Foreign-worker plan helps Alberta

A federal plan to speed access to skilled foreign workers will help Alberta’s labour-strapped housing industry cope, builders say.

“If we’re looking back to 2007, when we had no option — we couldn’t find people — that’s when that foreign worker policy was important,” says Dave Hooge, president of Stepper Custom Homes. “Getting an understanding of that now before we get to that point again is critical.”

Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was recently in Calgary to explain his plan to streamline applications, create a vetted pool of foreign workers for businesses to search, and to introduce a skilled tradespeople immigration stream. In a speech to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association – Alberta, Kenney outlined “transformational changes” to align Canada’s immigration programs with growing labour shortages in a variety of industries.

As Alberta’s oil-fuelled economy recovers from the recession, the housing industry has said that such shortages can affect housing affordability by boosting construction costs.

Kenney first made an announcement in midApril about boosting skilled labour.

“The Harper government gets it,” he told builders. “We understand the kind of pressure that homebuilders and petroleum industry, that oil and gas companies, and the entire industries of Alberta are under from the perspective of labour and skills shortages.”

Builders and tradespeople welcome federal plans to speed the process of bringing in foreign workers, says Hooge. “The idea of being able to identify a worker and have them working in two to three months is very attractive,” he says, adding the industry first seeks to fill available jobs with people already here.

There is a seven-year wait for applicants to the skilled worker program, but the federal government plans to reduce it to a few months, says Kenney. He plans to create a skilled trades stream, allow tradespeople to immigrate for the first time since the 1960s.

This new stream will require a basic level of English or French comprehension — for safety concerns as much as employability, should a worker become unemployed here, he says — and the government will vet a pool of workers in other countries whose skills have quality and relevance to Canada’s business needs.

The planned changes will help keep the building industry vital, says Ken Gibson, executive director of the Alberta Construction Association.