Pilot project encouraging skilled foreign recruitment
June 24, 2009
The Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce has been chosen to be one of four organizations to participate in a six month pilot project.
The project will focus on providing employers with easy access to the information they need to recruit, train and retain foreign workers.
Chamber Manager Annette Oak says while the economy isn’t booming just yet, there are signs the turnaround may not be far off. She says when this happens, the City should be ready.
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Source : Energetic City.ca
Government of Canada Introduces Amendments to Protect Vulnerable Foreign Workers From Human Trafficking
June 17, 2009
OTTAWA, ONTARIO – (Marketwire – June 17, 2009) – The Government of Canada will today reintroduce amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) to help protect vulnerable foreign workers such as exotic dancers and live-in caregivers who could be victims of exploitation.
The bill was tabled in the previous Parliament but died on the order paper when an election was called.
“This will strengthen Canada’s immigration system by helping to prevent situations where temporary workers in Canada may be abused, exploited or possibly become victims of human trafficking,” said Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, President of the Queen’s Privy Council and Minister for la Francophonie, Josee Verner, speaking on behalf of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.
“The amendments will help further our agenda of increasing protections for temporary foreign workers, by preventing situations of abuse from happening in the first place,” added Labour Minister Rona Ambrose.
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Source : CIC Media Relations
Mexican workers in Canada face checkups
April 29, 2009
CALGARY – With the swine flu outbreak gaining steam and reported cases of infection rising, a recruiter of Mexican workers to Canada isn’t taking any chances.
Mexi-Can Labour Force will be taking workers they’ve recruited to Alberta for a checkup at the doctor once they arrive in this province.
“Like anybody, we’re concerned. We want to be careful,” said Lyle Tomie, managing director of Mexi-Can, which helps bring 500 to 1,000 Mexican workers to Alberta every year. “We don’t want to bring someone up here that’s got the deadly strain of this virus.”
On Monday, federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced Mexican workers heading to Canada must now receive a physical exam and be tested for fever before they depart.
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Source : Richard Cuthbertson
Red tape frustrates immigrant entrepreneur
March 27, 2009
Local restaurant owner says province, Ottawa aren’t aligned in immigration goals
Mohinde Jit Singh saw an opportunity in southeastern New Brunswick about six years ago and took it when he moved from Toronto to Moncton to establish an Indian restaurant. “It was a big decision for me at the time,” he says. Since then, the TajMahal Flavour of India restaurant has become a favourite in the city’s downtown.
But there have been challenges, says Singh, and some of the biggest have been with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The restaurant owner says it all comes down to having cooks in the kitchen who are knowledgeable and experienced with cooking authentic Indian food.
“The immigration officers keep saying to them that they aren’t satisfied (they won’t) leave the country after they’re finished their term,” he said. “My concern is that in New Brunswick, they’re trying to bring new immigrants here to stay in the province.
Greg Byrne, minister responsible for New Brunswick’s Population Growth Secretariat, who has consistently said immigration is one of the best strategies to increase the province’s population, said attracting and retaining immigrants remains a top priority.
While not being able to comment on specific cases, Byrne maintained the province and the federal government are in constant communication with one another, adding that the province’s immigration goals aren’t a secret in Ottawa.
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Source: Times-Transcript
www.canadaimmigrationgroup.com
Manitoba looks to Iceland for temporary foreign workers
March 4, 2009
An economic crisis in Iceland may result in more workers from the country finding employment in Manitoba.
The province’s labour minister travelled to Iceland to assess the feasibility of recruiting construction workers as temporary foreign workers (TFW).
Iceland, with a total population and labour force of about 320,000 and 150,000 respectively, has always been a country with low unemployment rates.
But since last October, when all three of the country’s major banks collapsed, labour market conditions have changed rapidly.
“Unemployment in Iceland has always been low historically at around one per cent” said Atli Asmundsson, Iceland’s consul general in Manitoba.
“Now after the economic collapse, there is massive unemployment. It is up to eight per cent and still rising.”
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Source : Richard Gilbert
Federal government delivers on protection for workers
January 19, 2009
It is not surprising for countries facing tough economic times to implement measures intended to better protect their domestic workers.
In Canada, this responsibility falls on the shoulders of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC).
