The newly released data shows Canada’s population grew by more than a million people between from July 2022 to July 2023, which represents an increase of about three per cent.
How can we have so many immigrants yet still lack personnel in essential sectors like healthcare, education, engineering, and technology?
The question shouldn’t be whether we are allowing people to immigrate, but what occupations those people are intended to cover for. As it stands, it seems like we are simply importing labour and socializing the cost of a massive population increase. It’s not benefiting the Canadian economy by increasing average worker productivity (by allowing high-skill workers to immigrate), it’s not helping to cover gaps in our social systems (by allowing healthcare/education workers to immigrate), and often times it’s not even benefiting the immigrants themselves (as can be seen by the many “college scams” out there).
Our points-based system needs a revamp to help fill in the loopholes people are using. Since demand for immigration to Canada is so high, we can afford to be more selective in who we take.
The key changes I would make are:
-
Constructing a whitelist of permitted Canadian post-secondary institutions (limited primarily to publicly-funded universities that form the core of the Canadian post-secondary system)
-
Giving additional points for those coming from well-regarded international schools (think IIT Bombay, Tsinghua, Technion, Sharif University of Technology, Seoul National University, National University of Singapore) to a similar degree as from a Canadian institution
-
Accreditation of what is considered “skilled work” under the Canadian skilled work experience clause
-
Expansion of the H1B visa transfer program
I would couple this with significantly expanded funding/tax breaks into the startup environment for Canada to create more employment opportunities for skilled workers.
Canada is clearly an extremely desirable place to live (moreso than the US in many ways), so why not use that advantage to attract the best and brightest from around the world and use them to develop burgeoning domestic industries?
You should try immigrating to Canada. The barriers they put in place for skilled people are bonkers. I personally know of 3 doctors who all want to come to Canada, and 2 more physically IN Canada who are not allowed to work until they get a residency spot (despite being trained surgeons). They are trained/educated in accredited universities outside of Canada, so their credentials are not an issue… The medical board is the issue. They put so many barriers in place and intentionally artificially restrict the number of medical professionals who can enter. The potential doctors have to complete a Canadian residency and there’s a VERY small number of spots… the doctors also have to complete a series of lengthy exams that are eye wateringly expensive and time consuming. A lot of potential doctors that we desperately need in Canada give up and go work elsewhere in the Commonwealth/Europe/MiddleEast where they are welcomed and put to work almost immediately.
What’s weird is that when I looked into emigrating to Canada, the requirements for entry seemed to be pretty strict. It stated that you needed to bring critical skills with you to be considered for a visa. How are people circumventing that requirement?
Go to “post-secondary” at a “Canadian institution”
Follow that up with “employment” at a “skilled work company”
Bim bam boom magical PR
We let them in and then force them to jump through a million hoops in order to get into the medical sector.
Hi buddy, I’m a new Canadian (well, rather old at this point) who works in the tech sector. My company recently hired a programmer that fled Ukraine and there are a whole bunch of new tech workers in the Vancouver market who were also displaced from Ukraine.
I’m pretty sure Canadian is trying it’s damnedest to siphon up any programmer or Doctor looking to immigrate.
yet still lack personnel in essential sectors … technology?
We have no lack of people who are pigeonholed in technology-based jobs that have no avenue for working remotely (e.g. ones where you handle physical hardware).
But for jobs which are ripe for being done remotely (e.g. programming), once you are here, why would you work for a Canadian company when it is just as easy to work for a US company at twice the rate?
Immigrating to America is a pain in the ass.
Speaking as a former American… even emigrating from America is a pain in the ass. The entitlement America feels towards information about my life outside of their country is insane.
Exactly – which is why hands on jobs have no lack of people keen to work for Canadian businesses.
But for jobs that can easily be done remotely, once you are here, why would you work for a Canadian company when it is just as easy to work for a US company at twice the rate?
It’s not about labor shortages or improving the services and lives of existing residents. It’s about devaluing the domestic labor market to the benefit of “the economy” and financial metrics (corporate profits, GDP, etc) — it’s about increasing labor competition to depress wages and increase unemployment. There is no labor shortage. There is only an expectation of endlessly increasing profit YoY by capitalists.
Suppressing wages and increasing unemployment are the core goals of central banks around the world ATM. It doesn’t matter than inflation is fuelled by greed, consolidation, monopolisation, etc; that none of these the “solutions” actually increase quality of life or standard of living. Those metrics are irrelevant to “the economy”. They literally change how they calculate the metrics whenever they start to grow too gratuitous or obscene (e.g. CPI).
It’s the one thing all the political parties agree on.
-
