B.C. aims to attract more skilled workers with laws to fast-track professional immigrants
Premier David Eby sets out how his government will deliver on promise to quickly employ skilled new arrivals
Premier David Eby and Workforce Development Minister Andrew Mercier introduced a new bill Monday that aims to deliver on a promise ensuring new arrivals to British Columbia can put their training and abilities to work as quickly as possible.
If passed, Bill 38, the International Credentials Recognition Act, will remove barriers such as redundant language testing and requirements for work experience in Canada for 29 professions, including engineers, lawyers, teachers and social workers.
"We have many unfair processes that force new arrivals to British Columbia to go through incredibly complex, contradictory, hard-to-understand, expensive, repetitive processes that are frustrating and ultimately cause people to give up and work in a field that they're not trained in,'' said Eby, who announced the bill at a news conference Monday morning.
The promise to further allow and vastly speed up the employment of immigrants with foreign training has been a priority for Eby since he became premier in November 2022.
'Navigating through a maze'
"Too often, artificial barriers to working in their fields limit new immigrants from contributing right away to help build our province to the full extent of their abilities," Eby wrote in his mandate letter to Mercier last December.
The goal of the legislation is to attract more skilled workers to B.C. from around the world while also bolstering the province's economy. The professions listed in the bill are represented by 18 regulatory authorities.
The legislation will remove redundant language testing, set caps for maximum processing times, and require credential-assessment information to be available online.
David Lee, the director of employment, language, and social enterprise at MOSAIC, which helps immigrants and refugees settle in Canada, told CBC News that he was hopeful about the new legislation.
He said his organization often sees internationally trained skilled workers forced to return to their home countries due to struggles getting their foreign credentials recognized in Canada.
Alice Wong, a social worker who trained in Hong Kong, told the news conference that it was only through perseverance that she was able to find work in her field in B.C.
"Like navigating through a maze," is how she described her journey to employment in the province.
She began the process of getting registered with the B.C. College of Social Workers last August. She completed that process and moved to Vancouver this August, and had her first day on the job Tuesday.
"My story is not unique … there are many other internationally trained social workers who face similar obstacles," she said. "I felt very alone in my journey."
Current wait times unclear: minister
Mercier said work with the regulatory authorities in devising the bill revealed there is little data to show how long it currently takes for a professional not trained in Canada to gain employment here, or how far along the process people go before they give up.
A report from Mercier's office made public earlier this month looked at five regulatory bodies and what process they had for recognizing applicants originating from abroad.
One of them, the Engineer and Geoscientists of B.C., said it took up to six months to review applications.
The new provincial act will require regulators to record data over the time between becoming accredited and becoming employed.
"So, we will know exactly where the lag times are," said Mercier.
If passed, a new superintendent responsible for promoting fair credential recognition will be appointed. The act will come into force in summer 2024.
Eby said newcomers must account for at least one third of more than one million jobs expected to open over the next decade if those positions are to be filled.
Shortly after taking office, Eby announced expanded measures that would bring more doctors to the province under a program that allows internationally educated family physicians to become licensed to work in B.C.
The Practice Ready Assessment program will triple from 32 seats to 96 seats by March 2024.
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With files from The Canadian Press, Emily Vance and BC Today