Money given to ease way for immigrant engineers to get licence

The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers has received funding of $215,000 from the federal government to help it find ways to better assess and recognize foreign engineers’ credentials.
The Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada made the announcement about the funding at the University of Ottawa. Ms. Marie LeMay, Chief Executive Officer of CCPE, was in attendance, as was the Hon. Denis Coderre, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Minister Stewart suggested the government had decided its new immigration rules must not stand in the way of allowing professionals into the country.
“Ours is a country built on immigration,” said Stewart. “We must make it easier for talented immigrants to put their expertise to use. Improving the recognition of foreign credentials is an important step in this direction and a cornerstone of Canada’s Innovation Strategy…. HRDC is committed to working with partners like CCPE to help remove barriers faced by skilled immigrants trying to work in occupations in which they have been trained. Our common objective for this project is to ensure that foreign-trained engineers are able to fully utilize their skills as quickly as possible.”
Recently the CCPE has been concerned about losing federal funding for its activities in the immigration area. The December 10 announcement will ensure CCPE still has an active role.
A press release said that CCPE will work with the provincial associations of professional engineers to implement a project, which is being called “From Consideration to Integration.” The project will explore new models for how to quickly integrate foreign-trained engineers into the profession as licensed professionals. The first phase of the project will involve identifying challenges faced by foreign-trained engineers and summarizing the various policies and practices of the different provincial regulatory associations towards recognizing foreign credentials.
“We can’t afford to watch highly trained people lose their skills because they have to wait too long to have their credentials recognized,” said Minister Coderre. “There has been a lot of talk about brain drain, now it’s time to address brain waste.”