I've read the Liberal platform. It flushes out the ideas on their website The Ontario Way," and adds some new ones. For me it comes down to money; there's some pretty good ideas in there. But how do you afford them?
Tuition money for middle-class families? Great idea; post-secondary schools are expensive enough. But how do you qualify "middle class?" Is it through parents' income level? Is it some kind of social definition? Or perhaps its a mixture of the two; some kind of socio-economic definition- "Parents income comes up to this level, and have more than two kids in the family."
Three post-secondary campuses promised for the Greater Toronto Area (G.T.A.). That's a great idea that would help address the problem of needed post-secondary spaces. It goes with their latest statement that a Liberal Government would decide where future campuses would go. It takes away the institution's ability to make decisions; who would know better about their own needs, than the institutions themselves? For example Laurier definitely needs a new campus- the campus at Waterloo, is tapped out for expansion.
They cover themselves when it comes to hospitals in their "Build Ontario"" document. The phrase "subject to fiscal capacity" is bandied about a lot. If they can't afford it, they won't do it. As I've increasingly blogged- that's not good enough for this community- or any other communities that have been promised hospital expansion.
Their job creation strategy leaves a lot to be desired. I understand how a $10 thousand credit for companies who hire them might benefit the economy. In theory the money is given to these companies who hire the foreign-trained workers and maybe will eventually pass on the savings to the customers, or invest in it back in their business. In reality, it's divisive and could create a really negative environment for immigrants. Speaking as a job-searcher for a moment; it's hard enough to find a job as it is for the rest of us. In my industry everyone wants experience, and yet few are willing to give you a chance at it. Imagine an engineer who gets let go after working for the same company for five years. He's got an incomparable resume; experience, management skills, sterling references. He won't get the job because he's up against a foreign-trained engineer who brings with them the $10 thousand tax credit.
What I've seen of the costing is fairly weak. Program expenditures, and interest on the debt outweigh net revenues. Even after the next four years; in t he event they a) win, and b) win with a majority the deficit will still be $7.8 billion. The full deficit won't be at 0 until 2017-2018- and that's assuming the economy continues any kind of growth.
The platform manages to mention the Progressive Conservatives, and N.DP every few pages. The Platform document isn't a place to tell me what your opponents won't do for me, it's a place to tell me what you will... I can't stand that kind of negativity.
To read the Liberal Platform for yourself click the link. Make an informed choice this provincial election.
Laura, I'm an engineer and I think the tax credit for hiring a foreign trained engineer to gain their mandatory Canadian work experience hours and assist them in offsetting the fees for educational upgrade to meet the Canadian criteria is a great idea. It gives foreign engineers and other professionals the opportunity to become licensed - on par with current programs available for Canadian educated graduates. Most jobs posted for engineers require the "P.Eng" licensed status. This requires foreign trained engineers to have a minimum 1 year Canadian experience in addition to an accumulated 3 years relevant and approved international experience - under the supervision of another Canadian licensed engineer. This is a requirement of Professional Engineers Ontario (and similar provincial self-regulating professional bodies in other provinces). With the exception of a few countries which have reciprocal agreements in education standards, most foreign engineers must upgrade their technical educational credentials. Usually with professionals language training is the least of their concerns. The process is similar in other professions including architecture. These and a few other professional fields are the areas that would most improve. And the job opportunities are out there. Do a search for engineer in Workopolis and you'll see that demand is there. We've been hiring like crazy at my office the past year, and we're not the only ones.
ReplyDeleteI'll also add that in the scenario you described the Canadian engineer with 5 year stellar experience (and a license to practice!) would have a much wider range of opportunities available to him than the immigrant applicant who is not licensed. Hence the program to assist immigrants in meeting the licencing requirements...
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather them do this than lower the licensing requirements and endanger people that may not be as technically qualified (there are many countries where a person with an "engineering" degree would only be considered a technologist here), familiar with legal and ethical aspects of the profession specific to Canada, or up to par with Canadian building codes. Same with architets. My dad teaches architecture and has been on Canadian and international accreditation boards. Many international schools of architecture are glorified art schools.
One last thing to think about is more often than not the reality of the situation is you have a freshly licensed Canadian engineer with 4 years experience applying for multiple positions and a foreign trained engineer with 7-10 years experience who won't be considered for a single interview because they don't have the one year mandatory experience working supervised under another Canadian engineer in order to obtain a license (assuming they've met all the technical education requirements). Even with the grant there are still far fewer career opportunities because a company would have to have another licensed engineer to supervise their work for the year. Basically even though they have a wealth of experience their job opportunities until they obtain that one year experience are limited to the opportunities available to a fresh faced Canadian graduate with no experience. Does that really seem fair to you?
ReplyDelete