It’s now easier for internationally trained engineers to be licensed to work in Ontario.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton says the province’s regulator for professional engineers has dropped the requirement of Canadian work experience for a license and will help fill roughly seven-thousand vacant positions.
After introducing legislation that banned regulated professions from requiring Canadian work experience in more than 30 occupations, Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) are the first association to remove it from their application criteria.
“Each year, up to 60 per cent of the engineering licence applications that PEO receives are from internationally trained engineers,” said Roydon Fraser, President of PEO.
“By no longer requiring proof of Canadian experience when applying for an engineering licence, PEO will effectively ensure that qualified, international applicants can be licensed more quickly, so they can actively contribute to the economy as engineers. PEO will continue to ensure all professional engineers meet rigorous qualifications for licensing and that only properly qualified individuals practice engineering through a competency-based assessment model and other methods for evaluation.”
Ontario is the first province in Canada to ban unfair or discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements to help newcomers work in the professions they trained for. In December 2023, all unfair requirements for Canadian experience will be automatically voided unless an exemption is granted by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development for public health and safety.
Written by: K. Freeman with files from the Canadian Press
