December 20th, 2006

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Canada
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Canada Needs the World’s Actors

I recently read an article in the Georgia Straight about guest workers, immigrants and a new policy implemented by Human Resources and Social Development Canada. There’s a new list called “Regional Occupations Under Pressure List”. From the HRSDC website:

In some regions, and depending on the circumstances/time, labour market information may indicate that the demand for labour in certain specific occupations is greater than the available supply. To meet the pressing human resource needs of employers, Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) and Service Canada (SC) have developed Regional Lists of Occupations under Pressure. For occupations found on these lists, employers will not be required to undertake lengthy or comprehensive advertising efforts before being eligible to apply to hire a foreign worker.

Looking at the list for BC (PDF), there are plenty of technical, engineering and medical professions that you’d expect to find. However, there are a number of jobs whose inclusion is more dubious. These include:

  • Musicians and singers
  • Dancers
  • Actors and comedians
  • Painters, sculptors and other visual artists
  • Photographers
  • Announcers and other broadcasters
  • Athletes
  • Real estate agents and salespersons

Really? Is there a national shortage of comedians? I haven’t attended an audition in a few years (as a producer or designer, not, God forbid, as an actor), but I think I’d have heard from friends if the ratio of apsiring actors to parts had changed.

The one that really gets me are real estate agents. In Vancouver, they’re apparently keeping the entire advertising industry afloat. You can’t look at a bus without spotting one or more generic, smiling faces framed against a cityscape. Is there a shortfall elsewhere? It’s a pretty easy profession to get into, so I suspect not.

I tried to call the numbers on the press release to ask, but I was rapidly shunted over to Service Canada, which was no help at all. I wonder what I need to do to have enough media clout to actually talk to someone at the mininster’s office?

Comments: 6 Responses so far

brem
December 20th, 2006
11:06 am

yeah, this list is quite odd.

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alexis
December 20th, 2006
11:45 am

Your link isn’t the complete list. It goes to some sort of overview paper.

[Reply]

alexis
December 20th, 2006
11:48 am

Okay, my third and final comment.

Seeing “editors” and “communications professionals” as needed occupations on the BC list make me want to cry.

[Reply]

alexis
December 20th, 2006
11:49 am

Ugh. It didn’t print my first comment. It was about how there are many qualified dancers here looking for work and who are underemployed.

I think this list is some sort of blanket statement so that people can hire international artists and athletes.

[Reply]

darren
December 20th, 2006
11:53 am

Thanks for that. Link fixed, and sorry it ate your post.

[Reply]

Andrea Coutu
December 20th, 2006
10:20 pm

A few years ago, I wrote a coverpage article for a magazine. It was on the supposed shortage of skilled IT workers. I discovered that there was not a shortage of qualified workers. It was that there was a shortage of employers willing to pay market value for those workers. Many of these industry lobby groups came up with the skills shortage so that they could hire people for peanuts. I haven’t got my article in front of me, but there were major university studies that showed that it all came down to trying to avoid the supply and demand curve.

I suspect it is much the same for occupations on this latest list. Employers do not want to pay Canadian dancers $12 an hour when they could hire someone from overseas for $8.

There’s always a shortage of nannies, too, according to many lists. Is it really that people don’t want to be nannies? Or is it that people want childcare for $5-12 an hour, not for $25 or $40, which would be more in line with the skills needed to properly care for a child?

[Reply]

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