Adding checks on employers

The government has billed the changes as ways to ensure that employers use the program only when they truly cannot find workers in Canada. Many of the proposed changes focus on the Labour Market Opinion (LMO), which approves an employer to hire a temporary foreign worker and is issued by the Canadian government.

Some of the changes are effective immediately. Others will be introduced through legislation.

The following changes are effective immediately:

• The Accelerated LMO, which allowed certain employers to get an LMO in as little as ten business days, is suspended.
• Employers must pay temporary foreign workers the prevailing wage for that occupation in that region. (Previously, employers could pay temporary foreign workers 5-15% less than the prevailing wage.)

Other changes will be introduced through legislation:

• Employers will have to answer questions on the LMO application to confirm that they are not using the program to facilitate the outsourcing of Canadian jobs.
• Employers will need to have a plan in place to transition to a Canadian workforce over time.
• Employers may not require language skills other than English or French in their job description.
• Employers will start paying fees for LMO applications.
• The government will have increased authority to suspend and revoke LMOs if the program is being misused.

Interestingly, some changes target the temporary foreign workers themselves. For example:

• Applicants will have to pay increased fees for work permits. (Unlike employers, workers have always had to pay a fee to apply.)
• The government will have increased authority to suspend and revoke work permits if the program is being misused.

Many issues remain

About 40% of temporary foreign workers come to Canada with an LMO. The above changes focus only on these temporary foreign workers (the Seasonal Agricultural Worker program will be exempt from some of these provisions).

In other words, the changes don’t address the majority of temporary foreign workers. About 60% of temporary foreign workers come through streams that do not require an LMO. These include youth exchange programs, intra-company transfers, post-doctoral fellows, spouses of international students and temporary foreign workers, and those who come under international agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

And many issues facing our TFW program remain. For example:

• The program continues to lack targets or caps on admission.
• Many temporary foreign workers continue to pay taxes and contributions, but cannot access the services and benefits they pay for (such as Employment Insurance special benefits).
• The “four-in, four-out” rule continues to require some temporary foreign workers to leave after four years and remain outside of Canada for four years before being eligible to return. Meanwhile employers can apply to hire a new temporary foreign worker right away.

Perhaps most importantly, the trend towards the temporary and away from permanent immigration will continue, untouched by these changes.

This is just one piece of Canada’s immigration system

Some level of temporary foreign workers, both with and without LMOs, is necessary and desirable. We should welcome changes that, if implemented effectively, will ensure that the TFW program fulfills specific, short-term purposes.

However, we must consider these changes as one small piece of the TFW program, which is, in turn, one small piece of Canada’s larger immigration system. Traditionally, our immigration system has been built on the foundation of permanent immigration. As we turn our attention to the TFW program, we must look beyond tweaks and towards the growing role that temporary residence is playing in our immigration system, and what this means for Canada.

Related links

• News release on reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada)
• Video of announcement (CBC)
• TFWs are a concern for all Canadians (Maytree)
• Shaping the Future: Canada’s rapidly changing immigration policies (Maytree report)

“How do we build a really big tent with a lot of different perspectives working together, locking arms and taking a big initiative forward? It turns out that no one organization has all the best ideas and the idea of bringing people together in a big tent kind of way can often really be a leap forward, a swing for the fences kind of opportunity.” Jean Case, CEO, Case Foundation

On Feb 21, 2013, I attended Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) Strategic Co-funding Conference in Washington DC. The gathering was part of GEO’s Scaling What Works initiative, which connects grantmakers to practices that grow impact and build stronger and more effective nonprofit organizations.

The focus of this particular conference was exploring “co-funding.”

In brief, the idea of co-funding suggests that “what one grant or grantmaker can do alone pales in comparison to joining forces and funding with others…. [I]n order to maximize everyone’s resources and, ultimately, social impact, you must look outward to other funders and partners.”

