Immigration Hansen's key to filling jobs in province
The Vancouver Sun
Fri 17 Mar 2006
Page: H3
Section: BusinessBC
Byline: Fiona Anderson
Source: Vancouver Sun
B.C. will have to rely increasingly on immigration to meet its future labour needs, according to its minister of economic development.
An additional one million jobs are expected to be created in the province over the next 12 years, yet only 650,000 students will graduate from Grade 12 during that period, Colin Hansen said in an interview on Thursday.
"So we will not be able to fill the jobs of the future simply by training B.C.-born kids," Hansen said. "We have to look to immigration in order to grow the economy in the future and to meet the skill shortages."
Hansen made the comments from Prince George where he was announcing that the government will provide $1.5 million to the Industry Training Authority for a mobile training unit to travel to rural and aboriginal communities in northern B.C.
The unit will make apprenticeships more accessible to young people living in remote communities, Hansen said. The labour shortages have people working "flat out," and they can't take time away from their communities to go to a larger centre to take the formal training component of their apprenticeship, he said.
"So in this way, we will actually be able to take the training to them." It will take about seven to 10 months to outfit the expandable semi-trailer unit, which will act as the mobile training centre, Hansen said.
While the first priority is training, "we still need as a second priority to focus on immigration of skilled workers," Hansen said.
To help the process, the province has created the nominee program, which fast-tracks applications for landed immigrant status where an employer has identified the applicants as skilled workers it is prepared to hire, Hansen said.
For the past five months, the province has also been working with the federal government to put in place an agreement that allows B.C. to fast-track temporary worker visas as well, he said.
Focus Immigration of Surrey uses both the nominee program and temporary working visas to help local companies get the skilled workers they need.
The company has a database of skilled workers -- such as carpenters, welders and pipe-fitters -- in places like India, the Middle East and the Philippines, that are ready to come to Canada for the right job, the company's president Sanjeev Batta said in an interview.
Focus is currently helping about 20 companies across Canada find skilled workers to fill about 100 positions. To date, 70 per cent of the workers the company has placed have come to B.C.