Canada Immigration: Federal Authorities May Relax Rules for Healthcare Workers!

Canada’s Federal Government has issued a public statement expressing their concern over the skills shortage the nation is experiencing. Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley at a news conference on Wednesday in Ottawa said that there are known major shortages of workers in health care, information technology and skilled trades. Employers and other stakeholders have warned that even fields where vacuum doesn’t exist yet are heading towards the same fate.

Canada has been undergoing an economic and human resources crunch of late, mostly attributed to the older Canadians retiring from service. Minister Finley maintained that while Canada’s economy is on the mend, productivity and labour force growth are sluggish and that addressing the skills shortage will help growth rates gain momentum. She promised that her department was working on a plan to fast track the plan they had devised to this effect.

"Over the years, we've tried a number of different approaches that frankly, we saw during the last recession hadn't been as effective or efficient as they could be. We want to try something new. You can't keep doing the same old thing and expect a different result. This is becoming a skills crisis -- we want to avert that," said Finley.

She was joined by Mr. Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of Canadian Chamber of Commerce at her conference. “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. As a possible solution, he suggested that a more informative federal government website be designed to include information about present day and projected shortages to apprise the citizens and immigrants desirous of working in Canada of the current situation in the country.

He also suggested that speeding up foreign credential recognition might attract international students to Canada in large numbers. The students might then be enticed to stay back in the country and contribute to the work force.

The Minister added that skills shortages and costly and mean reduced productivity and lower growth. "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.
Beatty added that Canada's efforts will fail if they are not guided by the best possible intelligence. “This is not a battle that any of us can afford to lose," he said, expressing his concerns.