRO has recently launched, that provides a platform for all kinds of stakeholders to post best practices, new ideas, to see what's working, and create more of a dialogue so people can benefit from experiences across the country.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Thank you very much for presenting and pulling a lot of thoughts together and giving us something to think on as we write the report.
We'll suspend for five or ten minutes.
Thank you for attending.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
[Public proceedings resume]
5:10 p.m.
NDP
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Okay. We are in public and you're entitled to table your motion.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
She just said she tabled it and we have it. It has been tabled in public.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
On a point of order, is the motion on the public record at this point?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
