The federal government and the provinces are unveiling a major agreement on Monday to help foreign-trained professionals get their credentials recognized in Canada.

By next December, the federal and provincial governments will have a system in place to start recognizing international credentials in eight occupations, including architects, registered nurses, engineers, financial auditors and accountants, medical laboratory technologists, occupational therapists, pharmacists and physiotherapists.

Within three years, another six occupations will be added to that list, including physicians, teachers of kindergarten to Grade 12, dentists, engineering technicians, licensed practical nurses and medical radiation technologists.

Ottawa is billing the pact as an important new step for improving the employment prospects of professionals educated abroad, who are forced to work in low-skill jobs because their training isn’t recognized here.

“We’ve long recognized the importance of this and we’re pleased that the provinces have stepped up to get this agreement,” said a Conservative government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley is to make the announcement in Toronto on Monday, along with several representatives from the provinces.

It has been called the doctors-driving-cabs problem and one that has dogged this Conservative government and its Liberal predecessors. Immigrants, an increasingly important constituency, have been vocal in their frustration at the labyrinth of bureaucracy and rules they need to navigate to have their professional training recognized in Canada.

Adding to the problem is the fact that all provinces have their own systems for professional recognition.

Statistics Canada has estimated that six in 10 newcomers end up working in different fields than the ones in which they worked abroad.

The agreement is the result of a first ministers’ meeting last January, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premiers announced they would come forward by this fall with a plan for “concerted action to provide timely assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications.”

About $50 million was set aside over two years by Ottawa in its 2009 budget to move that plan forward. Provinces will kick in to the plan as well.

Monday’s announcement is called the “pan-Canadian framework for the assessment and recognition of foreign credentials” and comes a couple of months after the deadline of September, 2009, set by the first ministers to reach an agreement.

In a background document obtained by the Star in advance of Monday’s announcement, the government explains that the goal of framework agreement “is to articulate a new joint national vision, guiding principles and desired outcomes for improving the assessment and recognition of newcomers’ qualifications.”

Studies have estimated the failure to recognize international credentials of potential workers costs the Canadian economy $2.4 billion to $15 billion a year.

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When Panita Chumchantha decided to tie the knot this past September, she wanted her Thai roots represented at her Canadian wedding.

The 31-year-old, who was adopted by a Canadian family years ago, longed to have her biological sister fly over from Thailand for her special day. But the wish went unfulfilled: her sister was denied a visitor visa by Canadian officials in Bangkok.

“They just said she was not a member of my family anymore,” Chumchantha said. “I just wanted her to come for my ceremony, and then they refused it.”

Shocked and frustrated, Chumchantha and her fiance pressed on with the wedding despite the bride’s Thai side being noticeably absent. “I’m really upset about it,” she said. “It’s just one day in my life.”

Such emotional anecdotes are why NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow is pushing Ottawa to put in place an appeals process for those who feel wronged by Canada’s visitor visa system.

“There’s a lot of unfair stories,” said Chow, the MP for the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, who has heard countless tales of family members unable to attend weddings, funerals or births in Canada because a temporary resident visa, or visitor visa, was denied, with no opportunity for recourse.

“For families that cannot come together for those special moments, I think that’s exceedingly cruel.”

Figures from Citizenship and Immigration Canada show about 200,000 applications for temporary resident visas are turned down every year, but there’s no mechanism in place to allow applicants to appeal those decisions – something Chow said she considers an injustice.

She has asked the House of Commons committee on citizenship and immigration to study the issue, and has a private member’s bill in the works which, if passed, would establish an appeals process. She also plans to “continue to apply the pressure on (Citizenship and Immigration Minister) Jason Kenney.”

That push, however, comes at a time when the federal government is aggressively tightening up its refugee system and restricting the number of people seeking asylum in Canada after using temporary visas to enter the country.

“It’s more than just the visitors visa, I think,” said Jeffrey Reitz, a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in immigration studies.