As a small grantmaker that recognizes the need to collaborate with other funders, grantmakers, partners and our broad and diverse network to have social impact bigger than ourselves, this approach is very much of interest to us here at Maytree.

The setting

Approximately 140 grantmakers explored different approaches to strategic co-funding, to deepen their knowledge and advance their practice around key areas such as:

• building trust;
• developing joint strategies, goals and common processes (e.g., due diligence, reporting);
• coordinating with public systems, policy and funders; and
• collectively raising, administering and evaluating pooled grant dollars.

Practitioners presented a number of co-funding examples during the break-out sessions, including projects such as the California Civic Participation Project (CCEP).

Co-funding backgrounder

Co-funding practitioners themselves presented their approaches and perspectives. Their “rapid fire” presentations dug deeper into the benefits that participating grantmakers and grantees realized, along with lessons learned, challenges and questions.

They presented three Co-Funding Models:

1. Pooled Funding – where funders contribute to a collective fund, which may be jointly administered by the group or by a lead donor or third party
2. Targeted Co-Funding – where funders deliberately but independently make grants to the same program, organization or issue
3. Strategic Alignment – where funders agree to adopt joint or complementary strategies in pursuit of a common goal, and put their resources toward aspects of that strategy

The co-funding approach is perhaps best described by the Case Foundation’s Be Fearless project.

“Those of us charged with finding or funding solutions to social challenges – philanthropists, government, nonprofits – seem to be moving too slowly and often operating with the same set of tools, concepts, and caution of the generations before us. If we’re going to keep up with the rapid pace of change and the daunting complexities of these challenges, we must rethink traditional models. It’s time for us to be bold, act with urgency, and embrace risks with potential to produce exponential social returns. It’s time for us to Be Fearless!”

In his opening remarks Jim Canales of the Irvine Foundation noted that a move to co-funding requires three shifts in the way that grantmakers work:

1. Impact – a grantmaker must think beyond attribution to contribution
2. Culture – move from taking controlled risks to taking considered risks
3. Leadership – leaders need to be engaged in collaborative, not person-focused, leadership

Watch Jim’s presentation:

Moving forward, practically

In the final plenary, Case Foundation CEO Jean Case and GEO President and CEO Kathleen Enright shared an insightful conversation about five principles of their Be Fearless project, directly related to a co-funding approach:

1. Make Big Bets and Make History – set audacious, not incremental goals
2. Experiment Early and Often – don’t be afraid to go first
3. Make Failure Matter – failure teaches, learn from it
4. Reach Beyond Your Bubble – while it’s comfortable to go it alone, innovation happens at intersections
5. Let urgency conquer fear – don’t over think and analyze, do

Related:

• We’re better together: creating large scale change at Tamarack
• Backbone Support: Essential for Successful Collective Impact

(image: Lollyman, Working together…, March 11, 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic)

The changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program that the federal government announced on April 29 will make it more difficult and more expensive for Canadian employers to overlook talent on the ground.

This presents both an opportunity and a challenge for the ALLIES community.

The opportunity

It calls on us, employers, community agencies, government, and post-secondary institutions, to strengthen our relationships. It calls on us to understand employers’ hiring needs and realities, to identify local talent and showcase it to employers in different ways. Minister Kenney urged employers to “triple” their efforts to find local talent. Let’s make sure we triple our own efforts in serving and connecting our local communities of employers and immigrants.

The challenge

Some habits are hard to break. The affinity for the easy route of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program may have become just such a habit. But the larger community of trainers, educators, NGOs and immigrant-serving agencies may also have fallen into some bad habits by failing to correctly identify the skills, competencies and attributes that today’s labour market demands, or to appropriately prepare, train and coach our job seekers to demonstrate these to employers. Here, too, we must triple our efforts to bridge whatever gaps exist.

Are we up to the challenge? I believe we are. ALLIES’ partners in cities across Canada have their ears to the ground and are connected with both local employers and with immigrant talent. These excellent relationships have brought us solutions such as the Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification program in Winnipeg, along with many other successful bridging programs.

