The Ontario government will soon introduce legislation that, if passed, would make it the first province in Canada to help even more internationally-trained immigrants work in the fields they have studied in by banning the use of Canadian work experience as a requirement in job postings or application forms.

This change would help more qualified candidates progress in the interview process and follows historic legislation to prohibit regulated professions from requiring discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements in licensing for more than 30 occupations, which comes into effect December 2023.

Ontario welcomes more immigrants than any other province each year. There have been over 162,000 immigrants arriving in Ontario from January to September 2023. Ontario is investing $100M in 2023-24 in services that help newcomers learn English or French, settle, access training and find jobs.

Ontario was the first province in Canada to ban the use of discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements in regulated professions under the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) is the province’s economic immigration program. It works in partnership with the Government of Canada through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Foreign workers, international students and others with the right skills, experience and education apply to the OINP for a nomination.

The OINP recognizes and nominates people for permanent residence who have the skills and experience the Ontario economy needs, and the Government of Canada makes the final decision to approve applications for permanent residence.

Earlier this year, Professional Engineers Ontario were the first regulated profession to remove the requirement for Canadian experience from their registration criteria since the government took action and Professional Geoscientists Ontario recently did as well, potentially helping thousands of otherwise qualified professionals find jobs.

Once introduced, and if passed, this new legislation will mean Ontario would be the first in Canada to include provisions on Canadian experience in employment standards legislation.

There are over 900 programs offered across Ontario colleges that award an Ontario College Graduate Certificate and most are one-year programs.

This year, Ontario will nominate 16,500 immigrants for permanent residence through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) in various critical sectors such as health care and the skilled trades.

To ensure the Province is selecting the best candidates available, the government is also proposing changes that would increase the number of international students in Ontario eligible to apply to the OINP by revising eligibility requirements for hundreds of one-year college graduate certificate programs around the province.

The Province has also communicated to the federal government that Ontario should have significantly more influence in selecting the economic immigrants coming to Ontario.
“By banning Canadian work experience requirements in job postings, Ontario, through Premier Ford and Minister Piccini’s leadership, is leading the country in breaking down barriers to make it easier for internationally-trained immigrants to find meaningful work and contribute to building Ontario. This change will help support families as they start their journey in their new homes, create more vibrant communities and help ensure businesses have the talent they need,” says Michael Ford, Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

The government is also proposing changes to improve oversight and accountability of how regulated professions like accountants, architects and geoscientists use third-party organizations to assess international qualifications to ensure assessments are done in a way that is fast, transparent and fair.