Help wanted? Workers caught in TFW rule changes

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The Chamber continues to work to address ill-advised changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers program. We’ve met with Victoria’s Member of Parliament and heard from several Chamber members about the damaging impact this blanket legislation is causing in our region.

Canadian Tire Hillside has reached out to ask for help finding work for four of their former staffers who are looking for employers able to offer a position with a Labour Market Impact Assessment.

“The workers are well qualified, highly experienced professionals with international and Canadian experience. We would be retaining these top-performing team members, however, recent changes to our country’s Temporary Foreign Worker program will unfortunately not permit it,” Canadian Tire said in an email to The Chamber.

The workers live in our region and have housing. They want to continue to be long-term contributing members of the community. The workers have experience in retail, customer service and warehouse work and can start in early summer — once they receive necessary approvals.

To learn more about hiring these potential team members and applying for LMIAs, contact Ron Heal at ron@cantire365.com.

Province recruiting doctors and nurses amid US chaos

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The provincial government is seeing opportunity in the political divide currently impacting the United States. BC has begun a recruitment campaign targeting doctors and nurses from the US and fast-tracking credential recognition.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC is being consulted on a direct process for doctors who hold certification from the American Board of Medical Specialties to become fully licensed in BC without the need for further assessment, examination or training. Similar changes were recently adopted by Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The changes are expected to be implemented in the next few months, following consultations already underway.

The BC College of Nurses and Midwives has also been asked to allow US-registered nurses to apply directly to the college, allowing it to review candidates education, registration, exam completion and regulatory history through the US’s national nurse-licensure and disciplinary database.

The provincial government said 2024 set a record as nearly 250,000 people were able to find a primary care provider, an increase from 186,000 people in 2023 and 131,000 people in 2022.

Recognizing international credentials makes sense

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The International Credentials Recognition Act comes into effect July 1, requiring regulatory bodies to reduce red tape in 29 professions and make it easier for qualified professionals to have credentials recognized, no matter where they were trained.

A major change is eliminating the catch-22 that required someone to have work experience in Canada even though they couldn’t work in Canada because of the lack of Canadian work experience.

The professions include engineers, social workers, veterinarians, paramedics, early childhood educators, teachers, biologists, land surveyors, architects and more.

“The Chamber continues to call for changes to credentials to allow more trained professionals to do the work they have been trained to do,” Chamber CEO Bruce Williams said. “We need a skilled labour force and these changes make sense.”

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