Layton Proposes Plan To Recognize Credentials Of Immigrants
Posted February 18, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The NDP has laid out a plan to help speed up the process of recognizing the credentials of immigrants, many who come to Canada with high career hopes only to be bitterly disappointed.
Party Leader Jack Layton is putting forward a seven-point strategy to help new Canadians obtain the jobs they’re qualified to do that includes the creation of a credentials recognition agency, uniform recognition practices across the country and more mentorship and training programs.
He says the federal government isn’t doing enough to help immigrants find the work they were lured to Canada to do.
“The tragic fact is that we lure people to come here, we give them points for their experience and their professional credentials. They tell their families ‘Canada wants us. They want us as doctors, accountants, engineers, experts with all our experience’,” Layton said in front of Union Station Sunday.
“They come here and the doors are simply closed and it’s one of the great tragedies we see in all of our immigrant communities and something has got to be done and that’s why the NDP has put forward a plan.”
The 2006 federal budget allocated $18 million to consult on the creation of a foreign credentials recognition program, but according to Layton, nothing has been done.
