CAPE Submission and Positions

Submissions (2004-2005)

When CAPE’s initial action research began to validate the fact the skilled immigrant professionals were being locked out of their fields we started to alert the relevant bodies regarding this situation. The following are the submissions we formally made to the government and regulatory bodies in this period.

  • Presentation to Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration (Ontario). December 8, 2005
  • Submission on Recognition of the International Experience and Credentials of Immigrants with Engineering Backgrounds to the Cross-Canada Hearings of The House Of Commons Standing Committee On Citizenship And Immigration. March 31, 2005
  • Submission to MTCU on Bridging Skills Gaps between Employer Needs and Immigrant Experience. February 10, 2005
  • Submission on PEO Appeals Process to George Thompson Commission. December 3, 2004
  • Submission to Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) on the Provisional License for Internationally Trained Engineering Graduates. June 3, 2004

CAPE also set up a multi-stakeholder roundtable, that held six structured consultative meetings and developed a joint employment strategy for Immigrants with engineering backgrounds that it launched in May 2006, This was titled ‘From Canadian First to Canada First’ – a multi-stakeholder employment strategy for immigrants with engineering backgrounds. Over the next two CAPE struggled valiantly to implement this. Despite all these efforts, the employment situation of our members continued to weaken.

Position Papers (2006-2009)

To address this situation more strategically and to assist the mainstream organizations to understand the issues facing the immigrants with engineering and professional backgrounds CAPE formed a community coalition having a combined membership in access of 10,000 skilled immigrants and developed the following position papers setting their concerns and suggested solutions.

  • Position Statement 1: Issue: Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO): Licensing Process Task Force Draft Report Recommendations. May 10, 2006
  • Position Statement 2: Issue: Expectations from Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006 and the Office of the Fairness Commissioner, Ontario. May 2008
  • Position Statement 3: Issue: Temporary Foreign Worker Program. May 2008
  • Position Statement 4: Issue: The Ontario Centre For Engineering And Public Policy (PEO): Proposed National Framework For Membership And Licensure, March 2009

These position statements were widely circulated and some noticeable changes began to take place at the policy level but these did not lead to improved employment or licensure outcomes.

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