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An "action plan" unveiled this week by Montreal region elected officials, encouraging immigrants to remain in Quebec after working here temporarily or completing skilled training, is expected to go a long way in helping the province meet the goal of filling more than 700,000 professional and technical jobs anticipated to be up for grabs in the coming years, says Laurier-Dorion Liberal MNA Gerry Sklavounos.
'Good news' – Sklavounos
"This is a very good announcement for Laurier-Dorion, because we have a high concentration of people who are primarily from South Asia and North Africa," Sklavounos said in an interview with NPEN, following a downtown press conference last Monday where the new policy was unveiled by Liberal Immigration Minister Yolande James and the Conseil régional des élus de Montréal (CRÉ), which is an intergovernmental assembly of Quebec MNAs and municipal councillors.
According to Sklavounos, who is the Liberal caucus representative on the CRÉ, a good number of professionally-trained engineers who live in the riding still have difficulty finding work because they were educated outside Quebec and Canada. "So these measures are going to go a long way," he said. "I don't think there's a miraculous solution … but this is definitely a step in the right direction, and definitely a step in the right direction on the local level for Montreal, which receives the bulk of Quebec's immigration."
Three-pronged plan
The multi-pronged initiative, referred to by the CRÉ as Plan d'action de la région de Montréal en matière d'immigration, d'intégration et de relations interculturelles (PARMI), sets out to ensure that temporary foreign workers who come to Montreal with skills that are valuable to the economy of this region are able to receive whatever aid is necessary so that they remain here. Another aspect aims at retaining students doing their studies in the Montreal region. There are also measures to facilitate "networking" between immigrant professionals, and to foster the creation of organizations to help immigrant women find employment.
"The action plan makes a certain investment to bring forward measures that would facilitate that," said Sklavounos, noting that a shortage of specialized and technical labour in Quebec amounting to at least 700,000 jobs is forecast between now and 2011. "That means that when we do have people here in Quebec who are either training or studying or working, we want to do everything possible to keep them here. We don't want these people to work here or train here or become educated here, and then to go away, because that would be a loss for Quebec society and Montreal in particular."
Recognizing foreign diplomas
Sklavounas said a "third pillar" of the new immigration policy that the province is still working on involves the recognition of foreign diplomas. "The minister has been meeting with professional orders," he said, referring to provincially-chartered groups that recognize and license lawyers, doctors, engineers and other professions across Quebec. "It's not simply a question of the government recognizing foreign diplomas, it's a questions of the orders who regulate how various professions and technical fields authorize entry into the workforce. Certain professions have certain criteria and the minister has been working very hard in order to help soften and finesse these rules to make it a little bit easier for those who come from abroad, but who have the necessary talents and qualifications, to be able to access the profession."
Asked whether the professional orders have shown any signs of going along with the plan, Sklavounos replied, "Especially in times of international economic crisis like this, of course the professional orders have as one of their goals to protect their members and to protect their market share. So therefore there are various challenges, and these professional orders also have to balance it. But we're doing everything in our capacity to make sure that different agreements are signed."