Canada is not doing enough to capitalize on immigrants who can help offset critical skilled-labour shortages, say agencies that help newly arrived workers.

In recent years, governments and companies have talked frequently about the increasing importance of tapping into the immigrant labour pool to find replacements for Baby Boomers who are retiring at unprecedented rates. But many agencies say immigrants need more help entering the country, finding employment and becoming financially independent.

"We also need a much more targeted and focused investment in some of the programs that help link immigrants that are here to the labour market," says Elizabeth McIsaac, executive director of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC).

Despite improvements at the federal, provincial and local levels, agency leaders say immigrants need more help overcoming long delays getting admission applications approved and foreign credentials recognized, and networking with employers who can utilize their skills.

Paul Cheng

McIsaac wants Ottawa, agencies and companies to collaborate on how to divide $500 million earmarked in this year's federal budget for financial assistance to immigrants outside the employment insurance (EI) program. Most funding now comes within EI - which means you already have to have been employed.

A TRIEC mentoring program launched two years ago has found full-time jobs for 70 per cent of participants in their chosen fields. McIsaac says a survey of some participants found they were making about $12 per hour before they enrolled and $55,000 per year afterward.

Tung Chan, president and CEO of Vancouver-based S.U.C.C.E.S.S., which provides employment and settlement services for Chinese immigrants and facilitates trade between Western Canada and China, says employers are not fully aware of the skills that immigrants have to offer.

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. has provided courses to 70,000 immigrants and assisted 23,000 in finding jobs. The group held a recent immigrant job fair at which 30 companies operated booths.

The group also launched a website (www.5stepsolution.ca) that offers a five-step method on how employers can recruit and hire newcomers.

"We don't see it simply as an employment issue," says Chan. "We don't see it simply as a settlement issue. We see it as an immigrant-service issue."

He says large companies are aware of the impending labour crunch and realize the need to hire more immigrants, but other firms do not. The long-standing issue of recognizing immigrants' foreign credentials also continues to be a hurdle.

The federal government recently launched a foreign credential referral office that is designed to speed up approvals of overseas education and training. Many provinces, which have regulatory authority in most cases, have similar organizations.

Chan praises Ontario for being a leader in foreign-credential assessments. The Ontario government has set up two offices designed to review the foreign credentials of medical professionals and other professionals and has passed legislation that guarantees fair reviews of foreign credentials by local regulatory bodies.

Ottawa and the provinces are also combining on temporary permits for foreign workers and provincial nominee programs that enable provinces to fast-track the admission of immigrants with specific skills.

Labour groups oppose the admission of temporary foreign workers on grounds that they are not guaranteed of becoming citizens and could earn minimal wages and face abuse from employers. Chan empathizes with unions, but says temporary foreign workers have an important role to play in offsetting labour shortages.

"We do have seasonal work that we need people to do," he says. "Local-born Canadians are not able to fill all those positions, so let's find solutions. Let's find out what the pitfalls are. Let's make sure that we have steps to cover those pitfalls."

But TRIEC's McIsaac says she's not sure temporary permits are the best way to build a country.

Some provincial nominee programs have helped woo immigrants away from the traditional meccas of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

According to federal figures, in 2005 Manitoba boosted immigration to the province to more than 8,000 immigrants - the highest number in the past 15 years.

McIsaac says provincial nominee programs are useful in matching skilled trades workers with jobs, unlike the points system that evaluates most immigrants. "To get through the points system, you need to have lots and lots of education," she says. "A lot of the skills needs on the ground are tradespersons who may not make it through the points system."

Skilled immigrants fall into the category of business-class newcomers, who accounted for 60 per cent, or 262,236 of arrivals in 2005, an 11-per-cent increase over 2004. But many business-class candidates struggle to get into Canada, let alone find jobs.

Citing federal figures, Ryerson University politics and public administration professor Arthur Ross says 800,000 people are waiting to have their admission applications processed. "The delays in process have to be cleared up. It's simply defeating the purpose of the (immigration) policy."

He says companies must be much more pro-active in expressing their needs to government and start recruiting globally. But recruiting programs are moot if immigrants are unable to enter the country.

"The Conference Board of Canada just identified that we're laggards in terms of investing in human resources," says Ross. "If we bring people to this country, we have to give them every opportunity to improve their skills as the population ages and we become more and more dependent on immigrant labour."

He wants Ottawa to explain why only 65 per cent of the targeted 22-44 age group are able to secure jobs within three or four years of arrival.

"The last thing we want to do is create an under-class of disadvantaged individuals who have been brought to this country to improve our economic wellbeing as well as their own," says Ross.

Paul Cheng, past-president of the Association of Chinese Canadian Professionals and a BC Hydro engineer who helps recruit and mentor immigrants, says lack of recognition of foreign credentials is not the biggest stumbling block.

"Personally, I think the most serious issue is the disconnect between the supply of skills being brought in by the immigrants versus what the employers are looking for," says Cheng, who was born in China and obtained his engineering degree at the University of Victoria.

He calls on companies to re-evaluate their human resources strategies. "What used to work probably doesn't work now," says Cheng.

He also wants firms to access immigrant service agencies, which have a "ready supply" of skilled candidates. Through a mentoring program, Cheng was able to identify skilled immigrant engineers who matched BC Hydro's needs. Hydro is in the process of hiring pools of professionals. Figuring out which area they'll work in comes later.

Danny Strilchuk, manager of diversity and employment equity for Vancouver-based Spectra Energy, says companies will have to start recruiting immigrants "by default."

"We're not getting the applications we used to," says Strilchuk. "We put an ad in (a national daily newspaper) and you get a trickle. All those (experienced Canadians) are working."

When Spectra launched a pilot program to hire immigrant engineers at various positions in northeastern B.C., it received 145 applications from people in the B.C. Lower Mainland for 12 positions.

The company is now conducting immigrant-training programs in conjunction with agencies in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)