Come One, Come All

The provincial engineering regulatory body in Ontario, PEO, proposed last year to drop a long-standing requirement for the licensing of professional engineers. The requirement was that all PEs be either Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. The purpose of this change is to allow internationally trained engineers a smoother path integrating into the Ontario workforce. That recommendation was accepted by the provincial government and was recently passed into law.

Under the old rules, foreign engineers had to apply for immigration to Canada first before they can apply for licensure. Licensing takes a long time, which means these new immigrants were sitting at home unemployed. The new rules allows potential immigrants to obtain licensing first, meaning they can look for jobs the day they arrive, or perhaps even before.

Will foreign licensing reduce the number of engineering immigrants that end up driving taxis? That remains to be seen. But hopefully, advanced licensing will give potential engineering immigrants an earlier look at the job market here to see if it's really worth pulling up their roots to come to Canada.