Canada should tap into U.S. labour pool: Kenney

The Canadian Press

Date: Friday Sep. 16, 2011 6:41 PM ET

CALGARY — Ottawa is mulling ways to tap into the U.S. labour force as worker shortages loom on our side of the border, the federal immigration minister said Friday.

"We're at a preliminary point of examining ways that we could do a better job of accessing unemployed American labour," Jason Kenney told a business audience in Calgary -- a city all-too familiar with worker shortages, especially in the oil and gas sector.

"There are a number of policy things that we're considering. I don't want to go into too much detail...We think, particularly in the energy industry, that may be a significant solution to some of the emerging labour market shortages."

The U.S. unemployment rate was just over nine per cent in August, whereas in Alberta -- where a renewal in oilsands development may soon lead to another bout of labour tightness -- the unemployment rate was only 5.6 per cent.

There are "a lot of skilled tradespeople in the U.S. who could walk straight into productive jobs here. We should see if there's something we can do in the rules to facilitate having those unemployed Americans contribute to our economy," Kenney said.

There are provisions under the North American Free Trade Agreement that enable workers to move easily between countries. But the number of those visas granted each year is capped, and only apply to certain types of occupations, Kenney said.

"It's a very good model, but it's very limited," Kenney said.

"We, as a government, have begun thinking about how we could perhaps expand that model."

Kenney also announced Friday that consultations are set to take place in Calgary next month on the federal Temporary Foreign Worker program, which he admits has been "maligned and misunderstood" by its critics.

The program enables companies to bring workers to Canada from around the world on a temporary basis, so long as they can prove they can't get the labour closer to home.

Some 185,000 such workers came to Canada last year, 58,000 of whom ended up in Alberta. Critics of the program argue workers who come to Canada under the program are often exploited.

In his remarks to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Kenney took aim at those accusations.

"They paint this picture of some sort of Industrial Revolution sweatshop or something that these people are coming to. Let me say, that most of the critiques of the Temporary Foreign Worker program are ridiculous, unfounded," Kenney said.

"When I meet temporary workers across Alberta, they say to me that they're able to earn in this province in a couple of days what it would take them a month to earn back in their country of origin. And that, for them, represents over a year or two a life savings to start a new business, to build a new home."

Temporary Foreign Worker Program to be Revamped

The Canadian government will be restructuring the country’s temporary foreign worker program.

Federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently told the audience at a meeting in the western city of Calgary that the streamlined program will make it easier for employers to hire foreigners on a temporary basis.

Kenney has already been meeting with stakeholders across Canada over the past few months on the programme and how to restructure it, and will be holding another set of meetings in October in the western province of Alberta.

in Alberta, employers in the oil and gas sector, as well as those in agricultural and construction sectors, have been clamouring for a more relaxed foreign worker program, as well as an immigration system that does not put too much emphasis on higher education.

The argument is that while Canada does need highly qualified engineers and others, it also needs plumbers, electricians and those that can work in the oil patch, but do not necessarily possess higher education certificates.

Meanwhile, Kenney is also suggesting that Canada’s oil patch should discuss bringing in unemployed workers from the south of the border, in the US.

Jobs With Future in Canada – Nursing

Canada needs nurses. Lots of them.

According to Health Canada and the Canadian Nurses Association, Canada might need up to 113,000 nurses by year 2016.

Generally, the shortage of nurses is a worldwide phenomenon, for reasons ranging from increasing population to diseases becoming treatable.
And in many countries, such as Canada, the population is also ageing, and therefore demand for geriatric care is increasing.

In Canada, nursing population is also ageing: in 2006, the average age of a nurse was 45, with about a third over 50 years.
In fact, a former official of the Canadian Nurses Association has said securing sufficient nurses would be vital for the sustainability of Canada’s health care system.

Those in Demand in Canada

The latest list of High Demand Jobs issued by the Canadian ministry of immigration lists three categories within the nursing profession.

Head Nurses/Supervisors
Registered Nurses
Licensed Practising Nurses

At present, just under eight percent of Canadian nurses are foreign-trained but this can be expected to increase as Canada tries to meet the demand. As well, Canada is becoming very diverse and in some parts of the country, such as the Greater Toronto Area, health institutions carry notices in more than one language.

How to Apply
Nursing in Canada is delegated to provinces/territories and, as such, it is they who regulate the profession.
Anyone needing more information about immigrating to Canada as a nurse, and sitting for the exams can approach the local consulate/embassy/high commission. More information can also be found at the website of the Canadian Nurses Association.

Canadian firms prepare for U.S. expansion

Madhavi Acharya-Tom YewBusiness Reporter

In just two years, Doug Burgoyne and his environmentally friendly company, Frogbox, have leapfrogged across Canada. Now, the company is hopping across the border.

