Opinion: Alberta now has opportunity to build useful immigration program

The next time the Alberta government has a spare $130 million to spend on a high-visibility program, it should consider spending it on rebuilding our province’s immigration program from the ground up.

While Monday’s referendum settled one important question, it provided somewhat tepid support for the Smith government to do something on the immigration file. For better or worse, the government has an opportunity to redesign our immigration programs in ways that actually meet the needs of our labour market and better serve the immigrants who come to Alberta.

Now that the people have spoken, let’s focus on connecting immigrants to meaningful jobs.

My parents were immigrants who settled in Calgary. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, I was a senior immigration official here in Calgary (I was the supervisor of the enforcement unit at the immigration centre, and I was the guy in charge of deportations. I like to think we were more Barney Miller than ICE).

I then worked as an immigration consultant for 25 years and served on the board of an immigrant settlement agency. Much of my life has been spent working with immigrants in Alberta.

My main takeaway as I reflect on my experience and the thousands of people I’ve connected with is that one’s job really matters. It can provide security, status and, above all, acceptance into a new community.

Where immigration programs fail is when there are no meaningful jobs for new immigrants, or there are barriers to entry related to file processing times or credential recognition. I know people in Alberta who are forced to work in a low-skill, low-wage job because the immigration rules confine them to work for one employer until they become permanent residents.

The loss of productivity from immigrants who cannot work at the level of their education and experience is in the billions of dollars. It’s bad for our economy and it’s sad for the immigrant who eventually leaves Canada discouraged because they couldn’t find a job.

The Alberta government now has an opportunity to ensure that immigrants it selects find meaningful employment. Premier Danielle Smith’s government is asking for more control over federal programs that affect our province. But credential recognition and education are provincial areas of jurisdiction, and it’s one thing that Alberta should get right as it seeks more power over immigration.

Another challenge will be to recognize the effect of artificial intelligence on the labour market. Many jobs will disappear through the growth of AI in our lives. That gives us an opportunity to focus on choosing skilled workers whose jobs can’t be done by a bot.

Caregivers, nurses, construction trades, workers in agriculture — these are all jobs that require a skilled set of hands, training and experience. We should be building a program that prioritizes these types of jobs, then get out of their way by reducing their barriers to entering the workforce.

Let’s take the next $130 million and invest in an immigration program that can pay dividends for generations to come.

Herman Van Reekum worked in immigration for 30 years.