One month into the new year, it’s clear that economic growth in many of the OECD member countries — including Canada — has stalled. The Canadian economy has been sideswiped by declining demand for oil and other commodities and a corresponding drop in prices.

There’s a strong consensus today that the key to future growth is in building knowledge-based economies that can produce innovative products and services. To achieve that goal, we need a skilled workforce — particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These skills are in short supply the world over, and Canada lags other countries in graduating students in these disciplines.

An OECD study on skills released in 2013 reported that Canada’s literacy rate for 16-24 year olds is below the average of other OECD member countries. If Canada is to continue to transform to a knowledge-based economy, we’ve got work to do.

A report published recently by the Wall Street Journal says the developed world’s workforce will start to shrink in 2016. For the first time since 1950 the working age population will be in decline while the population over age 65 will increase dramatically. Highly skilled workers will be in high demand the world over.

The impact of a rapidly aging workforce here in Canada will be significant. To put this into perspective, consider that in 2010 the ratio of working age people (age 15-64) to retirees in Canada was almost four (3.96) to one. By 2021 that ratio is expected to decline to 2.90 to one, and then to 2.16 to one by 2031.

As the working age population declines, the skills gap is expected to grow. A report published earlier in 2015 by Miner Management Consultants projects a shortage of workers in Canada of about 1.75 million by 2026, comprised of a shortage of about 2 million skilled workers and a surplus of 257,000 unskilled workers.

Even with the job losses in Western Canada over the past year, strains are starting to appear in high-skill industries. According to Statistics Canada, employment in professional, scientific and technical services increased by almost 70,000 jobs (+5.2 per cent) in the past year.

A report from the Information Communications Technology Council projects that Canadian businesses will have to fill as many as 182,000 highly skilled positions in information technology by 2019. The government of British Columbia projects that by 2019 the province will have over a million job openings, and over three-quarters of those will require a college diploma, trade certificate, university degree or higher.

While skills training and education are the most obvious solutions, economic immigration and labour mobility are not to be overlooked. Canada will be competing with many other nations for a share of the dwindling supply of highly skilled workers. We need an immigration system that will draw international talent to our shores — not put barriers in their way that will favour other countries as a place to call home.

As Canada ratifies agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the EU, business leaders and skilled workers with global credentials and experience will be in high demand. We’ll need to rely more on international mobility programs in the years ahead.

The Liberal party’s election platform had this to say about it: “With Canada’s aging population, having a robust, effective, and efficient immigration system is critical to our long-term economic growth.” This signals a strong acknowledgement of the importance of immigration.

Many highly skilled workers and post graduate students face the risk of their work permit expiring before their application under the Express Entry program is processed, which is a net loss to Canada. Many highly skilled workers and post graduate students face the risk of their work permit expiring before their application under the Express Entry program is processed, which is a net loss to Canada.

Unfortunately, when it comes to recruiting highly skilled international talent, the current immigration system is failing employers. Many of those failures can be laid squarely at the feet of the previous government, which implemented policies that made it far more difficult for employers to access global talent.

To gauge the impact of those changes on employers, the Canadian Employee Relocation Council (CERC) recently conducted a survey of organizations that access Canada’s immigration programs for high-skill workers. Results identified many negative outcomes, including: the movement of work and jobs to other countries; the loss of international talent to other countries due to delays in processing applications, and; difficulties in securing work authorizations. The changes are also negatively affecting business planning and have disrupted plans to hire skilled workers from overseas for the majority of the companies in the survey, resulting in project delays and cancellations.

More than two-thirds of employers in the survey identified ambiguous and ongoing changes to immigration rules as the top challenges when transferring employees into Canada. Three-quarters of employers reported they don’t have access to the program information, and 77 per cent reported inconsistencies in decision making from the government departments that manage the programs.

The survey also highlighted problems with the new Express Entry application system, which was expected to bring major improvements to the programs. Under Express Entry, applicants get points for education, age, work experience and their skills in English and French. If an applicant’s points are over the minimum score set by the government, they’re invited in. Employers report that the rules currently being employed to manage the system are in fact a bar to many of the highly-skilled and internationally experienced workers employers will need for the foreseeable future. While on paper the system makes great sense, it’s inflexible in some areas and does not meet the realities and demands of the modern business world.

A prime example of that inflexibility is related to age. Workers aged 45 years or older, with extensive international work experience, have a limited chance of being selected under the new system. In-demand senior managers and executives are typically above this age threshold and may not accumulate sufficient points to qualify.

Graduate students are also affected by the new system, and while they may score well in terms of age, language and education, they all too often don’t possess the work experience needed to qualify under Express Entry.

Delays in processing, together with time limits on the length of the work permit, also create uncertainty for employers. As a consequence, many highly skilled workers and post graduate students face the risk of their work permit expiring before their application under the Express Entry program is processed, which is a net loss to Canada.

In the CERC survey just 20 per cent of companies said they were satisfied with the Express Entry system, which has been in operation for almost a year.

Employers also singled out the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process as a major irritant. The LMIA process is a test intended to ensure that there are no Canadians available to do the jobs for which foreign nationals are being recruited. For the most part that makes sense, and Canadian firms will look to the domestic labour market first — but the reality is that highly skilled executives, professionals, professors and IT workers are in short supply in Canada and around the world. In many cases the LMIA will be for a foreign national holding a senior executive position with the firm. Employers need flexibility to retain those executives and expedite permanent residency applications.

A further irritant is that as part of the LMIA process, the employer making the application must post the position on the Canada Job Bank. The posting must include salary and other job related information. In normal circumstances such searches are carried out in confidence and often by third party recruitment companies, yet there are no allowances for these type of conditions in the LMIA process. Requiring employers to post jobs on public job boards has the potential to send negative signals to investors, staff and other stakeholders.

There are several immediate and practical measures that can be taken to improve the current systems — and the CERC has provided the new government with a 13 point plan that can be implemented without the need to pass legislation.

Among its recommendations, CERC is proposing a trusted employer program that would permit accredited employers to expedite applications in the system; this would emulate successful models currently in use in the U.K., Ireland and Australia. Other measures include an expedited application stream for highly skilled workers and those in rapid growth industries; implementation of bridge work permits; a move to relax age limits for senior executives and high skilled staff, and; a bridge to bring graduate students into permanent residency. Training of government officers and decision makers is also recommended as a key solution to improving consistency and predictability of the system, which are perennial complaints of employers.

The business community is hopeful that the new Liberal government will take a more balanced and pragmatic approach to Canada’s economic immigration programs for high skilled workers and implement these recommendations.

Stephen Cryne is the president and CEO of the Canadian Employee Relocation Council and is located in Toronto.

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