Subject to certain exceptions, Canadian employers who wish to recruit foreign workers must demonstrate to HRSDC how the entry of the foreign worker(s) will transfer skills and knowledge to Canadians, fill a labour shortage, or directly create or retain job opportunities for other Canadians.
Canadian employers who wish to recruit overseas must first make an application to HRSDC for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO). If HRSDC is satisfied that the recruitment of a foreigner is in our interests, it will issue a positive LMO which then paves the way for the chosen foreign worker to submit a work permit application at a Canadian visa post overseas.
On Jan. 1, HRSDC implemented a national advertising requirement for all occupations.
The failure to comply with these minimum advertising requirements “will result in the application for a LMO being denied.”
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Source : Guidy Mamann
Foreign worker dismissals set to rise
January 17, 2009
The number of dismissals of temporary foreign workers is expected to spike in 2009, while the number of new foreign workers being recruited to Canada is forecast to drop significantly as companies face the prospect of layoffs in a recession, say immigration lawyers and recruiters.
“There seemed to be a never-ending pool of work for (immigration) lawyers and companies were in desperate need for foreign workers,” says Evelyn Ackah, who leads the business immigration practice in Calgary for law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain.
“It’s like an arc has just happened.”
Service Canada, one of the federal government organizations that oversee the recruitment of temporary foreign workers, is also making it more difficult to recruit overseas.
On Jan. 1, the organization released new recruitment process guidelines that are more onerous and cumbersome.
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Source : Derek Sankey
Immigration consultant repays clients
November 1, 2008
Two years after they were brought here by an immigration consultant for jobs that didn’t materialize, five of 24 Korean truck drivers have been compensated for damages. The five drivers – who reportedly each paid between $7,000 and $13,400 to an unregulated recruiter in Seoul for his services and the cost of language and skills training – all together received $5,000 this week from Yolanda Simao, the Toronto consultant who in March was found guilty of professional misconduct by the industry’s self-regulator, the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants.
It is the first time a complainant has been awarded compensation by the body in its four-year history. Simao, who argued her only client was the overseas recruiter, was also fined an additional $3,000 to cover administrative costs of the disciplinary proceedings.
In their complaints, the drivers said they were told they would earn $60,000 a year and could expect permanent residency in Canada after obtaining a work permit. However, the jobs evaporated because their English was not up to par.
Their story was one of many profiled in the Star‘s award-winning investigative series into the immigration consulting industry, which prompted the parliamentary Citizenship and Immigration standing committee to recommend an overhaul of the regulatory regime.
Read the full article.
Source : Nicholas Keung
Foreign workers key for Kenney
October 31, 2008
Jason Kenney has been promoted as immigration minister at a time when new legislation gives his job unprecedented powers to decide what kind of worker gets into Canada first.
The veteran Calgary Southeast MP best known as the Conservatives’ envoy to multicultural groups is pledging to use those powers to align immigration policy to the economy’s labour needs, rather than for political gain.
Provincial leaders and immigration advocates have been waiting for months for the list of occupations — for example, physicians or engineers or technicians — that the immigration minister will highlight as jobs that qualify for fast-tracked processing among a backlog of nearly one million would-be newcomers.
Kenney would not say when Canada’s new immigration priorities will be unveiled, but did say economic troubles underscore the need for the changes.
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Source : Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald
Recruitment guidelines for Canada
October 14, 2008
A technical team sent by Labor Secretary Marianito Roque to explore the Canadian labor market has found a strong job potential for Filipino workers in four of its western provinces that have signed a labor agreement with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
The team, headed by Labor Undersecretary Luzviminda Padilla and Director Salome Mendoza, head of the Canada Employment Desk, reported that the global economic crisis had not affected the manpower requirements of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan from the Philippines.
Alberta alone has a standing requirement of 400,000 artisans in the next two years to work in its booming oil and gas industry. British Columbia is in need of 30,000 construction workers and other personnel as it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Canada has expanded its labor requirements to other fields and will need a total of 1.8 million foreign workers in the next 10 years. Those with specific skills may be hired as contract or permanent migrant workers.
One outstanding feature of the labor agreements between DOLE and the four Canadian provinces is the non-collection of placement fees in any form from job applicants. The labor accords strictly prohibit recruiters from imposing any recruitment fee, as “employers will cover all recruitment costs.”
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Source : Alfredo G. Rosario, The Manila Times
