Ontario Introducing Legislation to Ban Employers From Asking for Canadian Work Experience

People enjoy the view of the CN Tower and the Toronto skyline from the Toronto Islands on Lake Ontario, on Sept. 14, 2023. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Ontario has announced plans to introduce legislation next week that would ban employers from requiring Canadian work experience in job postings or application forms.

If the legislation is made law, it would help qualified candidates to progress in the interview process while also easing the provincial immigration eligibility enabling international graduates from one-year college programs to qualify for permanent residence.

The proposed changes, if approved, will take effect next year. The move follows unprecedented legislation, which comes into effect Dec. 1, to prohibit more than 30 occupational and professional licensing bodies from using Canadian work experience requirements in licensing.

The province said in a Nov. 9 press release that helping internationally-trained newcomers work in the professions they studied for could increase Ontario’s GDP by as much as $100 billion in the next five years.

Ontario Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development David Piccini said the legislation will improve labour shortages across the province.

“For far too long, too many people arriving in Canada have been funnelled toward dead-end jobs they’re overqualified for,” Mr. Piccini said. “When newcomers to Ontario get a meaningful chance to contribute, everyone wins.”

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), which screens and selects prospective permanent residents with skills in high-demand fields such as health care and skilled trades, will also change under the legislation.

This year, OINP has a nomination quota of 16,500, but the government hopes to increase that number to more than 18,000 by 2025, the press release said. To make that possible, the province will revise its eligibility requirements so international students who finish a one-year college graduate certificate program can also qualify.

Changing the requirements will help the province hang on to international students with undergraduate degrees who choose to upgrade their education in Ontario.

Over-Qualification Issues

Over-qualification among immigrants has long been an issue in Canada. A 2022 Statistics Canada report found that immigrants with a foreign degree are twice as likely to be overqualified as those with a Canadian degree.

Nearly 26 percent of those who worked in Canada after obtaining an international education were overqualified for their job.

A 2020 StatCan study found that immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher were twice as likely as people born in Canada to have a job that only required a high school education. This is particularly true in the health sector.

The study found that “25 percent of immigrants who were working as nurse aides, orderlies or patient service associates had at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with five percent of non-immigrants.”

The report said country of origin was a major deciding factor for job eligibility.

Over-qualification was an issue for less than four percent of those who earned their degree in Canada, according to the report. It also wasn’t a big issue for those who were educated in Oceania, the United States, and Northern and Western Europe, with over-qualification rates hovering between four and six percent.

Those who earned their degree in Southeast Asia, South Asia, or the Caribbean and Bermuda had much higher over-qualification rates at 20 percent, 18 percent, and 12 percent respectively.

Citizenship and Multiculturalism Minister Michael Ford said these are exactly the types of problems the new legislation would solve.

“By banning Canadian work experience requirements in job postings, Ontario ... 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,” he said.

“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.”