But is it really the best time for a U.S. expansion?

Frogbox started in 2008 with a corporate store in Vancouver. The company rents stackable, sturdy, green plastic bins to customers for residential and commercial moves, as a green alternative to cardboard boxes and tape.

The following year, they opened a location in Seattle. Then they came to Toronto.

“What we found is our biggest value point is convenience,” Burgoyne says, adding that suits him just fine. “In that case, we’re helping the environment by influencing someone who normally wouldn’t even consider that as important.”

In January, Burgoyne struck gold with a successful appearance on Dragon’s Den. Investors Jim Treliving, chairman and owner of Boston Pizza International Inc., and Brett Wilson, chairman of Canoe Financial, invested $200,000 for a 25 per cent stake in Frogbox.

The business exploded. It received 500 franchise applications in the first 10 days after the show. “These were really good, qualified people who said they had $100,000 ready to invest,” Burgoyne says.

The company went from three locations to 21 in just seven months.

“We thought, ‘The U.S. economy is not where it should be. Let’s postpone that, get Canada up and running, and further develop the brand.’”

The American economy has taken much longer to recover than many predicted. Three years after the recession, the housing market is still stuck and the jobless rate is over 9 per cent.

What’s worse is that the outlook isn’t very positive. With the debt crisis in Greece threatening to pull Europe’s economy into recession, many economists are worried that North America will slip into reverse gear as well.

Frogbox managed to open a handful of new franchises in select U.S. cities: Minneapolis, Boise, and Madison, Wisconsin.

“Now we have hundreds of franchise requests from all over the U.S., but the economy down there is just not where it needs to be,” Burgoyne says.

“The housing market is not good. We don’t know if it’s going to be a double-dip recession. The uncertainty is the big scary thing down there.”

That’s left Burgoyne unsure about whether to open more stores in the States right away or wait it out.

Waiting would give more certainty on the economy and ensure the company is not spread too thin. But slowing down expansion could give rivals a chance to pop up.

How does a small business owner know when it’s the right time to expand?

“There are lots of ways to gauge it,” says John Pliniussen, a professor who teaches marketing and innovation at the School of Business at Queen’s University. “The first step is most crucial: You have to be very good at what you’re doing right now in Canada.”

Most Canadian entrepreneurs in this position naturally look to our southern neighbour, which is more similar to us than any other foreign market.

The deep malaise of the U.S. economy is a problem.

“That means you will need to get in there with a better business product and a better business model,” says Alec Morley, a senior vice-president with TD Canada Trust. “You’re taking a slice of the existing pie. The pie down there is not growing right now.”

Although the American market can seem very similar to Canada, it is different in one crucial way: in its level of competitiveness.

“A lot of Canadians just aren’t aware of how aggressive and competitive the market is in the U.S. They really know how to hustle,” Morley says. “It’s not uncommon for Canadians to get their heads handed to them down there. Canadians have to be prepared to compete at a higher level.”

That means your business must be in tip-top financial shape before you expand.

“A lot of people get overextended when they try to expand. Small businesses confuse top-line revenue growth with bottom-line profitability,” Morley explains.

That means they take on many new orders, but then don’t have the cash flow to buy materials or deliver the service.

“Banks can help you manage that cycle, but they want to see that the company has a lot of working capital and a profitable bottom line,” Morley says.

Locking in exchange rates is important for Canadian entrepreneurs, he adds. “Otherwise, your business becomes as much about speculating in exchange rates as the original product or service it was intended to deliver. You get it wrong on the exchange rate, and you can lose a lot of money.”

Your banker can help by using a futures contract to lock in an exchange rate for a set period of time.

In fact, the banker should be just one of three expert advisors.

Morley says businesses also need advice from an accountant and a lawyer who are well-versed in the company’s history and business, as well as cross-border business issues. “That’s the three-legged stool every small business owner should have access to.”

Burgoyne is considering whether it’s better to franchise or open corporate stores. The former requires less capital but offers a royalty that’s lower than the profit margin the business would get if it stuck to corporate stores.

“The key when you enter another country is to make sure you spend a lot of time selecting your first handful of locations,” Pliniussen says.

“Whether you go corporate or franchise, these are the units everyone will scrutinize and think about.”

Right now, Burgoyne and his partners are doing sophisticated financial analysis as they try to come to a decision.

“We have pages of spreadsheets and best- and worst-case economic conditions based on an expansion with franchise versus one with corporate stores,” he says.

“We run hundreds of scenarios, but, at the end of the day, you have to go with your gut. There’s no right or wrong answer. You have to understand the potential outcome based on scenarios and make a decision.”

