Loraine Centeno Waterloo Chronicle Thursday, February 16, 2023
The cancellation of classes for students in a medically fragile class at a Kitchener school is just one among dozens of establishments that have been forced to close due to staff shortages.
These underpin the issue that the most recent job vacancy report for the last quarter of 2022 showed. Canada is still facing a massive labour shortage with more than 900,000 vacant positions to fill across different sectors. This is felt in industries like health care, technology, and construction, among many others.
The manufacturing sector for instance reportedly lost almost $13 billion according to the 2022 Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters CME report. Almost two thirds of businesses surveyed reported having to turn down contracts due to the shortage of workers.
As the country faces record retirements from an aging labour force according to Statistics Canada, the best course of action according to the government is to attract international talent to fill these labour gaps immediately.
While this seems to be the most logical and feasible solution, what’s missing in these conversations is checking if local communities create an atmosphere where international talent can thrive.
What we have to understand is that these are people, not just numbers. They’re human beings, not parts like screws we plug into slots to make a machine work.
Some people especially those with in demand skills will have to consider how they are going to be treated in a community before deciding to move there. They have the option to pick the places where they will build their lives and practice their profession
HOW IS RACISM OVER THERE?
It’s a question people from outside Canada often reach out to me to ask. The most recent was from a former neighbour whose sibling, a nurse, was getting ready to move to Canada.
This topic was also brought up in a separate conversation with our family's doctor. He along with his wife, who’s also a physician moved to Canada a few years ago. He told me and my husband his immigration journey and talked of how he considered moving to a different country but heard that “racism is pretty bad over there” so they decided not to go.
You see, among many other things, some immigrants consider this as well.
How are we going to be treated there?
Remember that most have children who will go to school and loved ones who will have to integrate in these communities. So, if they see that they may not be treated with dignity and respect they may not take their valuable services there.
And if we are talking of people with in-demand skills in the midst of a shortage felt not just in Canada but in countries like the US and Australia, know that these people have a choice. They can choose not to take their skills if they feel that immigrants and people of colour are not welcome
People would think twice before moving to a place where front-liners are getting spat at and called racial slurs in emergency rooms, where people hang inflatable dolls off highway overpass with racist messages, where families are killed for practising their culture.
People need to stop saying “Go back to where you came from, we don’t need you here” because we do. The long lines inside emergency rooms and week's long wait times to see a doctor say we need them.
Sure there’s always the option to train local talent, but it takes years to become a nurse, a software developer, a tradesman, a doctor. And we need these people now ... right now.
HAVING DEI INITIATIVES IS A WAY TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN INTERNATIONAL TALENT
This is the time when we consider our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, because these are not just some “woke agenda.” This is how you make sure you attract the global talent you need. This is how you make sure that they stay. Because the next challenge after attracting them is retaining them. Otherwise they will simply leave then we’ll be left with the same problem with shortages all over again.
People who insist on being xenophobic even if they don't want to admit it, those who don’t want to do anything about the hostile environment and unfriendly atmosphere toward newcomers, better start training to be a doctor, a nurse, a software developer, and all the other people we need.
Otherwise get used to waiting hours in the emergency rooms, waiting weeks to see a doctor, and seeing establishments closing, because the international talent who can help us with our problems may not want to come. And if we somehow convince them into coming without making our communities welcoming, some of them might choose not to stay.