Employers, too, have taken great strides in immigrant employment. Some of these leading employers have been recognized with RISE Awards in Edmonton, Immigrant Success Awards in Toronto, Employer Excellence Awards in Ottawa, and the Best Employers for New Canadians award among others. In addition, the hireimmigrants.ca website highlights promising practices from employers across the country.

We have the opportunity and responsibility to turn the situation around to “People with Jobs; Jobs with People.” If we continue to open the lines of communication and develop trust between us, ultimately, we will reap the results.

The grant will provide up to $15,000 to individuals for short-term occupational training.

Employers can apply for the grant to train unemployed or underemployed workers. The maximum federal contribution of funds will be $5,000, which must be matched by $5,000 in provincial/territorial funds, and $5,000 from the employer.

The government funds will come from the federal-provincial Labour Market Agreements (LMAs). The federal government plans to negotiate implementation with provinces and territories in 2014-15, and fully implement the program by 2017-18.

Challenges

Eligibility requirements, shifts in funding, and a shift in approach to training could present challenges for immigrant employment programs and services.

We do not yet know many details about the individuals or employers who will be able to use the grant, nor about the kinds of training and organizations that will be considered eligible. The Budget document indicates that eligible training institutions will include “community colleges, career colleges and trade union training centres,” but we do not know whether programs delivered by community organizations will be eligible. If they are not, this might drive skilled immigrants and employers to programs offered by “approved” institutions.

Further, the Canada Job Grant will be funded through federal-provincial Labour Market Agreements (LMAs), which fund programs and services for people who are not eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). When fully implemented, 60% of LMA funding will go towards the Canada Job Grant, leaving only 40% for everything else that is currently funded through LMAs. This could leave proven programs – such as mentoring for skilled immigrants – vulnerable to funding cuts.

The grant also represents a shift in approach to skills training. It relies on the participation and, by extension, the direction of the employer. Some argue that employers are likely to focus on training for immediate needs, which means that broad-based training that might bring longer-term benefits to workers and the labour market could suffer. In addition, employers might tend to rely on training and institutions that they are already familiar with, which might not be targeted at the specific needs of skilled immigrants.

Others question whether employers will be willing to pay $5,000 for training a new worker in the first place, or in the case of small businesses, whether they will have the resources to do so. If employers are allowed to apply for the Canada Job Grant for training programs that they are already running, then this grant might not actually impact how employers hire or encourage them to consider under-employed workers, such as skilled immigrants.

Opportunities

Since we don’t have many details on how the Canada Job Grant will be implemented, we might have opportunities to share our ideas on how to make it most effective. The federal government has indicated that it will consult with stakeholders such as employer associations, educational institutions and labour organizations. In fact, the first consultation was held on April 19 in Brantford, Ontario. It might be possible to encourage federal and provincial/territorial governments to consider the work that we do with skilled immigrants. Perhaps this is a time to consider whether fees for community-based programs are appropriate, if individuals and employers can use the grant to pay them.

If implemented in a way that makes sense for employers, the Canada Job Grant could encourage employers to take risks on candidates who they wouldn’t normally hire. This could benefit many workers, including skilled immigrants. Targeted outreach about the grant and how it could help them hire skilled immigrant talent could nudge employers in that direction.

It is important for those of us working with skilled immigrants and employers to take part in this conversation. We must monitor and share information about the consultations and possible directions for implementation. We need to provide evidence of the success and potential of our work, and consider how to make the Canada Job Grant work for skilled immigrants and employers.

Related links

• Budget 2013, Chapter 3.1: Connecting Canadians With Available Jobs (Government of Canada)
• Backgrounder: Canada Job Grant (Prime Minister’s Office)
• Backgrounder (PDF): Canada Job Grant (ALLIES)
• Analysis: A Flimflam Budget (Caledon Commentary)
• Austerity Through Infrastructure Cuts (Behind the Numbers, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
• Budget 2013 Issue Note: The Canada Job Grant and Federal Funding for Skills Training (CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees))

by Gillian Smith,

This week marks National Volunteer Week, the perfect time to highlight the connection between volunteerism and citizenship.

