Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am Executive 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 foreign credential recognition.
I think we can all recognize that immigration has been and continues to be vital to Canada's growth and economic strength. In 2008 alone, Canada accepted a total of 103,736 federal skilled workers, and of these principal applicants, 32% identified in the top 20 regulated professions.
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 the country governing more than 50 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 educational credentials for the purposes of both academic placement and workforce entry.
Data indicates that approximately 48,000 internationally trained individuals have their credentials assessed by the five provincially mandated assessment agencies each year. This number, however, does not include the myriad of other players involved in credential recognition who assess credentials not only for the purposes of entry into a regulated occupation but also for the purposes of entry into a trade, for the purposes of further post-secondary study, and/or for the purposes of employment in a non-regulated occupation.
In fact, 53 provincial and territorial ministries are involved in this issue, as it spans immigration, labour market, health, and education ministries. There are literally thousands of players on this file, when you include employers, all of whom are important assessors of credentials and work experience in regulated and non-regulated occupations.
The Government of Canada has established a relationship of leadership and trust with provinces and territories and regulatory bodies on priorities such as labour mobility and foreign credential recognition.
Although foreign credential recognition falls within provincial/territorial jurisdiction, the Government of Canada has an ongoing responsibility for immigration and its impact on the Canadian labour market and economy. As such, the Government of Canada continues to play a central leadership role in facilitating advancements on foreign credential recognition among multiple players.
To that end, the Government of Canada established the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, which is commonly referred to as the FCRO, in May 2007 to provide internationally trained persons 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. The FCRO services are offered both in Canada and overseas.
Additionally, the FCRO provides a coordinated focus at the federal level, working with HRSDC and Health Canada, to work with provinces, territories, regulatory bodies, and employers to coordinate federal-provincial-territorial efforts, share best practices across the country, and avoid overlap and duplication on an issue that is extremely complex.
Earlier this year, all governments recognized the importance of foreign credential recognition to the economic health of the country, as well as the important role that each level of government plays in ensuring that the skills, education and talent of those coming to the country can be quickly and rightly utilized.
My colleague Jean-François LaRue, from HRSDC will give you more details on the subject in a few minutes.
As we continue to work closely with our provincial and territorial colleagues, Health Canada, and HRSDC, the FCRO will continue to support and take a leadership role on matters related to pre-immigration and overseas initiatives. To this end, the FCRO received funding of some $13.7 million over two years in Budget 2009 to support the development of harmonized standards and clear pathways to form credential recognition for targeted occupations beginning overseas; to strengthen the scope of the overseas platform to support and implement the first ministers' commitment; and to develop a pan-Canadian information centre, in essence a website that will showcase and promote the sharing of promising foreign credential recognition practices across the country.
Prior to the establishment of the FCRO at CIC, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada laid the foundation for consistent foreign credential processes overseas through a pilot project with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. In October 2010, the FCRO will build upon the pilot and expand funding to provide FCRO services to not only the federal skilled workers category but also to provincial nominees in China, India, and the Philippines. It will also support the creation of a fourth location in the United Kingdom, beginning no later than 2011.
The United Kingdom location will serve the British Isles, the gulf, and Scandinavia. These offices combined will cover a larger pool of immigrants and could access close to 75% of the current volume of federal skilled workers and 44% of the current volume of provincial nominees.
The FCRO is also offering important services to immigrants domestically, including the provision of information on foreign credential recognition processes in Canada, to support faster integration into the Canadian labour market. These services are offered in person to clients across Canada through 329 Service Canada centres and 245 outreach sites, as well as through a toll-free telephone line through the Service Canada call centre.
Information on foreign credential recognition is also available through the FCRO website, which includes the “Working in Canada Tool”. It 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 732,00 visits, with the majority coming 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 and develop initiatives that will play a crucial role in not only supporting economic recovery from the downturn and promoting future growth of our country, but also 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, Mr. Chairman.
My colleagues from HRSDC and Health Canada will now inform you about the additional work done at the federal level on foreign credential recognition.