Ability of province to attract investment dependent on its ability to attract immigrants

The Canadian Skills Competition of this year highlighted that a large number of sectors are suffering due to considerable labor market shortages and that immigration Canada must attract more foreign skilled labors.

The event was attended by approximately seven-hundred industry professionals from forty diverse categories of trade and technology. It was aimed at encouraging Canadians and recruiters to look out for quality visa holders in Canada to get into these industries. This event also serves as a display place for the government where it can announce measures to help improve the skills and labor market.

Director of marketing for Fluke Corp, which sponsored the whole event, David Green, said that he was told by a government official at the event that trade and technology workers shortage is to a large extent the most worrying issue for every province in Canada.

A celebrity contractor from Canada’s HGTV, David Green, who was the host for the event, said that they are facing a shortage of somewhere around hundred-thousand tradespeople in their industry. He explained that the biggest problem is that the average age of a skilled trade worker at this point is fifty-five years, who are now on the verge of retiring and can do so anytime in the next twelve to fifteen years.

For a large number of provinces in Canada, the future ability to attract investment in the regions would depend largely on their ability to attract skilled immigrants to come to the region. Green explained this by saying that businesses will only be established in a province in they are confident that they would get skilled workers there.