As the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s (ICC) Executive Director, I’m equally passionate about citizenship and volunteerism because citizenship is the most important thing Canadians share, and each volunteer effort (big or small) made by citizens strengthens communities, building a better country.

All Canadians have a responsibility to be active, engaged citizens, but many of us aren’t sure how to do it. This is understandable because for most, the concept of citizenship isn’t top of mind.

Take a moment to ask yourself – when was the last time you thought about what you do to be a good citizen?

Most Canadians automatically associate being a good citizen with legal responsibilities: obeying the law, paying taxes and voting. Although these are undeniably important, much more is involved.

Last year, the ICC collaborated with Maytree and other organizations on Canadians on Citizenship, a national survey asking what it means to be a good citizen in Canada. The responses revealed that Canadians also see giving back to one’s community, civic participation and respecting and accepting difference as vital measures of a citizen. These findings position citizenship in a more tangible, relatable way: citizenship is a series of everyday acts that contribute to the life of a community and to our country.

What’s more, Canadians on Citizenship demonstrated that not only is this textured understanding held by all residents of this country, but we all believe that everyone can be a good citizen, regardless of whether your family has been here for four months or 400 years.

Volunteerism is how every Canadian can live up to the challenge of being an active citizen. When you give time, talent or treasure, your actions benefit your community and create a ripple effect that reinforces our country’s overall capacity to accept and include.

Added to the challenge of active citizenship, Canada’s demographics are changing, and changing fast. Did you know that, today, our labour force would shrink without new Canadians joining the ranks? Or that by 2030 – at the latest – Canada’s net population growth will rely solely on immigration?

These facts are crucial when considering the future of volunteerism. Who will be our future givers?

Citizenship is the uniting common denominator and volunteerism is a means to connect Canadians and build a stronger Canada.

If we don’t act now to create an inclusive, welcoming space that allows everyone to fully participate, we risk harming the foundations of our stable, successful society. We must get involved in our communities and embrace our roles as active, engaged citizens.

This is the citizenship-volunteer connection, and how we can ensure our great country grows ever stronger.

Learn more about the Institute for Canadian Citizenship on our website. You can also follow us on Twitter, @ICCICC.

Related:

• Canadians are open to the world
  
• When was the last time you thought about what it means to be Canadian?
• Access to citizenship becoming more difficult – unintended consequence of policy changes?
• Shaping the future: Canada’s rapidly changing immigration policies

And it works. A recent ALLIES-Accenture report, The results are in: Mentoring improves employment outcomes for skilled immigrants (PDF), confirms the positive impact and success of eleven mentoring programs across Canada on newcomers and the economy.

Mentees had significantly improved employment outcomes, earning trajectories and shorter times to find employment. Twelve months after the start of their mentoring relationship, unemployment dropped from 73% to 19%. In addition, 71% of mentees were employed in their field, compared to 27% pre-mentoring. Average full-time earnings increased by more than 60% from $36,905 to $59,944.

The report’s findings make a compelling case for scaling up mentoring in Canadian cities. Mentoring is a low-cost, high impact intervention that delivers on the promise of opportunity made to newcomers that make Canada their home every year.

The time to expand mentoring is now. We should make the right investments in mentoring to engage more employers, government and other key stakeholders in order to reach many more skilled immigrants. We all stand to gain – our businesses become more competitive, our newcomers are better integrated, and our economy is made stronger.

