Province establishes advisory council on economic immigration

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This article was published 14/07/2023 (828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Determined to maintain and hopefully grow the pace of immigration into the province especially as it addresses labour shortages, the province has established a new advisory council to support those efforts.

Just four months after the release of a report by the Immigration Advisory Council — which made a total of 70 recommendations to improve the immigration experience — a new 16-person council has been struck representing the breadth of immigrant communities that come to the province, called the Advisory Council on Economic Immigration and Settlement (ACEIS).

Its chairman, Lana Adeleye-Olusae, a pastor and human resource consultant, and former member of the Immigration Advisory Council, said the group is determined to see as many of the recommendations made in the report as possible are followed through on.

“This is something I am passionate about,” said the immigrant from Nigeria. “I came here as an international student 20 years ago. I went through the process and I know what it’s like to call Manitoba home.”

The idea is for the group to work with Jon Reyes, the minister of labour and immigration, and his deputy minister to inform their decision-making process in areas like enhancing settlement and integration services and streamlining the foreign credential recognition processes.

Reyes, who is the son of an immigrant, said the province has already taken action on some of those 70 recommendations including doubling the investment in the Newcomer Community Connections Stream of the Newcomer Community Integration Support Program to $4 million this year.

As well, the province has requested additional allocations for the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program and has received 9,500 nominations for this year, which meets the goal to boost the number of allocations to Manitoba.

Reyes said, “Since establishment of that pioneering program in 1998, more than 190,00 nominees and their families have immigrated to Manitoba from all over the world. That has strengthened our labour capacity and contributed to the growth of our provincial economy and to the vibrancy of our communities.”

The 16 appointees to the ACEIS have a 12-month mandate to work on implementing the recommendations of the Report of the Immigration Advisory Council. Enver Naidoo, vice-chair of the council, is the only other holdover from the Immigration Advisory Council. He is the Brandon-based CEO of Westman Immigrant Services.

Adeleye-Olusae said he believes that integrating newcomers into the workforce is key to retaining those immigrants in the province. And to that end, be believes one of the most important of the 70 recommendations is to speed up recognition of foreign credentials.

“If new immigrants get into their professions as soon as possible, it’s likely that they will start thinking about buying a home here. If you are struggling to make ends meet… those new immigrants may start to think about going somewhere else,” he said.

But the reality is that not all immigrants are able to thrive right away.

Manitoba has welcomed 20,000 new immigrants from Ukraine since the Russian invasion of that country began just a little more than 500 days ago.

Joanne Lewandosky, the volunteer president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said generally most are doing quite well.

“Manitobans have been extremely welcoming,” she said. “Manitoba has opened its doors and its hearts and its wallets.”

But she said there are many challenges. For instance, only about half of those immigrants from Ukraine have adequate English language skills.

She said many women are coming alone with children and so daycare is one of the biggest issues they have to deal with in order for them to get established in the workplace.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has just established a partnership with the Manitoba Métis Federation to train between 25 and 30 Ukrainian immigrants in early childhood education so they can become certified to work in daycares.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca