Tapping the skills of new citizens

Toronto Star
May 28, 2009

Alan Rego
Toronto

Re: World-beating bureaucrats, Opinion May 23

It is heartening to know that our federal and provincial civil servants are among the best in the world at delivering services.

Since about half of new immigrants settle in Ontario, one of the top priorities for our province is to find quick and effective solutions to the challenge of using the skills of foreign-trained new Canadians in the workplace. Think what a difference these skills would make to our health sector if our foreign-trained doctors, nurses and related professionals were productively used.

Imagine how Canada’s trade can be diversified if the marketing and trade professionals from various countries could use their connections to boost bilateral business. And, I dare say that once foreign-trained professionals get into the bureaucracy, we could see even higher standards.

The task before us is to entrust this priority to some of the highly rated bureaucrats referred to in the article.

Reference: Toronto Star