Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is Matthew Graham. I am the acting director of permanent economic immigration policy within the immigration branch at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
It is my privilege to be joined by Maia Welbourne, who is director general of strategic policy and planning at CIC and responsible for gender-based analysis writ large, as well as Louis Dumas, director of the case processing centre here in Ottawa. We are very pleased to appear before your committee in the context of your study on women in skilled trades and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupations.
At CIC, we recognize and value the contribution of female immigrants in our economy and our society. In fact, CIC is the only federal department with a legislative requirement to conduct gender-based analysis and report back to Parliament on the impact of its legislation, in this case, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Consequently, the department proactively incorporates gender and diversity analysis into policy and program development, and develops monitoring mechanisms, including mitigation strategies for potential negative impacts on particular groups such as women.
CIC's 2013 annual report to Parliament found that in terms of overall economic immigration, women are making gains as principal applicants. Across many of Canada's economic programs, the number of female principal applicants is consistent or slowly increasing, suggesting that these programs are successfully recognizing the human capital of female immigrants.
The federal skilled workers program, which was modernized in 2013, selects applicants with human capital factors associated with long-term success and adaptability, including language, education, work experience, and previous work or study in Canada. The program has experienced a narrowing of the gender gap in terms of the relative number of women and men successfully applying through the program. The program has been successfully recognizing the skills and experiences of women as reflected through admissions to Canada. In 2004, women comprised only 26% of principal applicants, but this number has increased to 36% in 2014.
The provincial nominee program is an economic immigration program through which provinces and territories exercise their responsibility for immigration by nominating foreign nationals who they believe will meet their specific labour market needs. The number of admissions through the PNP has increased significantly over the past decade, and in that time, the percentage of women principal applicants admitted to Canada under the PNP has steadily increased from 21% in 2004 to 34% in 2014.
As you are aware, the government introduced the federal skilled trades program on January 2, 2013. This program was part of the overall transformation of Canada's economic system into a fast and flexible system focused on jobs, growth, and prosperity.
The federal skilled trades program was launched to facilitate the immigration of skilled tradespeople in response to the growing demand in certain industry sectors. Unlike the federal skilled worker program, it emphasizes practical training and work experience, rather than formal academic education, in recognition that this is the key to the employability of skilled tradespeople.
Skilled tradespeople can still apply through the federal skilled worker program but are now offered a new avenue to immigration that is more aligned with their career pathways.
The program is open to skilled tradespersons with work experience in the following national occupation classification skill level B occupational areas: industrial, electrical and construction trades; maintenance and equipment operation trades; supervisors and technical occupations in natural resources, agriculture, and related production; processing, manufacturing, and utilities supervisors and central control operators; chefs and cooks; and bakers and butchers.
The federal skilled trade program's pass/fail selection model is based on four selection criteria that are linked to a skilled tradesperson's ability to work in Canada. The four selection criteria include arranged employment or a certificate of qualification to practise their trade in the relevant province or territory, language skills, work experience, and education qualifications necessary to satisfy employment requirements.
The federal skilled trades program was designed to be gender-neutral. During its development, gender considerations were assessed around the impact of the program design. It was acknowledged that the two-year work experience requirement may be difficult to obtain for some women in their child-bearing years, as they may take short absences from the labour force to care for children.
To respond to women's more varied labour market patterns, this requirement was designed to be flexible, allowing applicants up to five years to obtain the two years of work experience required for the program. This approach allowed for a balance between being inclusive and recognizing the crucial importance of work experience in becoming economically established.
Since the inception of the federal skilled trades program, there has been a modest volume of applicants, both male and female. This is expected with every new program. As applicants learn the requirements of the program, intake generally increases over time. In 2014, 62 principal applicants were admitted through the program. While there were less than five women among those approved through the federal skilled trades program, 704 women in skilled trades occupations were admitted through Canada's other permanent resident economic immigration programs: the federal skilled worker program, the Canadian experience class, and the provincial nominee program.
Between 2010 and 2014, the number of women in skilled trades occupations admitted annually as permanent residents increased by 151%.
For those female immigrants with work experience in a science, engineering or mathematics occupation, they would be more likely to apply through the federal skilled worker program, the Canadian experience class or the provincial nominee program, as the programs are more tailored to knowledge-based workers.
In 2014, 2,016 female applicants working in an occupation in the natural and applied sciences were admitted to Canada. Further, the proportion of women relative to total admissions in these occupations increased from 16% in 2010 to 18% in 2014. Of those working in these occupations, the majority immigrated through the federal skilled worker program.
When the federal skilled worker program was modernized in 2013, one of the eligibility requirements—one year of work experience within the last ten years—remained unchanged, as it was designed to be inclusive for women, who have more varied labour market patterns than men.
In addition, the relative weight of work experience on the points grid was reduced. This was done in part to help lessen the impact that caregiving responsibilities may have on the ability of women to earn points for work experience.
Madam Chair, I can assure you that CIC always strives to ensure our suite of economic immigration programs is accessible to immigrants regardless of gender.
We look forward to receiving the findings of this committee's study. We are pleased to answer any questions you may have.