The following organizations assisted in the survey of mentoring programs:

1. Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council
2. La Conférence régionale des élus de Montréal
3. Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council
4. Immigrant Employment Council of BC, Vancouver
5. Immigrant Services Society of BC, Vancouver
6. Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services, Halifax
7. MOSAIC, Vancouver
8. Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization
9. S.U.C.C.E.S.S., Vancouver
10. Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council
11. YMCAs of Cambridge & Kitchener-Waterloo

ALLIES (Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies) supports local efforts in Canadian cities to successfully adapt and implement programs that further the suitable employment of skilled immigrants. The project is jointly funded by Maytree and The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

The ALLIES National Mentoring Initiative, with support from TD Bank, supports local efforts in Canadian urban centres to develop, implement and enhance mentoring programs for skilled immigrants. These mentoring initiatives focus on job-ready, pre-assessed skilled immigrants with high degrees of language proficiency. The mentoring programs match these internationally-trained professionals with their Canadian counterparts in structured relationships.

ALLIES engaged Accenture in a pro-bono capacity to measure the impact of mentoring on skilled immigrants.

Related:

• Download the report, The results are in: Mentoring improves employment outcomes for skilled immigrants (PDF)
• Learn more about the National Mentoring initiative on the ALLIES website
• Watch the webinar recording, The results are in: mentoring skilled immigrants works!, with leading experts as they discuss the results

Please help us improve the maytree.com website by completing the following online survey. We welcome your honest feedback and all responses will remain confidential.

It should only take you about 10-15 minutes to complete the survey. Please note that none of the questions are required. If you wish to focus your input and comments on a particular area, due to time constraints or interest, feel free to do so.

We’ll also be running some focus groups and one-on-one interviews. If you have more to say after you’ve completed the survey, let us know. We’d be happy to chat.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Marco Campana, Maytree Communications
mcampana@maytree.com
Tel: 416-944-2627 x252

(image from Wikiepedia Commons)

The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) is marking the day by asking Canadians: are you proud to protect refugees?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we here at Maytree say, yes.

Learn more about CCR’s Proud to Protect Refugees campaign and help change the narrative on Canada’s history, obligations and practice of protecting refugees.

CCR explains its campaign:

“Recent changes to Canada’s refugee system and increased negative rhetoric about newcomers may make it tougher for refugees to find protection and to feel welcome in Canada. … The Canadian Council for Refugees is suggesting that refugee advocates and allies find some way to show this publicly under the banner ‘Proud to protect refugees’ in Canada. Help send a positive message about refugees, in the face of the negative discourse and restrictive changes.”

Related:

• Maytree blog posts about the refugee process
• Maytree Scholarship Program
• Opinions, Speeches and Commentary about immigration and refugees

For the last 20 years, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy has played an essential role as an independent and critical voice, providing rich, evidence-based research and analysis to inform public opinion and policy. Its recent 20th anniversary celebration presented a look back, with a look forward, at Canadian public policy.

Caledon’s three principle policy consultants – Ken Battle, Michael Mendelson, and Sherri Torjman – presented a look back, with a look forward, at Canadian public policy. Speakers also included Caledon’s founder Alan Broadbent and Environics President Michael Adams. A wrap-up address by Caledon Board member Tom Barber ended the day.

Videos of these powerful presentations are now available below.

Alan Broadbent: Welcome and Introduction

Ken Battle: Architecture of Federal Income Security in Canada, with a commentary by Ken Jackson

Sherri Torjman: Social Policy Challenges for Canada, with a commentary by André Picard

Michael Mendelson: Is Canada (Still) a Fiscal Union? With a commentary by Richard Simeon

Michael Adams: Datacide: Policy in the Dark

Tom Barber: Wrap-Up

Related:

• Transcript of introductory remarks by Alan Broadbent, Chairman of Caledon
• The next 20 years of policy in Canada – 20th anniversary presentations by Ken Battle, Sherri Torjman and Michael Mendelson
• Five Good Ideas about Policy with Sherri Torjman
• Caledon rescues data

In comparison, in the same year, Canada admitted a grand total of 257,500 people as permanent residents – a number that includes all immigrants and refugees, spouses and children.

