Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Pre-Qualified

Before John Tory loses the 2007 election for the Ontario PC Party and goes back to Bay Street, let us keep in mind that for one brief, shining moment, he expressed one idea so sensible that no government will ever carry it out:

Most skilled immigrants would get accredited to work in their field before they move to Canada and foreign-trained doctors would be able to perform basic services under a plan unveiled Monday by Ontario's Opposition Conservatives.

Conservative Leader John Tory said the program would allow skilled immigrants to start working on their Canadian accreditation while they are outside the country, waiting for their visa applications to be processed.

The province is facing a labour shortage and needs to better harness the knowledge of newcomers, Tory said at a campaign-style event that suggests the Conservatives are aggressively planning their strategy for next year's provincial election.

"The status quo is unacceptable,'' Tory said.

"This is a serious problem both because we're badly letting these people down and short-changing them. We need, as part of building a strong economy, to make full use of the talents these people brought with them to Canada.''

While not all professions could be fully accredited before an immigrant arrives in Canada, Tory said foreign-trained doctors could gain more experience by doing basic medical services under the supervision of a qualified doctor.


An overseas accreditation program would help end the cruel bait-and-switch that is played regularly on professionally trained immigrants lured here with promises of quick entry into their fields only to be told that their qualifications aren't recognized and to go do scut work instead.

And the various professional bodies couldn't throw up all sorts of excuses and barriers to entry once the people got to Ontario; they'd have to be upfront about their requirements.

Since checking qualifications is a paper-based process, there's no reason it couldn't be done before the applicants leave their home countries.

Immigrants could make an informed decision about coming to Canada for a change.

And there'd be a much-needed re-examination of how Canada promotes immigration.

Source: CTV

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, we have to recognize that much of the resistence to foreign qualifications is disagreement with the open immigration policy followed by governments trying to curry favour with voting blocs.

wilson said...

That is along the lines PMSH set out:

''The Conservatives addressed this question during the election campaign. During a speech which he gave on January 4th, 2006, Canada’s next Prime Minister discussed Canada’s Immigration program.

”New Canadians”, he said, “need a government that respects their efforts and understands their values”. He then unveiled his plan to help new Canadians to have their professional and work credentials recognized before they immigrate to Canada.
Create a Canadian Agency for Assessment and Recognition of Credentials to provide pre-assessment of international credentials and experience. The Federal Government will work with the provinces and professional associations to ensure foreign-trained professionals meet Canadian standards while getting properly trained professionals working in Canada quickly.''