Evidence of meeting #5 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 process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
I'm going to ask you one quick thing, and then Mr. Albas has a question. This is not for you to respond to here, but maybe you could send to us the number of people who make requests of you every year from offshore. Perhaps you could send that to us.
Go ahead, Dan.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a question, actually, for Architecture Canada. It's my understanding that the Architecture Institute of British Columbia put into place a program to facilitate credential recognition of foreign architects with at least seven years of experience in their country of origin. I just wanted to know if you were aware of the program and how many people have gone through that system so far. Are you working with them along with your program? Is there a growing consensus that those kinds of programs are successful?
Executive Director, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
The AIBC program is a model that the broadly experienced foreign architect task force, which is a pan-Canadian vehicle, has really been building on. So yes, the model of the competencies matrix is something that has emerged out of the process B.C. has been using. And the AIBC is very directly involved in the task force.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC
Do you know how many people have gone through its system?
Coordinator, Integration Project, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
They do approximately seven to ten per year.
Conservative
NDP
Claude Patry NDP Jonquière—Alma, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Christine Nielsen, my question is for you. You said a littler earlier that there were 10 provincial associations with about 12,000 members. However, Quebec is not part of that. Does it have to follow a separate procedure to get medical radiation technologists? Does it have to take care of that on its own? Could you explain the process to me?
October 18th, 2011 / 5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science
Quebec sits at the table setting the standards for both certification and for prior learning assessment, but it looks after its own immigration, and it doesn't require the certification exam as entry to practice. But Quebec is absolutely at the table as a partner in all discussions related to prior learning assessment and certification. It's in its legislation that it can't require the certification exam, but the OPTMQ does endorse the certification as a quality measure.
NDP
Claude Patry NDP Jonquière—Alma, QC
I have another question. Which area, if any, is faced with the biggest shortage? Is there really a shortage of workers in laboratories right now, for instance?
Executive Director, Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science
That's a great question. It's something my association is grappling with right now.
With the economic downturn in 2008, our members are not leaving the field as quickly as expected. We had speculated that 52% would be eligible to retire in 2015. That number is closer to 27%, but when you consider that medical lab professionals are about 20,000 strong in Canada, it will be significant, and it's not quite as alarming as it had been. I think that's why my profession came off the foreign skilled worker program list in 2008. Our occupational code came off as a profession in dire need.
NDP
Claude Patry NDP Jonquière—Alma, QC
As for your current program, will you continue to offer it for a long time? Does the current program have an end date? Could you give me some details on that? Is what you are currently doing in terms of development going to end on a specific date, or will the program remain available?
Executive Director, Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science
No, it's open. It's our commitment to the profession that we will maintain and sustain the program of foreign qualification recognition and entrance to the national exam.
NDP
Claude Patry NDP Jonquière—Alma, QC
Immigrants are provided with a lot of assistance, but is anything also being developed with the federal government to train people from here? It's just that we have many unemployed people whom we could train to do these types of jobs. Is anything being done, any money being invested, to make as much training available to people from our own country?
Executive Director, Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science
Do you mean skills for foreign trained or for domestic?
Executive Director, Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science
Domestic. That's on a province-by-province basis, and they all agree to the national competency profile. So there are 27 programs in Canada, and I think about seven or eight in Quebec. They all conform to the same standards. So that's just the process we've done since 1937, and will continue to do.
The international area is newer for us. We put way more resources, effort, and energy into it in the last decade than had ever been done before, acknowledging that the foreign trained are hugely skilled and they're also coming to Canada in large numbers. Our profession receives about 600 a year into Canada. Quebec looks after its own immigration, so I'm not sure what its numbers are.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists
Allow me to answer Mr. Patry's question.
Yes, our programs are also available in French, and we have noted that a number of our members and other technologists in Canada participate in the same programs. The self-assessment tool is very beneficial for them, and we think that the three courses we have created are very popular among Canadians and that they will enable them to upgrade their skills.
Thank you.
NDP
Carol Hughes NDP Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
I'm going to continue down the line of my colleague, Mr. Patry, and again I just want to get some clarification here. The foreign qualification process and foreign credential recognition program, is it really to fill a void or is it just to facilitate the immigrants who come to Canada? I'm kind of getting some mixed messages here, and I want to make sure I am understanding this.
Executive Director, Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science
For the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science, it's definitely to fill a void. The void is not quite as alarming as we had expected, but the domestic students enrolled in programs are not enough to equal retirements. There's definitely a net labour market loss with retirements, so newcomers to Canada are definitely filling those gaps.
We hear stories about people who can't set a vacation schedule until they get new grads or those who have been internationally educated. Our people are very tapped for time in the laboratories, and we're getting to the point where the shortages will be felt across the board. There will be delays in surgery, things like that, because of delays in lab testing.
The incoming immigrants are definitely important. We're not just providing a service in case they want to qualify; it's a definite need in our profession.
