Canada looks to attract tech workers from U.S. amidst layoffs

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Ottawa is trying to attract more high-skilled workers by launching a program in mid-July to allow about 10,000 H-1B visa holders in the United States to work in Canada.

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The H-1B visa allows companies in the U.S. to employ foreign workers in specialized job categories, such as in the technology sector, which has laid off at least 150,000 workers in 2023 so far, according to data from Crunchbase.

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“We have been watching very closely what’s been going on in the United States. Where we have seen a public narrative around layoffs, we have been having private conversations about opportunities,” Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said at the Collision conference, a tech event in Toronto on June 27.

Approved applicants will receive an open work permit of up to three years.

The minister also said Canada would launch its “digital nomad strategy” to allow people who work for a foreign employer to live in Canada for up to six months.

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“(They can) live in this country and should they receive a job offer while they are here, we are going to allow them to continue to stay in Canada,” he said.

Canada has recently taken several steps to tackle its labour shortage, from increasing immigration targets to changing the existing system to bring in more newcomers.

The number of job vacancies in Canada in 2022 averaged 942,000, two-and-a-half times the average of 377,000 in 2016, according to Statistics Canada.

The substantial growth in the number of job vacancies recorded during this period suggests the economy is battling a labour crunch. But Statistics Canada in a report on May 24 said “employers’ difficulties to fill job vacancies requiring high levels of education cannot, in general, be attributed to a national shortage” or local shortage of highly educated job seekers.

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The agency said vacancies may arise because of a mismatch between the skills required by employers and the skills possessed by highly educated job seekers. A labour crunch, however, has been observed for jobs requiring a high school diploma or less education since 2021.

Fraser said the country will launch a new pathway for permanent residency for workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and make it easier for people to immigrate to Canada under the Start-up Visa program, which allows newcomers to become permanent residents by starting a business that creates jobs for Canadians.

The announcements are part of Canada’s first-ever “Tech Talent Strategy,” the immigration ministry said in a statement.

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The information and communications technology sector employed nearly 720,000 workers and accounted for more than 44 per cent of all private research and development spending in Canada in 2021, the ministry said. The sector was also responsible for more than 15 per cent of Canada’s overall gross domestic product growth between 2016 and 2021.

The Business Council of Canada, an association of about 150 companies, including Microsoft Canada Inc. and Google Canada, said the federal government’s new announcements were a step in the right direction.

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“Specialized talent is needed not just in the tech sector but across the Canadian economy,” Trevor Neiman, the association’s director of digital economy, said. “The move shows that the government is changing its attitude a bit around retention. They have been more aggressive on the international stage to attract talent.”

In a separate announcement, the Ontario government said it would invest $1.3 million to train 54 women, newcomers and others from underrepresented groups for in-demand careers in the trucking sector. The province said it needs about 6,100 truck drivers to fill job vacancies.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

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