ICT, digital industries concerned about end of federal foreign IT worker program

Canadian information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital media industry associations say they are concerned about the end of a federal program that helped companies bring skilled, foreign IT workers to Canada. In the late 1990s, the rapid growth of the Canadian ICT sector created a labour shortage. In response to a need for skilled IT workers, the federal government launched, on a pilot basis, a simplified entry process under which companies could quickly hire foreign workers to fill positions such as animation effects editors, software designers, multimedia software developers, and telecommunications software designers. But on June 7, the government announced it is ending the program, and industry associations say they are concerned about a potentially lengthy and difficult new process. According to the change, after Sept. 30, it will be up to Canadian provinces and territories to develop individual programs to facilitate the hiring of foreign IT workers. Companies could have to deal with 13 different sets of rules. “It’s a matter of contacting the various provinces to find out what is happening at the provincial level, because now we are going to have to deal with the provinces,” Danielle Parr, executive director of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, told The Wire Report. “It does definitely become more complicated. Our members are concerned it’s going to create delays or additional obstacles in their ability to bring foreign workers into Canada.” Parr said one of the problems companies could face is the difficulty bringing in a foreign worker who is then moved from one province to another. In April, the government of British Columbia passed a Canada-BC Immigration Agreement to simplify the immigration process for professions experiencing labour shortages, but the new rules do not come into force until April 2011. Although the federal program will come to an end in September, it will be extended in Quebec. Under the Canada-Quebec Immigration Accord, the Quebec government and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) jointly review applications for foreign workers in the province. The Quebec government is now reviewing its immigration process for skilled labour like IT professional, and the federal government cannot end the program in the province until the provincial review is completed. Paul Swinwood, president of the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), said the provinces are at varying levels of readiness to deal with the end of the federal program. “One of the concerns that the council has is, given that the different provinces are at different points in their ability to take on this responsibility, we still feel there is a very, very high demand for IT workers, especially in the multimedia areas,” he said. “What we would like is one point of contact that our companies in Canada could use rather than going to 12 different provinces and territories. From our council’s point of view, we want it to be as simple as possible.” Swinwood noted that some provinces are looking towards agreements to make it easier to move a worker from one province to another. Alberta and British Columbia have reached such an agreement, he said, and that Ontario and Quebec are in discussion. “National mobility is the focus that we’re looking for on this one ... have to happen with the rest of the provinces,” he said. The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) and Communitech, a tech industry organization with more than 500 Canadian members, also said they are also looking at the end of the program and its implications. Another concern is what delays Canadian companies could face after the federal program ends. Companies will now have to go through a standard labour market opinion (LMO) process, run by the federal government, before bringing in foreign IT workers. Under the LMO process, companies must prove they have made sufficient efforts to recruit or train Canadian residents before employing a foreign worker. They must also show that hiring a foreign worker is beneficial to the Canadian labour market, either by creating new jobs or transferring new skills and knowledge. Parr said potential delays are the ESA’s biggest concern. “When we originally spoke to officials, they said they were going to work with employers to try and anticipate issues and expedite processes by trying to anticipate our needs, but that’s the biggest concern for us, the delay in processing new workers,” she said. “There is definitely a need for certain specialized people that we don’t necessarily have in Canada. There is a need, on certain projects, to bring in a certain specialist with a certain set of skills that are only available abroad.” Swinwood said the extended LMO process could hurt Canadian companies, since they could be tempted to move the position abroad instead of going through immigration hurdles. “Once the companies have identified that there is nobody local to do it, they get the person quickly, because otherwise they will decide to take the business and put it somewhere else in the world. That’s out major concern,” he said. Still, Swinwood said the key will be for companies to have advance knowledge of whether they needing a foreign worker for a project. The LMO process, he said, can take up to 14 weeks. “The challenge is identifying far enough in advance when you’ll need somebody. Some companies will be negatively impacted. Some companies won’t know the difference because they’re well enough organized to do this months in advance,” he said. “My concerns are for the small and medium companies that are trying to build and don’t have the human resources managers to handle the multiple points of access.” But in information HRSDC emailed to The Wire Report, the department said the average processing time for a completed LMO application is two-to-three weeks. The department said the IT worker program was ended because there is no longer a need for foreign workers in the sector. The national ICT labour shortage that the country experienced in the 1990s, in the occupations identified in the program, no longer persist, the department said. HRSDC added that the department consulted with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Industry Canada, provincial governments and ICT industry associations before deciding to end the program. kfournier@thewirereport.ca

ICT, digital industries concerned about end of federal foreign IT worker program

News | 07/06/2010 8:09 pm EDT

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