Last Thursday, April 25th 2012, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) announced the implementation of a new Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (A-LMO) program. The introduction of this accelerated program is undoubtedly welcomed by many employers, who have been frustrated by rising LMO processing times across Canada. However, it is important to look at what kind of employer this program will help out, and what ramifications this may have for the overall Canadian labour market.

The A-LMO, which promises the issuance of a Labour Market Opinion within 10 business days, is not available to all employers. In order to be eligible, employers must, among other things, have been issued a positive LMO within the past two years. While this may benefit a few small businesses, the vast majority of employers that regularly secure LMOs for foreign workers are big national and multi-national corporations. They will likely make up a big part of the demographic that will use this A-LMO program the most.

In my March 2012 and December 2011 blog posts, I described how Canadian immigration policy is shifting to rely more heavily on employers. For both temporary and permanent immigration, the private sector is being given an increasingly large mandate to select workers and help shape the ways in which they are brought to Canada. I cautioned that such a focus on employer-driven immigration has the potential to result in a fixation on short-term solutions to Canada’s labour problems, as opposed to addressing labour market issues that will persist long after immigrants have become settled residents or returned home.

It seems that through this new A-LMO process, HRSDC is doing just that. It helps mostly big businesses grow their temporary workforce through skilled foreign labour that, given the current worldwide economy, is more and more being offered at a discounted price. For example, through the new A-LMO system, employers may offer a foreign national a job with wages that are up to 15% below the current prevailing average wage for that occupation in Canada. This can be done provided that other employees in the company are being paid that same lower wage. However, it stands in contrast to requirements for a traditional LMO, which mandate that employees are paid a salary equal to or exceeding the prevailing wage in their region.

The lowered wage option has the potential, while not directly undercutting the market, to slowly drive down labour costs. Canadians and foreign workers alike will be reluctant to demand higher wages when it is clear that the government condones work force growth at a payment level below the national average. These lower wages may be good for employers in the short term, helping them to keep costs down while expanding business. However, as I have mentioned before, “what is good for GE is not necessarily good for Canada”.

A goal of Canadian immigration is to create communities of financially and socially integrated immigrant communities. These are mostly created through permanent residents and Canadian citizens. Oftentimes, a temporary worker will come to Canada and then transition from temporary to permanent status. However, it is not necessarily in the interests of a private enterprise to keep workers on a permanent basis. For many businesses, the most cost-effective route may be to a rotating cast of skilled temporary workers, who will return home after a couple years in Canada. This may especially be the case if workers can be paid at less than the prevailing wage. Overall, this formula may result in the Canadian workforce suffering losses not only of personal income, but also of critical skills and knowledge as talented workers return home or go elsewhere after their temporary status expires.

This is not to say that employers are focused only on driving down workers pay –they’re not. However, any good business is responsible first and foremost for improving their bottom line, and keeping labour costs down is an important part of achieving this goal. Whether this will benefit Canadian economy and society is not the responsibility of a private enterprise, nor should it be. In focusing on employers, the current government is forgetting that setting immigration policy is not only an exercise in securing short term growth. It is also a long-term commitment to economic stability, and to nation-building.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is on a mission to transform Canada’s immigration policy. If all goes according to plan, gone will be the days when ambitious immigrants start near the bottom and work their way up the ladder of economic success. The new skilled worker immigrant will be younger and a well-trained tradesperson or a highly educated professional type with flexible human capital and a high level of language skills. For good measure, many applicants will need a prearranged job to be eligible for Canadian immigration. Read More »

The Minister of Immigration has let it be known that we can soon expect changes in the way economic immigrants are selected under the Federal Skilled Worker program. We don’t yet know the exact details but from the dropped hints, you can pretty well rest assured that applicants in the professions will be required to prove their credentials meet Canadian standards and that more weight will be given to language proficiency.

Why these changes in particular? Because that’s what Australia does and there is a perception among our policy-makers that the Australian selection system produces better results than the current Canadian model. By “better results” I mean there is less of an earnings gap between newcomers and native-born Australians, when compared to Canada. So the reasoning goes that if we move closer to the way our friends Down Under do things, immigrants in Canada will have an easier time catching-up to the earning power of native-born Canadians. This assertion feels right but a recent paper out of the University of Waterloo debunks the proposition. Read More »

January 12th marked the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. This event, which resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 individuals and the displacement of 1.5 million more, marked a turning point in the history of the country and the region.