Within five years of first opening Frogbox, Burgoyne wants to be in the 100 biggest cities in North America.

“The question is, will we do it in 2012 or do we wait a year, focus on Canada, conserve cash and, when the economy starts to turn around, jump into it?” he says.

“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ we go into the U.S. We’re there.”

Most Canadian companies hiring in coming months: Survey

Y DEREK ABMA, FINANCIAL POST JULY 7, 2011

Job-posting website CareerBuilder.ca said the survey conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive showed 61 per cent of companies questioned said they intend to hire new employees between July and December.

Photograph by: Brian Snyder, Reuters

OTTAWA — Canadians should see a "solid" jobs market for the remainder of the year, according to a newly released survey of hiring managers.

Job-posting website CareerBuilder.ca said the survey conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive showed 61 per cent of companies questioned said they intend to hire new employees between July and December. That was up slightly from 58 per cent when the same poll was done a year earlier.

"The job growth trend in Canada remains solid, as employers expect to continue to add more positions in the second half of this year," CareerBuilder said in a statement.

Forty-three per cent of respondents said they would be hiring full-time staff in the last half of the year, 26 per cent said they'd hire part-time workers, and 27 per cent said they would be looking for temporary or contract workers. Last year's corresponding results were 41 per cent for full time, 16 per cent for part time and 24 per cent for temp or contract.

"Our survey and listings on CareerBuilder.ca point to the resilience of the Canadian labour market as economies around the globe work to rebuild after the recession." said Brent Rasmussen, CareerBuilder's president for North America.

Many of the positions that will hired for in the coming months, the survey indicated, were either innovation-based or centred around frontline staff. This included jobs in information technology, business development, marketing, customer service and administration.

More than half the respondents said they were concerned about losing key talent as the economy improves, while 30 per cent said they had already lost some of their top workers in recent months.

Forty per cent said they have open positions for which they can't find qualified workers, while about 60 per cent said there is a shortage of skills in their organization. Know-how in IT, communications and customer service were the most common skills lacking.

The results were based on online surveys of 231 non-government hiring managers taken between May 19 and June 8. CareerBuilder said a random sample of this size would yield a margin of error of 6.45 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

On Friday, Statistics Canada is slated to provide officials jobs data from June. Economists expect 15,000 more people were employed in Canada last month and that the unemployment rate stayed at 7.4 per cent.

Twitter.com/derekabma

CNS 7/07/11 7:46:27

Feds have new plan to fill worker shortages

By Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News

Posted: Jul 6, 2011 2:30 PM ET

Last Updated: Jul 7, 2011 8:24 AM ET

Read 226comments226

Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley announced a new initiative to address shortages of workers on Wednesday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The federal government plans to launch a new online tool to connect job seekers and employers as part of an effort to deal with a "skills crisis."

Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley said at a news conference Wednesday in Ottawa that there are already major shortages of workers in health care, information technology and skilled trades. Where shortages don't currently exist, employers and other stakeholders are warning they are coming, she said.

"This is becoming a skills crisis. We want to avert that so we're trying something new," she said in announcing the government's intention to provide more information on its existing Working in Canada website.

She acknowledged that past efforts by the government to address unemployment and worker shortages haven't always been successful or efficient. During the recent recession, for example, there were challenges in getting workers to the places they were needed, Finley said.

With this latest initiative, the government will work much closer with the private sector to collect information about their needs and to provide it to post-secondary education institutions so they can prepare to train people in the areas where there will be shortages, and, to Canadians looking for jobs.

"Better information will help Canadians find jobs and make the right learning and career choices," Finley said.

The information about what sectors need workers now, and are going to need them in the years ahead, and in what parts of the country, will be featured on the website.

"It's a really collaborative approach for a change," said Finley.

She said her department is moving quickly on the project but couldn't provide a timeline for when it will be up and running.

The minister said Canada's economy is improving but that productivity and labour force growth are sluggish, and that addressing the skills shortage will help on that front.

"Skills shortages are costly. They mean reduced productivity and lower growth," she said. "We need to work smarter if we are to see the kind of prosperity and growth that an expanding labour force guaranteed in the past," said Finley.

Improving the matching of employee skills with market demands will help drive the country's economic recovery, she said.

The minister was joined at her press conference by Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, who said any effort made by the government to predict labour shortages is helpful.

Beatty said members of his organization are worried about the impending work shortages that will partly be caused as older Canadians retire.

"We have a skills problem in Canada, on its way to becoming a skills crisis unless we can successfully match the skills in this country with the needs that are going to be in the workforce," he said.

The enhanced federal government website is one of many measures that can be taken to help ward off further worker shortages, said Beatty. His organization would also like to see more action on other solutions, including expediting foreign credential recognition and attracting more international students to Canadian schools and enticing them to stay once they graduate.

