Episode Description
In this episode, I'm speaking with George Carothers, the Senior Director, Ideas and Insights, at the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), about the Ready to Contribute report and how we got to the point where we have 640,000 degree-holding immigrants who are overqualified for the work they do.
We complain about the healthcare system and the long wait times, but we've got thousands of doctors and nurses who've been waiting on the sidelines for years. The ICC's Ready to Contribute report proposes a Fair Licensing Act to set federal standards that shift the burden from endless exams to practical assessments.
George and I chat about that and:
Why "that's provincial jurisdiction" has been the longest-running excuse in Canadian policy
What Nova Scotia's PACE program gets right that the rest of the country hasn't copied
Why Canada's small-c conservatism keeps credential reform stuck in decades-old loops
What the Fair Licensing Act would cost, and what the cost of doing nothing looks like
Dozie's Notes
A few things that stuck with me as I listened through this week's conversation:
Irrational dedication is a good way to describe how George and the folks are approaching the credentialing conundrum. And we need more of that across various issues in Canada. They know regulators will push back. They know the timeline is five to ten years at best. They put it out anyway because, in George's words, "it's not sufficient to take that criticism and say, all right, I'll take it back to the drawing board and come back to you in 10 years."
We talk about immigration and credential recognition as if they're newcomer issues. But they're Canadian issues. The 80-year-old in a long-term care home who can't get a PSW doesn't care whether their caregiver is trained in the Philippines or in Ontario. They just need someone to show up.
I find the Fair Licensing Act proposal interesting because it skips the well-used approach of asking the provinces nicely. It dangles a juicy, plump carrot in front of them. The provinces can always say no, but there's a cost to making that decision.
✅ Connect with George Carothers on LinkedIn
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One Ask
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Timestamps
0:00 640,000 qualified immigrants who can't work in their field
0:55 Intro
1:53 Two stories happening at the same time in Canada
5:15 Why this problem goes back to the 1960s
9:28 Cooperative federalism and Canada's risk-averse culture
15:49 Cluster economics and the nation-building moment
23:29 Voluntary compliance has failed
24:35 Self-governing regulators as gatekeepers
28:47 The Fair Licensing Act explained
33:04 Public and government reception to the proposal
38:07 Where the money comes from
42:14 Bold proposals and the cost of doing nothing
45:51 Nova Scotia's PACE program
54:23 Provincial laws vs. federal money
57:18 The five-to-ten-year timeline
1:00:20 Book of questions