Ontario needs to attract at least 135,000 newcomers a year, raise the ratio of skilled workers and take charge of immigrant selection to keep its economic engine running beyond 2014, says a government-appointed panel.
The findings of the expert panel will be presented to provincial Immigration Minister Charles Sousa on Wednesday, seven months after it was appointed to tackle declining immigration to the province, skill shortages and the falling economic performance of newcomers.
The report will form a blueprint for Ontario’s “first-ever” immigration strategy. Despite long being the top destination for newcomers to Canada, the province has seen its share of immigrant intake dropping by almost one-third over the past decade. In 2001, 59.3 per cent of immigrants (148,640) landed in Ontario; last year, it was just 40 per cent, or 99,000 individuals.
While Ontario is expected to face a shortage of 364,000 skilled workers by 2025, the report found that only 24 per cent of internationally trained immigrants in Ontario were working in their actual field of training in 2010. That compares with 62 per cent for the Ontario population overall.
“A natural decline in the relative size of Ontario’s working age population — due primarily to aging and low fertility rates — will put pressure on public finances as fewer workers support more retired Ontarians,” warned the 60-page report, obtained by the Star.
“Without any further immigration to Ontario, it is anticipated the working-age population will begin to decline by 2014.”
According to the 13-member panel — made up of economists, people working in immigrant settlement, and corporate and industry leaders — newcomers who have been in Ontario for less than five years earned 23.2 per cent less than their Canadian-born counterparts in 2011. Across Canada the average earnings were slightly better — though still 21.6 per cent less than well-established Canadians.
Ontario’s unemployment rate for immigrants last year was the second-worst in the country at 15.7 per cent — double the province’s overall unemployment rate of 7.6 per cent.
The economic struggles Ontario immigrants face have much to do with the province’s transforming economy, says the report. Jobs in the manufacturing sector, as a share of all Ontario jobs, have declined by 35 per cent in the last decade.
Compounding the problem is the decline in the number of immigrants in the skilled category, from 64 per cent in 2001 to 52 per cent in 2011.
In contrast, 71 per cent of immigrants arriving to other provinces were in the skilled class, a group that is overall better educated and generally has an easier time integrating into the labour market than those in the family reunification and refugee classes.
Since 2008, Ottawa has restricted the federal skilled worker program to “narrow and often outdated” occupations that do not meet Ontario’s labour market needs, the report suggests. The federal government has also limited the province’s ability to select its own immigrants by capping the quota for provincial “nominees” at 1,000 a year.
“This focus has come at the expense of overall human capital, and has subsequently contributed to worse long-term outcomes for immigrants,” said the panel, headed by Julia Deans, past CEO of Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, a consortium of community groups.
The report says it is important to renew Ontario’s partnership with Ottawa — the two have been without an active immigration pact since March 2011 — and to allow the province “a greater role” in selecting immigrants to ensure its specific needs are met. It holds up as an example Quebec, which has been allowed to pick its own immigrants by enacting its own immigration legislation.
Twenty of the report’s 32 specific recommendations deal with immigrant selection, including:
• Raising annual immigrant intake to 135,000 and the proportion of skilled class to 65 to 70 per cent of all immigrants to Ontario.
• Revamping the federal skilled worker program by eliminating the priority occupation list.
• Piloting a new Expression of Interest immigrant selection model to “enhance the flexibility, responsiveness and speed of economic immigration.”
• Promoting Ontario as a destination, as well as various programs available, such as the Provincial Nominee Program and Canada Experience Class.
• Shifting the focus of the federal temporary foreign worker program from attracting low-skilled workers to more high-skilled ones. “It should not be used to bring low-skilled workers into the labour market other than in limited circumstances,” the report recommends.
• Incorporating recruitment of immigrant entrepreneurs into the province’s Open for Business strategy.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Nicholas Keung
The findings of the expert panel will be presented to provincial Immigration Minister Charles Sousa on Wednesday, seven months after it was appointed to tackle declining immigration to the province, skill shortages and the falling economic performance of newcomers.
The report will form a blueprint for Ontario’s “first-ever” immigration strategy. Despite long being the top destination for newcomers to Canada, the province has seen its share of immigrant intake dropping by almost one-third over the past decade. In 2001, 59.3 per cent of immigrants (148,640) landed in Ontario; last year, it was just 40 per cent, or 99,000 individuals.
While Ontario is expected to face a shortage of 364,000 skilled workers by 2025, the report found that only 24 per cent of internationally trained immigrants in Ontario were working in their actual field of training in 2010. That compares with 62 per cent for the Ontario population overall.
“A natural decline in the relative size of Ontario’s working age population — due primarily to aging and low fertility rates — will put pressure on public finances as fewer workers support more retired Ontarians,” warned the 60-page report, obtained by the Star.
“Without any further immigration to Ontario, it is anticipated the working-age population will begin to decline by 2014.”
According to the 13-member panel — made up of economists, people working in immigrant settlement, and corporate and industry leaders — newcomers who have been in Ontario for less than five years earned 23.2 per cent less than their Canadian-born counterparts in 2011. Across Canada the average earnings were slightly better — though still 21.6 per cent less than well-established Canadians.
Ontario’s unemployment rate for immigrants last year was the second-worst in the country at 15.7 per cent — double the province’s overall unemployment rate of 7.6 per cent.
The economic struggles Ontario immigrants face have much to do with the province’s transforming economy, says the report. Jobs in the manufacturing sector, as a share of all Ontario jobs, have declined by 35 per cent in the last decade.
Compounding the problem is the decline in the number of immigrants in the skilled category, from 64 per cent in 2001 to 52 per cent in 2011.
In contrast, 71 per cent of immigrants arriving to other provinces were in the skilled class, a group that is overall better educated and generally has an easier time integrating into the labour market than those in the family reunification and refugee classes.
Since 2008, Ottawa has restricted the federal skilled worker program to “narrow and often outdated” occupations that do not meet Ontario’s labour market needs, the report suggests. The federal government has also limited the province’s ability to select its own immigrants by capping the quota for provincial “nominees” at 1,000 a year.
“This focus has come at the expense of overall human capital, and has subsequently contributed to worse long-term outcomes for immigrants,” said the panel, headed by Julia Deans, past CEO of Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, a consortium of community groups.
The report says it is important to renew Ontario’s partnership with Ottawa — the two have been without an active immigration pact since March 2011 — and to allow the province “a greater role” in selecting immigrants to ensure its specific needs are met. It holds up as an example Quebec, which has been allowed to pick its own immigrants by enacting its own immigration legislation.
Twenty of the report’s 32 specific recommendations deal with immigrant selection, including:
• Raising annual immigrant intake to 135,000 and the proportion of skilled class to 65 to 70 per cent of all immigrants to Ontario.
• Revamping the federal skilled worker program by eliminating the priority occupation list.
• Piloting a new Expression of Interest immigrant selection model to “enhance the flexibility, responsiveness and speed of economic immigration.”
• Promoting Ontario as a destination, as well as various programs available, such as the Provincial Nominee Program and Canada Experience Class.
• Shifting the focus of the federal temporary foreign worker program from attracting low-skilled workers to more high-skilled ones. “It should not be used to bring low-skilled workers into the labour market other than in limited circumstances,” the report recommends.
• Incorporating recruitment of immigrant entrepreneurs into the province’s Open for Business strategy.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Nicholas Keung
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