By rdnewsNOW staff

Reducing Barriers

Local agencies applaud province’s new Fairness for Newcomers Office

Mar 14, 2020 | 10:00 AM

A government plan to help ensure newcomers can leverage their education and experience to reach their full potential in Alberta is getting a thumbs-up from local organizations.

The province announced earlier this month the opening of the new Fairness for Newcomers Office to remove the barriers associated with the assessment of foreign qualifications. Working with professional regulatory organizations, the office aims to support fairness for newcomers by ensuring registration practices are transparent, objective, impartial and fair.

Frank Bauer, Executive Director at Central Alberta Refugee Effort (CARE), says he’s happy to see the government focusing on employment opportunities for newcomers to the province.

“Understanding that this office is mainly focusing on regulatory bodies or professional bodies, and not so much directly with individuals,” says Bauer. “On the longer-term, I hope it will ease regulations for recognition of those credentials and set some guidelines for those bodies on how to assess foreign credentials.”

Bauer acknowledges, however, that it’s not an easy balance to achieve.

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“On one hand, obviously you want to have foreign credentials recognized,” he explains. “At the same time, you want to be able to compare them to Canadian – Alberta standards, and with so many countries in the world, so many different regulations, so many different assessments of education and work experience, it makes it a very complicated topic.”

“The opening of the Fairness for Newcomers office is the next step to breaking down barriers to the full economic inclusion of new Albertans,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a release.

Aaron Sheppard, Director at Career Assistance Network (CAN) in Red Deer, says they’re in favour of any initiative that will help speed-up the process of getting foreign credentials recognized.

“We’ve had lots of newcomers come to Canada with a great amount of skills and experience and education that have just been stalled at getting their credentials both evaluated and approved,” he explains. “By the engineers association or medical services association, doctors associations, nursing. So I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Although not everyone experiences delays in having their credentials approved by Canadian associations, Sheppard says some can toil upwards of four years at jobs outside of their training before having their foreign credentials recognized.

“They could be doing much better jobs and contributing to our current mosaic of people working in the world of work here in Alberta, but are just stuck behind a lack of regulation identification and their qualifications being out in place.”

According to Jason Copping, Minister of Labour and Immigration, every year, hundreds of highly educated newcomers immigrate to Alberta and face unjust obstacles preventing them from using their international training and education to get ahead.

“By fulfilling our platform commitment to open the new Fairness for Newcomers Office, we will enable Albertans to benefit from the entrepreneurial drive and skills of newcomers who will help grow our economy and get Albertans back to work.”

Sheppard notes there are several areas of Alberta’s job market that always struggle to find workers.

“We have shortages in nursing at times and doctors as well, especially in the rural sector,” adds Sheppard. “You have certain pockets like engineering as well that it’s been a little less need lately in that area, but I think it’s going to help to fast-track those individuals that are highly skilled to get into the jobs that we really are lacking.”

According to the Conference Board of Canada, Canadians would earn up to $17 billion more annually if their learning credentials were fully recognized.

Provinces such as Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia already have fairness legislation to ensure professional regulatory organizations have fair registration practices.