"Canada's efforts will fail if they are not guided by the best possible intelligence and this is not a battle that any of us can afford to lose," he said.

New Website to Help Jobseekers and Students

Canada’s unemployment has been slow to go down after the recession, but what is surprising, or perhaps not surprising, is that many employers say they are struggling without qualified personnel.

So, the Canadian government has come up with a new website. Running under workingincanada.gc.ca, the website is a treasure trove for those seeking jobs and for employers.

The main search function can be used by Job Title, Skills Set possessed or Qualification.

Perhaps one of the most important segments of the new website is the Jobs Outlook segment. It is not yet complete, but once it is, the segment will yield sectors for which there will be demand, or not, in the coming years.

The federal government says one key reason for this website is resolve what it, and some of the major employers of Canada, calls a skills crisis.

It says that there is already a shortage of experienced people in the health care, information technology and skilled trades. For example, some reports say there will be a shortage of as many as 60,000 nurses throughout the country in ten years time.

What is interesting is that while unemployment remains high in many developed countries, policy makers in these countries also say there is a shortage of skilled personnel, and this will get only worse in the coming years.

Language Proficiency Rule to be Changed

OCTOBER 15, 2011

The Canadian government wants to change the way language proficiency is tested for those who apply to become citizens.

In a gazette Notice of Intent issued, Citizenship and Immigration Canada – the federal department in charge of immigration issues – says that in future it would like applicants to prove their proficiency in either of the two official languages – English and French – when they submit their citizenship application.

At present, language proficiency is tested during the citizenship application process. It is tested through the 20 multiple choice questions. If the applicant fails the test, then he or she has to appear before a citizenship judge to answer questions.

How to Prove Proficiency

But under the new proposals, applicants will have to prove, upfront, their fluency through one of the following three methods:

The results of a third party test
Evidence of completion of secondary or post-secondary education in English or French, or
Evidence of achieving the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) or Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens level 4 (both these organizations set Canadian standards for language proficiency).

The CIC says that this is not an increase in the level of language proficiency, but rather change the way language proficiency for applicants between the ages of 18 to 54 is assessed.

The change has not become a rule, and the CIC wants public input. Those interested in expressing their views can do so within the next 30 days by accessing the contact information through this site.

The CIC has already made proficiency proof through written exams mandatory for those wanting to apply to immigrate to Canada.

What’s in a name? A job, maybe

TAVIA GRANT

Globe and Mail Blog

Posted on Friday, October 14, 2011 10:49AM EDT

Job seekers with common anglophone names such as Greg Brown on their résumés get more responses from employers in Canada’s three largest cities than applicants with foreign-sounding names – regardless of work experience, education or language proficiency, new research shows.

According to University of Toronto researchers Philip Oreopoulos and Diane Dechief, applications submitted by people with English-sounding names are 47 per cent more likely to receive callbacks than those with Indian or Chinese ones in Toronto, 39 per cent more likely in Montreal, and 20 per cent more likely in Vancouver.

The findings to be released Friday are consistent with Mr. Oreopoulos’s 2009 research, which focused strictly on employers in the Toronto area.

His follow-up research explores why employers seem to discriminate against job applicants with foreign-sounding names. The researchers sent out close to 8,000 randomly created résumés for various job postings in the three cities between February and September of last year. The jobs required at least a bachelor’s degree and four to six years of work experience. Some of the CVs had anglophone names such as Jill Smith, while others had Greek, Indian or Chinese names such as Lukas Minsopoulos, and Yong Zhang.

The researchers found that people with Greek, Chinese and Indian names are less likely to hear back from employers. “Even for applicants with Canadian education and Canadian experience ... the result is concerning that there this a difference that’s generated from a name,” Mr. Oreopoulos said.

The second part of the research asked HR professionals why they think people with foreign-sounding names are less likely to be contacted for an interview. The HR people typically cited concern over language or social skills – a response that contradicts the fact that many résumés clearly cited Canadian experience and fluency in English and French.

“Subconscious” discrimination may explain why immigrants with foreign-sounding names get lower callback rates, Mr. Oreopoulos said.

The study comes amid a persistent gap between immigrant and Canadian-born employment rates and wages. The jobless rate for Canadian-born workers was 5.4 per cent last month, compared to 8.3 per cent for all immigrants and 13.4 per cent for recent immigrants, according to the Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative. Wages of recent immigrants are about 49 per cent lower than native-born workers, census data show – even though immigrants typically have higher rates of education.

The authors cite several solutions to the problem. One is to train recruiters to be more aware of possible bias, and to consider better ways of discerning foreign-language ability.

The project was co-funded by Metropolis British Columbia and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

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