Proposed changes would help qualified newcomers fill labour shortages in health care and other in-demand industries

The Ontario government will soon introduce legislation that, if passed, would make it the first province in Canada to help even more internationally-trained immigrants work in the fields they’ve studied in by banning the use of Canadian work experience as a requirement in job postings or application forms. This change would help more qualified candidates progress in the interview process and follows historic legislation to prohibit regulated professions from requiring discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements in licensing for more than 30 occupations, which comes into effect December 2023.

Highlights

• There have been over 162,000 immigrants arriving in Ontario from January to September 2023.
   
• Ontario is investing $100M in 2023-24 in services that help newcomers learn English or French, settle, access training and find jobs. This also includes additional funding for 2023-24 to enhance the Ontario Bridge Training Program and Ontario Bridging Participant Assistance Program to expand access to foreign qualification recognition supports.
   
• Ontario was the first province in Canada to ban the use of discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements in regulated professions under the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006.
   
• Earlier this year, Professional Engineers Ontario were the first regulated profession to remove the requirement for Canadian experience from their registration criteria since the government took action and Professional Geoscientists Ontario recently did as well, potentially helping thousands of otherwise qualified professionals find jobs.
   
• Once introduced, and if passed, this new legislation will mean Ontario would be the first in Canada to include provisions on Canadian experience in employment standards legislation.
   
• There are over 900 programs offered across Ontario colleges that award an Ontario College Graduate Certificate and most are one-year programs.
   
• At request of the Province, the OINP’s allocation from the federal government will more than double from 9,000 in 2021, to over 18,000 by 2025.
   

Official Link: https://news.ontario.ca/.../ontario-to-ban-requirements...