Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - January 2010
The recent announcement that a deadline will be imposed on foreign credential assessments for many professions has sparked hope amongst Canada�s immigrant community.
The Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications has set two deadlines, the first for the end of 2010, which will force professional bodies and provincial regulators to work together in implementing a foreign credential assessment system that takes no more than one year to come to a decision for 14 different professions.
The professions include architects, engineers, accountants, primary school teachers, and medical professions such as physiotherapists, registered nurses and physicians.
�Ensuring that foreign credentials and qualifications are assessed... in a timely manner will enable newcomers to maximize their talents,� said Human Resource Minister Diane Finlay, whose government had announced a $50 million plan to address credential recognition issues in Canada.
While immigrants and their advocates are encouraged by this new agreement, many are wary of any attempts to fix a system that has already left so many newcomers disillusioned.
�At least the federal government is trying to engage all other partners in a meaningful way,� said Fariborz Birjandian, himself a long-time immigrant and now executive director of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society. �Hopefully, there will be some accountability around it.�
Birjandian added that, although the new agreement gives hope to many, there is still a larger issue that Canadian policy-makers must address � the fact that the current immigration system is geared to favour those whose skills are in demand in the country. However, long processing times for applications make it extremely difficult to keep incoming skills in line with current employer demands.
�It�s a rapidly-changing environment we�re dealing with in the business community worldwide,� said Birjandian.
Source: Saskatchewan Star Pheonix