Those numbers are not an anomaly. Rather, they reflect a trend that has been quietly gaining momentum. The number of temporary foreign workers living in Canada has tripled over the past decade. From 2002-2010, numbers for every temporary foreign worker stream (both high-skilled and low-skilled streams) have increased. In 2012, nearly 340,000 temporary foreign workers lived in Canada.

Temporary foreign workers influence the labour market

Unlike permanent immigration programs, temporary foreign worker programs have no targets or caps on admissions. The number of temporary foreign workers admitted each year is subject to demand from employers and people applying for work permits. Our top five source countries are: Philippines, the United States, Mexico, Australia and France. About 40% come with a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from the Canadian government, which approves an employer to hire a temporary foreign worker. The remaining 60% do not require an LMO.

Over the past few years, the federal government has made a number of changes that make it easier for employers to hire temporary foreign workers. For example, it shortened processing times for the LMO. In addition, employers are now allowed to pay temporary foreign workers 5-15% less than the prevailing wage for that occupation in that region.

Economists argue that the use of temporary foreign workers interferes with market forces that would otherwise motivate employers to raise wages and improve working conditions. Further, relying on workers that have been educated and trained abroad removes the incentive for employers and the government to invest in training Canadian citizens and permanent residents for available jobs. Some employers even hire successive temporary foreign workers, which suggests that these jobs are not truly temporary. Why spend time and money on job training for Canadian-born workers, or on employment support for new immigrants, when you can import short-term workers and pay them less?

Temporary foreign workers also give a few unscrupulous employers the opportunity to circumvent our labour laws by maintaining sub-standard working conditions for workers who are unlikely to complain or exercise their rights. And while temporary foreign workers pay taxes and contributions, they often cannot access the government services or benefits that these taxes and contributions pay for. Some temporary foreign workers, for example, are not eligible to collect Employment Insurance (EI) special benefits (such as maternity, parental, and compassionate care benefits), even though they are required to pay EI premiums. In other words, the government collects from these temporary foreign workers without fulfilling its end of the bargain.

At the same time, changes to our immigration system, such as the introduction of the Canadian Experience Class for select temporary residents, indicate that the government increasingly sees temporary residence as the first step before permanent immigration. Compared to Canada’s tradition of direct permanent residence, this extra step can mean delaying attachment to Canada and “being Canadian,” as well as prolonged family separation.

Reconsidering the role of temporary foreign workers

The government has recently signaled that it is reconsidering how the temporary foreign worker program works. Following recent public uproar over foreign mining workers in British Columbia, the government has undertaken consultations on this program. And while the federal budget allocates $42 million to meet the growing demand of temporary resident programs, it also proposes to:

• Introduce fees for employers applying for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO)
• Restrict the use of non-official languages as job requirements when hiring through the temporary foreign worker process
• Increase the requirements for employers to try to recruit workers within Canada
• Help employers that legitimately rely on temporary foreign workers to plan to transition to a Canadian workforce over time

These proposed changes might provide a needed check to ensure that employers reconsider their use of the temporary foreign worker program. At the same time, the fees will presumably facilitate processing of LMOs and work permits.

Certainly, some temporary foreign workers are necessary and desirable. But not at this scale. Not if the system works to the detriment of citizens and permanent residents already living in Canada. And not at the expense of our successful tradition of permanent immigration and naturalization.

We cannot let more time pass without a serious discussion about what this program does to and for Canada, and to and for foreign workers and future Canadians. We need to have a national conversation about the role of temporary foreign workers in the Canadian labour market and in Canada’s immigration system.

Related:

• Maytree report: Shaping the Future: Canada’s rapidly changing immigration policies
• Globe and Mail editorial: Temporary foreign workers: The rising risk of a guest worker class
• Toronto Star article: Temporary foreign worker program under review
• Temporary Foreign Workers backgrounder (Feb 2013) (PDF)