Hi,
I attended the public forum chaired by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, at City Hall Toronto on 14th september evening.

It was a very informative session. The minister promptly highlighted that there has been a "mismatch" between the jobs available in Ontario and the type of VISA assessment process Canada is using to approve permanent residency. Hence, foreign trained professionals are doing labor jobs in Ontario causing loss to the overall economy. Individual frustration is also goes without saying.

The proposed bill aims at "easing" certain regulatory requirements for foreign trained professionals. It tries to remove the unnecessary barriers, without affecting the standard of assessment for licensing. It may bring about reduction in fees. It will result in establishing a new Government for overseeing the regulatory bodies policies, and performance.
There will be a fairness commissioner who audits these bodies and be a single window office bearer for all foreign trained professionals concerns.

I asked the following question to the minister and his team:
"My observation about Job Fairs in Ontario in my one month stay is that most of the jobs offered are "labor" or "non-engineering jobs". They fail to excite the foreign trained
engineer. As the minister rightly highlighted during his speech, the disconnect of job market and VISA selection process clearly shows up here. Does the proposed Bill have any kind of "Encouragement or Incentive" for reputed companies to start representing the job fair and increase hiring of immigrants?"

Before answering my question, the minister clapped and said "Welcome to Canada! You have taken a good and brave decision. I request you to have a positive hope". With this, the whole audience of councillors and public clapped to welcome me to Canada. It was a great feeling! I was the only new comer spoke this this session. Most questions were from the Agency heads.

The answer: They are considering suggestions of Tax credit incentives to companies. They are meeting with HR personnel groups and discussing the issues. The overal response seems to be positive. They are also trying to increase Internships in both private and public companies.

They minister made it a point to ask me to which Settlement Agency I am connected to. I replied "ACCES-Scarborough". The OCASI executive director updated the minister about ACCES centre. The minister suggested that it is very important to be connected to such agencies to get valuable help in the process of job search.



The Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, Bill 124

Debbie Douglas, OCASI Executive Director and moderator of the Meeting.

The Hon. Mike Colle
Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (MCI)

Elizabeth McIsaac
The Maytree Foundation