COMMENT
Corriere Canadese
I suggest that our readers look regularly at
the web site of Canada’s only Italian language daily newspaper, The Corriere
Canadese.
The Corriere has articles in both Italian and
English. Its message is respected in either language.
The Corriere has been running a series of
article on immigration. This series is “MUST” reading for anyone interested in
the subject. No other media outlet in Canada comes even close in meeting the
Corriere’s high standards on the issue.
The publisher of the Corriere Canadese is The
Honourable Joe Volpe, Canada’s former Minister of both Immigration and Human
Resources. Mr. Volpe brings both his experience and his wisdom to the subject.
Below is the link for the Corriere’s “Hot
Topics” site (including Immigration)
,
The
need for a long term economic plan
TORONTO - Canada’s Immigration/ Economic policies are leaving Ontario and the GTA by the wayside. They are not likely to improve as the price for Western oil continues to drop, and with it the rosy outlook for western Canada’s economy. Federal policies and practices on Immigration, as we have been outlining on our series on Immigration, have shifted their focus to what meets the needs of the Western provinces. In part, this reflects the current government’s determination to build an economy on the exploitation of the natural resources (gas and oil) found in abundance in the West.
That might be considered fair if the demographic policy accompanying such decisions were expansive and focused on general growth. That does not appear to be the case. As we saw in previous articles – both in absolute numbers and in percentage figures – Economic Migrants are being directed increasingly Westward. For example, in 2011, 71% of immigrants destined to provinces outside of Ontario were classified as “Economic”.
For Ontario, the corresponding figure was a mere 52%. Economic migrants are those capable of making an immediate positive impact. In that same year, 57.1% of refugee claimants in Canada landed in Ontario. The Western provinces, despite benefiting from this federal imbalance in public, economic policy, get access to a greater number of Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) permits in order to help them get around the much more demanding Permanent Residency requirements for potential immigrants. They also claim the right to choose (sponsor) their own economic migrants. Briefly, this process is known as the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).
It is not “new”. What is “new” is the reliance by some provinces on this program to secure an increasing share of economic migrants – except for Ontario. [see chart #1] Ontario continues to rely of the Federal government to decide what is best for the province. Graph C illustrates how aggressive the Western provinces were even as far back as the 2005-2009 period in the pursuit of their own economic migrants. Ontario has been virtually absent from the process.
In fact, last week, November 7, it announced with some fanfare that it had met its target of 2500 PNP applications for 2014! It is worth noting that the PNP totals are included in the overall numbers of “economic migrants”. For Ontario, this number, last year, dropped by 40% relative to 2005 when almost 80, 000 economic migrants were “landed” (accepted) in the province. When one recalls that each of these migrants generates an additional $ 52, 000 in per capita GDP for the country, the shortfall for Ontario is significant: about $ 1.7 billion in economic activity and a minimum of $ 300 million in forgone tax revenue annually for the province.
Economic analysts for Builders in the GTA will be calculating the number of housing units lost, and Unions the number of jobs unavailable as a result. The rest of us, including the Ontario government, should ask, “What are the demographic/ economic objectives of the Federal government as it shifts its focus from a Permanent Residency (PR) system to one based on TFWP”. It is relatively easy for employers in the agricultural/ agro-food and slaughterhouse community to obtain work permits (WP). Southern Ontario easily gets an annual 17, 000 such permits for workers from Mexico and the Caribbean. Western Canada is flush with WPs for the Central Africans and South-East Asians it recruits. Ontario’s skilled trades-reliant construction industry – especially in the GTA – cannot get any WPs.
Co-incidentally, that is where Europeans with skills and experience are available [see Graph A] but apparently not recruited. Likewise for the ethnic restaurants and auto remanufacturing sectors. The federal data bank has no labour market information (LMI) on skilled trades in the GTA. It also cannot keep track of the “black market”, undocumented workers. Graph B illustrates how difficult it is to enlist Federal help in developing a sound demographic/ labour policy to meet the needs of its economy.
As our series has been pointing out, Ontario receives minimal permits under the skilled Workers Program, an insignificant number under the PNP and virtually none under the Canada Experience Class. Maybe it is time for Ontario to step up to the plate, lay out its long term economic plans and demand that Ottawa start paying attention.
Eighth in a series
Next: why it makes fiscal and economic sense for Ontario to lay out its economic plan and demand that Ottawa pay attention.
Richard Boraks, November 14,2014
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