Immigration stream would be welcome

View from the Board | Bill Stewart

Recent news reports that Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and the federal government are contemplating creating a "skilled worker" stream for permanent immigration are welcome news for the construction industry.

By most accounts, Canada's construction industry will again be plagued with manpower shortages in the near future.

The single largest factor leading to this shortage is the aging workforce. By 2015, it is estimated that 35 per cent of Canada’s population will be aged 55 years or older.

View from the Board

Bill Stewart

An estimated 3.8 million workers are expected to retire between 2005 and 2015.

In construction, 210,000 of the current 1.2 million workers are expected to retire over the next eight years.

While the impending demographic tsunami has been known for years, solutions are complex and clouded by politics.

Many argue that these shortages can be addressed solely with Canadians.

A good deal of progress is already being made through increased apprenticeships and training along with outreach initiatives to attract youth and people from traditionally under-represented segments of the labour market.

For example, according to Statistics Canada, the number of apprentices registered in carpentry, electrical, plumbing and pipefitting trades was 83,000 in 1991. By 2009, that number increased to almost 155,000, despite the recession.

More can and will be done to develop domestic labour supplies. It just makes sense.

Despite the best efforts of governments, business associations, contractors and labour suppliers, forecasts indicate that there will be a significant shortfall in domestic resources to meet demands.

The Construction Owners Association of Alberta (COAA) for example, estimates that almost 160,000 offshore constructions workers will be needed within the next eight years to satisfy all the projected workforce needs.

Unfortunately for the construction industry, Canada’s current immigration system does a poor job of targeting immigration for high-demand construction occupations.

This is particularly true of the Skilled Worker Program (SWP), where about 280,000 people are admitted annually.

According to the ministry, 46 per cent of admissions under the program have a master’s degree or PhD, while less than 3.0 per cent of admissions were apprentices or held a formal trade certificate.

Kenney was right on when he noted that, “People who are skilled tradespeople have an almost impossible job coming to Canada under our current system.” No kidding!

The current system is heavily weighted on educational achievement.

For construction, this has resulted in less than 700 people with trades or construction experience being admitted annually under the current permanent immigration regime.

With numbers like this, is it any wonder why contractors have had to resort to the controversial Temporary Foreign Worker program to help supplement their workforce?

In light of this, how is it possible to reconcile the fact that only 55 steamfitter-pipe fitters – a trade vital to industrial construction and maintenance on energy related projects – were permitted into Canada under the SWP from 2005 to 2010?

Additionally, why were contractors authorized to bring up to 4,300 steamfitter-pipefitters into Canada from 2007 to 2009 under the TFW program?

In Alberta, the most recent Major Projects Inventory lists $201 billion in construction investments across various construction sectors over the next few years.

Alberta is not alone. Saskatchewan as well as Newfoundland and Labrador, which have long been vital sources of construction workers for Alberta, are currently experiencing record levels of construction activity.

Shortages of skilled workers have occurred and will continue to occur despite record levels of apprenticeship training in Canada. Without immigration reforms, such as the creation of a permanent stream for immigrants with trades skills, as Minister Kenney is suggesting, it is abundantly clear that the current immigration system will be unable to help deal with the impending skilled worker shortages in construction.

Bill Stewart is the vice-president of the Merit Contractors Association in Alberta. Bill is also a member of the Journal of Commerce Editorial Advisory Board.

Immigrant drop imperils Ontario economy

JOE FRIESEN

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

After 20 years of attracting nearly 60 per cent of all newcomers to Canada, Ontario’s share of immigration is in steep decline and threatens to intensify the province’s economic struggles.

The first population figures from the 2011 census will be released Wednesday and they’re expected to show that Ontario’s rate of growth has dropped. Since 2001, Ontario has seen its share of immigration drop nearly 20 percentage points. In 2009, Ontario received nearly 107,000 new immigrants, the lowest number in 30 years.

“Ontario’s going to show declining growth, that’s for sure,” said Doug Norris, senior vice-president at Environics Analytics and a leading expert on the census. “They’ve pulled immigrants out of Ontario, and immigrants drive growth, so Ontario’s going to be down.”

The primary reason is a restructuring of Canadian immigration that gave more control to provincial governments. Ontario, for so long an irresistible magnet to highly educated skilled workers, was slow to adjust. The status quo had served it well. While provinces such as Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta jumped at the newly created provincial nominee program early in the decade, Ontario did little.

“Ontario didn’t use [the nominee program] very much because for a long time it thought it was getting the numbers and also the kinds of immigrants it wanted,” said Leslie Seidle, research director for immigration at the Institute for Research on Public Policy.

While the number of immigrants remained constant at about 250,000 per year, Ontario’s share shrank. The other provinces used the nominee program to gobble up applicants, such as tradespeople, who don’t fare well in the points system for skilled-worker applications. As the skilled-worker stream declined, so did Ontario.

It’s only recently that the Ontario government woke up to the significance of the numbers, said Naomi Alboim, an immigration expert who teaches public policy at Queen’s University. She said the trend to a smaller share of immigration will have a major impact.

“I think it’s very serious. In Ontario, we need immigration for demographic purposes, for longer-term economic objectives. There are still some significant skill shortages and these numbers are not good,” she said.

Ontario still attracts by far the most immigrants of any province. And there is a significant backlog of as many as 58,000 skilled-worker applicants who would like to come to Ontario but whose applications have not been processed. The province started its own nominee program in 2007, but it brings in roughly 1,000 people a year, compared to 12,000 annually in Manitoba.

Charles Sousa, Ontario’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, said the province needs to negotiate its own deal on immigration. He said he has discussed it with his federal counterpart, Jason Kenney, and he intends to continue those talks.

“It’s just not fair that Quebec, B.C., Alberta have agreements with the federal government that allow them to make decisions that we are not allowed to do. Ontario deserves to have the same equity, the same level of fairness,” Mr. Sousa said. “We need to sit down and strike something that’s more effective for Ontario and Canada.”

One of the consequences of fewer immigrants in the province has been significant cuts to federal money for settlement services, up to $75-million over the past two years.

The South Asian Women’s Centre in Toronto is one of the organizations that suffered as a result. Kripa Sekhar, the executive director, said she hasn’t seen any noticeable drop in demand for services, despite statistics that show a 10-point drop in immigrants arriving in Toronto from 2006 to 2010. But after losing more than $500,000 in funding, she had to scale back her staff, laying off eight full-time employees. They still haven’t found other work, she said.

“I think Ontario’s nominee program needs to be strengthened,” Ms. Sekhar said. “Ontario, especially Toronto, has been the story of immigrants, and it’s a beautiful story. Why is it being stifled?