Nowhere were the international repercussions of this catastrophe more acutely felt than in Canada. Before the earthquake more than 100,000 citizens of Haitian descent lived in Canada, primarily in Quebec, and a further 6,000 in Haiti itself. It was with this shared political and cultural history in mind that our country initially led global efforts for emergency relief. Perhaps most importantly, Citizenship and Immigration Canada enacted an unprecedented plan to expedite Permanent Residency processing for thousands of Haitians waiting to receive word of their applications. Unfortunately, though this plan held the promise of reuniting countless families stricken by tragedy, it has failed to fully deliver on this promise. Read More »

This much is not in dispute. Canada has become one of the most affluent, peaceful and, for good measure, diverse countries in the world. There are many reasons for our good fortune and among them is the sound immigration policy upon which Canada… at least until recently, has been built.

Most will also agree that our dependence on newcomers will intensify in the years ahead. Our aging population continues to retire in ever larger numbers. Already, we face specific labour shortages in different parts of the country and this phenomenon will expand, both by location and industry, going forward. Whichever way you cut it, our continued prosperity depends to some extent on workers who are not yet in Canada. How they come here is worth consideration. Read More »

This much is clear; Ontario’s proportionate share of new immigrants to Canada has been in steady decline for the past few years. In 2005, about 64% of all newcomers settled in Ontario (mainly in and around Toronto) but by 2010 the number had dropped to 52%.

Is that a bad thing? I guess the answer depends on whom you ask. It’s safe to say that Mayor Ford of Toronto and many of his supporters are not losing any sleep over this relatively recent downward trend. On the other hand you have to wonder what Toronto would look like today without the major influx of international and provincial migrants over the last 30 plus years. It’s difficult to imagine any metropolis retaining its world-class stature once it ceases to be a magnet for the best and brightest. Read More »

The newspaper headline read “Ottawa Moves to Curb Marriages of Convenience” and I thought to myself “that is going to be one tall order.” But as I continued the article it became clear that our government does not intend to control all marriage arrangements. Wealthy geezers and their trophy wives can breathe a sigh of relief for it is only phony love-matches involving Canadian immigration that our lawmakers aim to stamp out. To this end, the Minister of Immigration will soon announce a new “conditional” immigration status for sponsored spouses and common law partners in an effort to curtail marriage fraud. As it stands now, they arrive in Canada as permanent residents and the Minister feels their status makes it more difficult to deport them if it is later found that they lied in their bid to come to Canada. Read More »

I tip my hat to Borys Wrzesnewskyj, the former Liberal Member of Parliament for Etobicoke, who narrowly lost his seat in the Conservative tsunami that swept through Ontario this spring. Read More »

A recent article in the Globe and Mail caught my eye. The piece was about young, unemployed Irish tradespeople who, of late, have been flocking to Toronto in record numbers.

It’s been said that Ireland’s chief export is people and there is a tradition of Irish immigration to Toronto that dates back some 200 years. So it’s no surprise that an ailing Irish economy has given rise to an inpouring of work-hungry young men to Canada’s Queen City in search of better opportunities. Read More »

Say what you will about our Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, just don’t call Jason Kenny lazy. It has been less than two months since his Conservative Party won a majority government and in that short time he has made a number of game-changing pronouncements. Two of these appear below along with my comments. More will follow in next month’s blog. Read More »

Just last week the Minister of Immigration announced changes to the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Program of Canadian Immigration.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who follows Canadian politics that the party in power, with a fresh majority of seats in the House of Commons, has reduced by half the number of applications to be accepted for processing, without a job offer, under the FSW Program. Effective July 1, 2011 and for the ensuing 12 months, a maximum of 10,000 of these applications will be accepted for processing. The 29 eligible occupations remain unchanged, but only 500 applications in each occupation will be considered for a permanent resident visa. No cap has been placed on the number of FSW applications that include a validated job offer from a Canadian employer.

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At first blush few would challenge the proposition that Canada is a very good country in which to live and plan a future.

In the past few days alone our good fortune has been twice recognized. A report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked Canada second on a quality of life index among the 34 major industrialized countries surveyed. We scored at or near the top in areas such as housing, education, health, and life satisfaction. The one blemish on our record and what prevented us from gaining the number one spot is that voter turnout in Canada leaves something to be desired. Although in truth that may say more about our politicians than the Canadian people. The second kudo comes from the Institute for Economics and Peace, which just produced its Global Peace Index for 2011. Canada was considered the eighth most peaceful country out of 153 nations examined. To put our ranking in perspective, the U.S. comes in at the 85th position.

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