Canadian provinces and territories move ahead on trade and labor mobility across Canada

To fully harmonize different accreditation and licensing requirements between Canadian provinces and territories, premiers and territorial leaders have finally reached a deal on trade and labor mobility across Canada.

During their two-day annual "Council of the Federation" meeting in Quebec City, the premiers of the Canadian provinces and territories have intended to amend the existing Internal Trade Agreement (ITA) by January 1, 2009 in order to have full labor mobility by April 1, 2009. This agreement means Canadian citizens and permanent residents can find and take jobs in any province or territory of Canada but without going through a separate accreditation and/or licensing process.

Because of different accreditation and licensing requirements across provinces and territories, it has been estimated an about 25 per cent of jobs (in healthcare and engineering sectors, for example) have serious mobility constraints in Canada. These province- or territory-specific accreditation and licensing processes are not only making inter-provincial labor mobility challenging but also barricading a most stimulating labor market developing.

At their next meeting in August 2009, the premiers and territorial leaders will sit again and work out to harmonize the different provincial requirements for job credentials.

Because the evaluation and recognition of qualifications earned outside Canada is a provincial mandate, this is determined by the appropriate provincial or territorial regulatory body. Internationally-obtained qualifications evaluated and recognized by one province are usually need to be re-evaluated by another province where a worker wants to move and enter into the labor force. Although this requirement applies to individuals who plan to work in regulated occupations but most newcomers usually need to know the value of their education, training and work experience they have acquired outside Canada in order to improve their employability.

Bringing into line different provincial requirements for job credentials will certainly help alleviate worker shortages between the provinces and territories, certain occupations, however, will remain exempted. Provincial labor ministers are to meet at a later date to develop a list of the exempted occupations. It could for instance include pharmacists, who are allowed to write prescriptions in Alberta, but not in other provinces.

The premiers also pressed the federal government to commit more financial resources to reduce the visa backlog at the Immigration Department in Ottawa. There are currently more than 925,000 pending requests and provincial and territorial leaders want to bring the figure down to 200,000 by 2011.