Minister Piccini's Visit to Newcomer Women's Services Toronto (NEW)
A Day of Progress and Breaking Down Barriers
On Thursday, November 9th, 2023, NEW was honored to host Minister of Immigration, Labour, Training, and Skills Development, David Piccini. His visit was primarily to make a special announcement on rolling out new legislation about eliminating the requirement for Canadian work experience in job postings or application forms across Ontario. This legislation, if passed, would make Ontario the first province in Canada to drive this progressive change, thereby helping internationally-trained immigrants to work in their areas of expertise. The initiative builds upon earlier historic measures that, effective December 2023, prohibit regulated professions from imposing discriminatory Canadian work experience prerequisites in licensing for over 30 occupations.
In light of this announcement, Executive Director, Sara Asalya emphasized NEW’s long-standing 40-year history of addressing inequality and forging pathways for social and economic opportunities for newcomer women and their families.
“Canadian experience continues to be one of the most prominent barriers many newcomers face in their search for meaningful employment. Introducing legislation to ban the Canadian experience requirements from job postings and ads is a big leap forward in the right direction to eliminate systemic barriers facing newcomers and to facilitate pathways to their labor market inclusion. We thank the Ministry for their continued efforts towards creating inclusive labor market legislation and practices." - says Sara Asalya
Minister David Piccini approved that removing this underlying employment hurdle is a significant first step in getting newcomer's foot in the door and filling labor shortages faced in in-demand industries.
“For far too long, too many people arriving in Canada have been funneled toward dead-end jobs they’re overqualified for. We must ensure these people can land well-paying and rewarding careers that help tackle the labour shortage. When newcomers to Ontario get a meaningful chance to contribute, everyone wins.” says Minister Piccini ontario.ca}
Additionally, a major highlight of the day included spotlighting Shanika Niwanthi, a former NEW client who graduated from the Sister2Sister Advanced Leadership Program (ALP) and got featured in CBC News. With over a decade of experience in HR in the corporate world, an MBA under her belt, and a Global Business Management degree from Seneca College, Shanika still faced deskilling, and underemployment and had to take on a survival job at Mcdonald's.
This all changed for Shanika when she joined the Sister2Sister Advanced Leadership Program (ALP). Through this program, she completed skills development training in project management and was matched to a paid job placement in her field. She was then able to secure employment as an HR Generalist and in less than a month, she was promoted to Manager of HR and payroll. This is all thanks to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration Training and Skills Development who invested $1.5 million through the Skills Development Fund to help over 230 immigrant women like Shanika build purpose-driven careers.
Today, Shanika holds the position of HR and Payroll Manager. She can provide a real and impactful perspective on the challenges faced by newcomer women, “Like many newcomers, I had to experience underemployment. My talent was going to waste and was never fully utilized. Yes, I managed to land a job, but not in HR, not in business, and not in anything even close to my professional field. I managed to get a survival job at McDonald's, pouring coffees and making sandwiches” - says Shanika
Niwanthi hailed the announcement as a significant step in eliminating systematic barriers faced by newcomers to Canada. As an immigrant-serving organization, NEW endorses the significant contributions immigrants add to the economic growth and prosperity of this country.
“The stories of resilience and success we hear from our newcomer clients every day are a testament to what immigrants can achieve when given the right tools and resources and when there are programs and policies that promote their economic inclusion and wellbeing.” says Sara Asalya
This has also been emphasized by Minister Piccini, “New Canadians bring a wealth of knowledge, skills, and ability. "We know many jobs have an important trial component to assess competency, but what we've heard far too often is that people don't even get that shot to walk in the door and have that conversation and what we're saying here is: that first hurdle, we're bashing it down.”.
Following the Media Q&A, Minister Piccini participated in an employment readiness workshop conducted by NEW’s employment services team for existing clients. The workshop activity allowed Minister Piccini to engage directly with clients and discuss their career aspirations. Afterward, he was given a grand tour of NEW’s office and workspaces, providing him with a firsthand look at the valuable and supportive resources accessible to our clients.
NEW is incredibly thrilled by this announcement and we look forward to many more policy changes that will facilitate labor market inclusion for newcomers to Canada.