As part of Canadian Pre-budget Consultations, the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) speaks of immigration-requirements for construction industry. The following information comes from CCA.
To meet the shortage of Construction Workers, Canada must increase the number of foreign skilled workers entering the country under the Federal Skilled Worker Program , the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. Furthermore, entrants under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program should be given longer-stay visas, be provided with additional flexibility to change employers within the industry, and fast-tracked for permanent residency after working in Canada for an acceptable period of time.
The construction industry now anticipates a skilled labour shortage of 335,000 workers by 2019, or roughly a quarter of its existing workforce. Traditional domestic sources are only expected to fill approximately 50 per cent of this demand. Consequently, the industry will remain dependent upon foreign skilled workers to overcome anticipated workforce shortfalls for years to come. Current immigration policy fails to meet the needs of the construction industry. Policy reforms are required in order to increase the domestic pool of skilled labour. Tied to these reforms is a pressing need to increase the speed at which Citizenship and Immigration Canada processes skilled worker applications. In this context, CCA believes the department’s current budget must be significantly increased in order to eliminate application backlogs and fast-track the entry of skilled workers into Canada.
In a recent report on global construction trends, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated Canada will surpass France and Germany over the course of this decade and become the world’s fifth largest construction market. Driven by the need to build new and replace existing infrastructure to satisfy international demand for natural resources, only China, the United States, India and Japan will outspend Canada. However, in order to achieve this potential, the construction industry must have an adequate supply of skilled and unskilled workers.
While such scenarios may seem implausible today, according to the most recent Construction Sector Council (CSC) forecast, demand growth for construction services in Canada will outpace the sector’s growth capacity due to chronic shortages of skilled and unskilled workers. Therefore, even with aggressive domestic recruitment and training programs, the industry will continue to rely on Canada’s immigration system to supply the remainder of its workforce.
Based on their further analysis, Canada’s construction industry will need to add approximately 42,000 new workers each year to keep up with growing demand for construction services and replace retiring workers. Since domestic recruitment efforts can only supply approximately 50 per cent of the overall demand, the industry must add approximately 21,000 new workers each year through immigration to avoid skilled labour shortages. While Statistics Canada’s Occupation and Skill Level Labour Market Intention data does not specifically identify construction professions, the industry estimates that fewer than 2,500 immigrants to Canada presently take up professions within the construction sector.
Current processing backlogs within Citizenship and Immigration Canada are also barriers to the entry of the skilled workers. According to the department, there was a 500,000 skilled immigrant applicant backlog as of December 2010. Clearly, not all of these applicants will qualify to immigrate, but with such growing labour challenges across the economy, more must be done to reduce skilled immigrant backlogs. From a CCA perspective, this remains an area of considerable concern. Other countries with similar immigration programs seem to have faster processing times for economic class immigrants, which places Canada at a competitive disadvantage. If not addressed, Canada may lose some of the best and brightest available immigrants to other nations due to application processing delays.
CCA believes the solution rests with public policy makers who must increase skilled worker training capacity across the country, as well as reform Canada’s immigration system to place a greater emphasis on arranged employment and acquired job skills, rather than on formal, post-secondary education. In addition to these important policy reforms, the Parliament of Canada must increase funding for Citizenship and Immigration Canada in order to decrease application processing times.
Eagle Legal Services assists employers in processing the paperwork for their Foreign Workers under the Federal Skilled Worker Program , the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. We also deal with HRSDC for Labour Market Opinions and Arranged Employment. We may be contacted at info@eaglelegal.ca
To meet the shortage of Construction Workers, Canada must increase the number of foreign skilled workers entering the country under the Federal Skilled Worker Program , the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. Furthermore, entrants under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program should be given longer-stay visas, be provided with additional flexibility to change employers within the industry, and fast-tracked for permanent residency after working in Canada for an acceptable period of time.
The construction industry now anticipates a skilled labour shortage of 335,000 workers by 2019, or roughly a quarter of its existing workforce. Traditional domestic sources are only expected to fill approximately 50 per cent of this demand. Consequently, the industry will remain dependent upon foreign skilled workers to overcome anticipated workforce shortfalls for years to come. Current immigration policy fails to meet the needs of the construction industry. Policy reforms are required in order to increase the domestic pool of skilled labour. Tied to these reforms is a pressing need to increase the speed at which Citizenship and Immigration Canada processes skilled worker applications. In this context, CCA believes the department’s current budget must be significantly increased in order to eliminate application backlogs and fast-track the entry of skilled workers into Canada.
In a recent report on global construction trends, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated Canada will surpass France and Germany over the course of this decade and become the world’s fifth largest construction market. Driven by the need to build new and replace existing infrastructure to satisfy international demand for natural resources, only China, the United States, India and Japan will outspend Canada. However, in order to achieve this potential, the construction industry must have an adequate supply of skilled and unskilled workers.
While such scenarios may seem implausible today, according to the most recent Construction Sector Council (CSC) forecast, demand growth for construction services in Canada will outpace the sector’s growth capacity due to chronic shortages of skilled and unskilled workers. Therefore, even with aggressive domestic recruitment and training programs, the industry will continue to rely on Canada’s immigration system to supply the remainder of its workforce.
Based on their further analysis, Canada’s construction industry will need to add approximately 42,000 new workers each year to keep up with growing demand for construction services and replace retiring workers. Since domestic recruitment efforts can only supply approximately 50 per cent of the overall demand, the industry must add approximately 21,000 new workers each year through immigration to avoid skilled labour shortages. While Statistics Canada’s Occupation and Skill Level Labour Market Intention data does not specifically identify construction professions, the industry estimates that fewer than 2,500 immigrants to Canada presently take up professions within the construction sector.
Current processing backlogs within Citizenship and Immigration Canada are also barriers to the entry of the skilled workers. According to the department, there was a 500,000 skilled immigrant applicant backlog as of December 2010. Clearly, not all of these applicants will qualify to immigrate, but with such growing labour challenges across the economy, more must be done to reduce skilled immigrant backlogs. From a CCA perspective, this remains an area of considerable concern. Other countries with similar immigration programs seem to have faster processing times for economic class immigrants, which places Canada at a competitive disadvantage. If not addressed, Canada may lose some of the best and brightest available immigrants to other nations due to application processing delays.
CCA believes the solution rests with public policy makers who must increase skilled worker training capacity across the country, as well as reform Canada’s immigration system to place a greater emphasis on arranged employment and acquired job skills, rather than on formal, post-secondary education. In addition to these important policy reforms, the Parliament of Canada must increase funding for Citizenship and Immigration Canada in order to decrease application processing times.
Eagle Legal Services assists employers in processing the paperwork for their Foreign Workers under the Federal Skilled Worker Program , the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. We also deal with HRSDC for Labour Market Opinions and Arranged Employment. We may be contacted at info@eaglelegal.ca
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