Question Period Note: Foreign Credential Recognition Program

Budget 2022 announced additional funding for the Foreign Credential Recognition Progam with a particular emphasis on supporting internationally educated health professionals.

• Through the Foreign Credential Recognition Program, the Government helps address employment barriers specific to skilled newcomers.
• The Program provides funding to support employment services, loans, and improvements to foreign credential reconigion processes to help skilled newcomers get jobs and have their foreign credentials recognized.

• Budget 2022 proposes to provide $115 million over five years, with $30 million ongoing, to expand the Foreign Credential Recognition Program and help up to 11,000 internationally trained health care professionals per year get their credentials recognized and find work in their field.

• This new funding will help alleviate Canada’s health human resource crisis by supporting the integration of internationally educated health care professionals into the Canadian labour market.

The Foreign Credential Recognition Program (FCRP) supports the labour market integration of skilled newcomers by funding P/Ts, regulatory authorities and organizations to:
• Enhance foreign credential recognition (FCR) processes by funding projects to standardize national exams, centralize information portals, and provide alternative assessment processes.
• Provide loans and support services to help skilled newcomers navigate FCR processes.
• Provide employment supports such as training, work placements, wage subsidies, mentoring and coaching to help skilled newcomers gain Canadian work experience in their field of study and fully use their talent.

FCR and licensing for regulated occupations (e.g.nurses) is a P/T responsibility, and in most cases they further delegate that authority in legislation to regulatory authorities. Within Canada, there are more than 600 regulators overseeing more than 150 regulated occupations. The FCRP will continue to collaborate with P/Ts, regulatory authorites and other organizations to support the labour market integration of skilled newcomers.

Since 2009, the annual FCRP budget has remained at $27.1 million. The 2020 Fall Economic Statement announced additional funding of $15 million for 2021-2022. The new investment announced in Budget 2022 will help the Program to scale up and expand supports to newcomers, with a particular emphasis on the integration of internationally educated health care professionals to support efforts to alleviate Canada’s health human resource crisis.

Since 2015, the FCRP has invested nearly $125M in 90 projects to support skilled newcomers. The program is currently investing over $22M in 20 projects focusing on the labour market integration of internationally educated health professionals. Additionally, as of March 2022, nearly $15M in FCR loans have been issued—two thirds of the borrowers were in the health sector.

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