EXPANDING FOREIGN PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIAL RECOGNITION TO ADDRESS OUR LABOUR SHORTAGES AND SUPPORT ECONOMIC GROWTH (2023)

Issue

B.C. is expected to have over a million (1,017,000) job openings between 2022 and 2032[1] and the government continues to recognize that this cannot be filled with local, domestic labour. Immigration is and will continue to be a major source of our workforce in B.C. However, we are selling our businesses, our newcomers, and our economy short if we continue to allow foreign credentials to be devalued and under-recognized.

Background

The B.C. business community continues to face a labour shortage and the number of job vacancies is only expected to rise. Back in 2018, the BC Chamber of Commerce’s BCMindReader Report – Labour Market Issues in British Columbia indicated that “2/3 of B.C. businesses report having had positions that were difficult-to-fill in the past year” and “employers in most regions and industries of the province are challenged with recruiting.”[2] Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this labour shortage. According to the RB.C., in June 2022, businesses posted 70% more job than before the pandemic, but these companies are competing for 13% fewer unemployed workers being available.[3]

To fill this labour gap, B.C. will have to rely on newcomers to our province as immigrants are expected to fill nearly 38% of future job openings.[4] However, many of these newcomers attracted to our province still find the recognition and appropriate valuation of their foreign professional credentials a problem that is undermining their economic success and holding back our local business communities.

In B.C., over 200 occupations are regulated professions, from dentists to nurses to architects.[5] Employees in these professions must be licensed, certified, and/or registered by the appropriate regulatory body to practice their profession in the province. However, the time, effort and expense it takes some newcomers to have their foreign professional credentials recognized in some fields is leading them to take positions more junior than they are qualified for, or to seek work in unrelated fields or in sustenance positions. While the B.C. government does see immigrants taking junior positions in their field as a “good option”,[6] ultimately, this undercuts their own personal economic potential and leaves our business community without the skilled workers needed for key positions.

According to a Vancity and Angus Reid Global survey of 400 new Canadians in B.C., more than 2/3 of newcomers say that their international work experience and professional qualifications are “less respected than the Canadian equivalents, leading to economic difficulties and employment exclusion.”[7] In this same survey, “among those who have sought employment in their chosen field in B.C., only half (49%) say they were able to find jobs at levels that match their workplace credentials. The rest say they took work in junior positions (27%) or found work in different fields (24%).”[8]

This difficulty facing newcomers is not just an irritant or obstacle for them personally—it has significant macro-economic impacts undermining our productivity and economic growth especially in a post-pandemic world. To highlight the extent of the problem, the Conference Board of Canada reported in 2015 that 844,000 Canadians were unemployed or underemployed because of their credentials not being adequately recognized, a job shortfall worth as much as $17 billion annually in lost earnings.[9] And in B.C., newcomers with similar credentials and language skills as native-born Canadians earn 9% less in wages, which represents $4.8 billion in forgone income and $1.3 billion in income tax to government.[10]

Unrealized potential of newcomers, forgone economic growth, ongoing job vacancies, and tax revenue left on the table --- these are the results of not prioritizing foreign professional credential recognition, and the provincial government needs to take action to expedite a solution.

Currently, there are programs and supports for newcomers to have their credentials assessed and evaluated. However, they are complex, costly, and time-consuming. The B.C. government’s website for newcomers lays out the daunting task of getting professional credentials recognized. They outline six steps, including: finding and contacting the right regulatory body for the more than 200 applicable professions; completing application processes and providing transcripts from educational programs and schools, references, employment history and resumes; paying for your educational credentials to be evaluated; taking exams and performing interviews with the regulatory authorities; and paying fees, dues and other costs to the regulatory bodies and others.[11]

While the B.C. government has recognized the need to speed up the credential recognition process in high in-demand physician and nursing occupations in recent months,[12] the provincial government must work with all the professional regulatory bodies, each of which is created through provincial legislation and within provincial jurisdiction, to expedite and ease the recognition of foreign professional credentials to help fulfill the promise of our newcomers and help satisfy the needs of our business community.

Expediting the process to recognize foreign credentials will go a long way to opening up a whole new pool of human talent for B.C. businesses. It will also ensure recent immigrants to B.C. can maximize their economic potential thus supporting themselves and their families along the province as whole through a net increase in tax revenue from their higher wages. However, we will still need to attract these immigrants to B.C. One key tool to accomplish this goal is to ensure B.C. has great access to the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). The PNP allow the provincial government to attract and retain employees for in-demand occupations for B.C. business as identified by resources such as the Labour Market Outlook.

As immigration continues to be a focus of the federal government, it will be important for the B.C. government, in partnership with B.C. businesses, to advocate for a high portion of the economic immigration targets as a direct means to help B.C. employers attract and retain employees with the skills, experience and qualifications required to fill current and future job openings.

THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS 

That the Provincial Government:

1. Create, in consultation with regulatory bodies, an expedited process to become registered by increasing efficiency, reducing costs and focusing on the most important elements that will allow an individual to demonstrate their ability to practice their profession.
2. Encourage the Government of Canada to expand the Provincial Nominee Program and increase total number of available nominations to help employers attract and retain employees with the skills, experience and qualifications required to fill current and future job openings in the province, including transparency around the regional points allocation covered under the SIRS scoring system and make adjustments to ensure it accounts for:
   • Regional unemployment rates; and
   • Priority to sectors of the economy as identified by the federal and provincial governments.
3. Negotiate a higher allocation of nominations from the Government of Canada in line with the increases in the Federal Government’s economic immigration targets to help B.C. employers attract and retain employees with the skills, experience and qualifications required to fill current and future job openings that are expected to continue increasing.