A proposal like Chow’s, it could be argued, has the potential to open the door to more refugee claims, which may be made once a temporary visa holder lands on Canadian soil, he said.

“It makes sense to me that this should be put forward,” Reitz said. “I don’t know what chance it has of succeeding.”

Would-be refugees whose visa applications are turned down have little recourse beyond resubmitting their application or seeking leave from the Federal Court of Canada for a judicial review – a costly and time-consuming process that few have the means to pursue.

In July, Ottawa imposed visa requirements on Mexico in response to a surge in the number of Mexican immigrants claiming refugee status on Canadian soil, which had nearly tripled since 2005. Similar restrictions were also imposed on travellers from the Czech Republic.

At the time, Kenney said more than half the Czech claims were being prematurely abandoned or withdrawn – an indication that many may be making false claims – while only 11 per cent of Mexican claims processed in 2008 were accepted.

The surge in the latter is attributed in part to a bloody drug war that has been raging for years in Mexico.

Canadians wishing to express their support for Chow’s campaign have been doing so by way of Facebook, logging on to the social networking site and urging Ottawa to take action in a group called “Calling for Visitor Visa Fairness.”

Each application is judged on its own merits, said Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokesman Nicolas Fortier. “The onus is really on the applicant to satisfy the visa officer that they’re coming to Canada for temporary purposes.”

Kenney refused to discuss Chow’s proposal for the purposes of this story, but when asked about it during committee hearings last month, he indicated that he’s confident in the ability of those who evaluate visa applications to make accurate assessments.

“People sometimes have a hard time understanding the decisions of visa officers,” he said, “but they often don’t know the particulars of the case in hand.”

Anyone who pays the $75 fee to apply for a visitor visa is entitled to know why they are being turned down, and to appeal the decision, Chow said.

Geography seemed to make a difference, she added. European countries, for instance, have a visitor visa approval rate of about 84 per cent, compared with just 43 per cent for the north Indian city of Chandigarh.

“The refusal rate is very, very uneven.”

Kenney, on the other hand, has insisted repeatedly that no geographic bias exists at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Instead, he said, high levels of fraud and unscrupulous consultants recommending ways to sneak into the country drive down visa approval rates in certain areas.

Chow’s proposed appeals system would be modelled after systems that exist in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the U.K., applicants can appeal to an independent judicial body at no charge and have their case processed in 28 days.

Chow is also calling for a more transparent process that would require the ministry to provide detailed reasons when visitor visas are rejected.

It all sounds good, but would likely pose some practical challenges to a system that’s already heavily burdened with applications, experts say.

“It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do this, but it would require a significant increase in resources,” said Christopher Worswick, a professor who studies immigration issues at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Worswick recommended an appeal fee that could be refunded if an applicant won their case.

An appeals process would also send the message to officials in embassies overseas that there is an oversight mechanism in place, thus addressing concerns applicants have brought up about biased visa officers operating in certain countries, he added.

“There should be a way to construct a system that’s fair.”

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Single mom Hong Zhang’s dream came true last week as she was made a permanent resident of Canada after an emotional six-year battle fighting China’s one-child policy.

An ecstatic Zhang, 41, and daughter Sherry, 4, were given a letter saying they were accepted as immigrants in a landmark case in which she claimed to face huge fines and stigmatization if deported to China, where it illegal to have children out of wedlock.

“I am so excited by the good news,” Zhang said after a hearing at a Watline Ave. immigration office, in Mississauga. “It has been a long and difficult time for Sherry and me.”

The decision will open the door for other women in the same situation, who can’t return to China or other countries, her counsel and immigration officials said.

Zhang, a labourer, plans to take out citizenship in two years and obtain documents to take Sherry to China to visit her grandparents.
“I want to give my daughter a good future in Canada,” she said. “I plan on going to school to take courses to updgrade myself.”

