Ontario eliminates Canadian experience as requirement for licensing of internationally trained professionals in non-health regulated professions and compulsory trades under the new legislation, Working for Workers Act 2021.
Currently, internationally-trained immigrants face multiple barriers to getting licensed in their field including unfair requirements for Canadian work experience, unnecessary, repetitive and costly language testing, and unreasonable processing times.
Canadian work experience requirements for instance, is often cited as the number one barrier Canadian immigrants face in obtaining a job that matches their level of qualification as it creates a chicken and egg scenario whereby foreign workers are unable to obtain Canadian work experience because they don’t have it in the first place.
For Context
- In 2016, only 25% of internationally trained immigrants in Ontario were employed in the regulated professions for which they trained or studied.
- In the summer of 2021, nearly 300,000 job vacancies went unfilled across the province, costing billions in lost productivity.
- At present, licensing time in some regulated professions takes up to 18 months or more, while workers wait in limbo, wasting valuable time when they could be contributing to the economy.
The government of Ontario just passed the Working for Workers Act, 2021, a law that could eliminate these barriers for internationally trained professionals to get licensed in non-health regulated professions and compulsory trades such as professional engineers, architects, plumbers, electricians, accountants, hairstylists, teachers and early childhood educators.
The passage of this legislation aims to make it easier for highly skilled internationally-trained immigrants to get access to jobs that match their qualifications and skills, and find work in their field of expertise, help more businesses find the workers they need hence addressing the labor shortage in Ontario.
The measures in the act include:
- Eliminate Canadian work experience requirements for professional registration and licensing unless an exemption is granted based on a demonstrated public health and safety risk. These requirements may create situations where workers are unable to obtain Canadian work experience because they don’t have it. This is often cited as the number one barrier Canadian immigrants face in obtaining a job that matches their level of qualification.
- Reduce burdensome duplication for official language proficiency testing, so people would not have to complete multiple tests for purposes of immigration and professional licensing.
- Allow applicants to register faster in their regulated professions when there are emergencies (such as a pandemic) that create an urgent need for certain professions or trades.
- Ensure the licensing process is completed in a timely manner to help internationally-trained immigrants start working in careers that match their skillset.
“These proposed changes would help to improve registration practices, address unfair Canadian experience requirements and remove related barriers for internationally-trained professionals and tradespersons,” Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development said.
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