Zhang came to Canada in 1997 and filed an unsuccessful refugee claim. During that time she gave birth to Sherry. Her consultant Roy Kellogg said other women will seek refuge in Canada after hearing of Zhang’s plight.

“Its totally illegal and wrong to send a Canadian child to China,” Kellogg said yesterday. “We have 11 similar cases being processed at this time.”

He said deported single mothers face a fine of about $140,000 a child when they return to China with children. They do not receive health coverage or allowed to attend school or obtain Chinese citizenship.

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Now that Toronto has won its bid to host the Pan Am Games in 2015, it’s time for the city’s arts leaders to seize a rare opportunity. Athletics may be at its core, but this event can be about much more. It can be the occasion for a cultural explosion.

No one is more aware of this than David Peterson, the former Ontario premier who was chair of Toronto’s bid committee.

“The value of Pan Am is what you make it,” Peterson pronounced Tuesday in an interview about how a sporting event can be turned into a bonanza for culture. “Just having a few guys running around in a circle is not much use. We can get a lot more out of this in addition to the physical legacies of new pools and housing.”

The way Peterson perceives it, this is a way to celebrate the culture of the western hemisphere.

“I have a strong vision, and we have already engaged in discussions with some of our existing cultural institutions about the role they can play.”

At Peterson’s request, Luminato CEO Janice Price convened a round table of prominent arts insiders to brainstorm about creative ways to highlight Toronto’s cultural strengths in its bid presentation.

A particularly effective part of the presentation was a film called Share the Dream.

That film, by the ubiquitous arts marketing guru Barry Avrich, depicted athletes in three countries preparing for and dreaming of the 2015 games in Toronto.

Among the topics up for discussion at the round table were suggestions for what might be included in the opening and closing ceremonies.

“I am particularly pleased that culture was such an important part of the Toronto bid,” Price said Tuesday. “The opportunity to showcase our artists and cultural facilities can only strengthen the legacy the Pan Am Games will provide to Toronto.” However, we need to remember that during the two weeks in July that the Games are on, culture will play a secondary role to sporting events, except perhaps in the opening and closing ceremonies.

“During those two weeks it would be crazy for artists to compete with athletes for attention,” Peterson said. “Where the great opportunity for the arts comes in is in the year leading up to the Games. During that year we should be doing everything we can to celebrate the 42 countries in this hemisphere.”

That’s a perfect goal for Toronto, which leads the world in creating a lively multicultural urban centre.

Peterson made clear it would be a mistake to create a new bureaucracy for showcasing the arts in the year leading up to the Games.

“We already have a number of big, capable cultural institutions. They need to come up with imaginative events that tie in with the Games, focusing on the culture and history of the Americas and taking advantage of the chance to co-brand those events with the Pan Am Games.”

The Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, various theatre companies, the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada are all potential partners, as long as they come up with projects that tie in with the Games and the culture of the western hemisphere.

Matthew Teitelbaum, chief executive officer of the AGO, is enthusiastic about such a partnership. “The Pan American Games is an extraordinary opportunity for the AGO and all cultural institutions to engage with diverse communities, bring people together, to inspire and be inspired by civic pride,” he said Tuesday.

And Caribana chair Joe Haltead is eager to link that event with the games in 2015.

“We will engage everyone with what they’re good at,” Peterson said. “We might call (Piers Handling, co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival) and say, `Piers, how can we work together?'”

But how would it all be coordinated?

“Luminato might be able to manage a lot of it,” Peterson said. “The festival could be extended.”

The CEO of the annual June arts festival is cautiously receptive. “We have experience in coordinating projects with various cultural organizations,” Price said, “and of course we want to help our arts partners make the most of this opportunity.”

Practically speaking, however, Games organizers must realize that the feasibility of these grand visions will depend on how much money can be allocated to develop extra cultural projects.

And if Games-related arts events are to roll out for an entire year leading up to July 2015, then Toronto’s Pan Am Games leadership will have to recruit a cultural commissioner with the powers of a wizard.

Let the search begin.

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