Mark My Words — 177,800 reasons to be firing on all cylinders

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/12/2016 (3389 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If it weren’t for immigration, Manitoba would be in decline. In 2015, the population of Manitoba grew by approximately 10,000 people. In that same year, we had nearly 15,000 people immigrate to Canada in Manitoba, while we had a net loss of nearly 5,000 Manitobans to other provinces.

My hometown in Nova Scotia has been losing 1,000 people a year every year since I was born. That comes with numerous challenges, not the least of which was having to close 15 schools this past year. So I appreciate living in a province and city that continues to grow. While our present fiscal pressures find us struggling to keep up with the requirements for new schools and expanded college facilities, this is a much better challenge to face than decline.

Manitoba has long been the leader in immigration among small provinces, and last week the province announced that changes will be made to the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program with an eye to facilitating even higher numbers of newcomers to Canada.

One of the drivers for the need to increase our immigration levels is to meet labour market needs. Forecasts predict that there will be 177,800 job openings in Manitoba between now and 2021. At least one-quarter of those projected job openings (more than 45,000) are expected to be filled by immigrants.

The strategy seeks to reduce the backlog of people waiting to come to Manitoba while creating a stronger alignment between the opportunities that exist in the province and the skills of the people that want to come here. That sounds a lot like our college’s desire to help address our wait lists of students wanting to get into high-demand programs while making sure those programs have graduates that are likely to secure jobs in Manitoba’s labour market.

Manitoba’s immigration strategy is critical to creating a growth strategy for our province. Growing and diversifying our economic base needs to be a central tenet in our strategy for fiscal balance and improving our quality of life. While expenditure containment is getting most of the airplay for restoring fiscal balance, growth merits equal consideration as part of the way to address our current shortfalls.

Sometimes we have seen enhanced immigration efforts positioned as an alternative to homegrown development options, particularly development of the indigenous population. From my perspective, if we are to find ways to fill those 177,800 jobs, we are going to need to have all of our labour market development strategies firing on all cylinders. This includes improving opportunities for indigenous people, welcoming more newcomers to Canada, increasing domestic training seats and improving our performance on interprovincial migration with the rest of the country.

At Assiniboine Community College, we are aligning to these strategies.

In April, the college launched Assiniboine International, a new unit dedicated to enhancing our global citizenship including recruiting more international students, helping to give domestic students better international perspectives, better serving newcomers to Canada and encouraging college participation in international development.

Since 2013, the college has grown from less than 60 international students to expecting more than 250 this year. We know that for many of the international students we welcome, their ultimate goal is Canadian citizenship. We anticipate working in the context of the new provincial nominee program to align our offerings to ensure we are creating meaningful pathways for learners to the labour force and ultimately to citizenship.

While many of the offerings we have had so far have been for entire cohorts (complete classes) of international students, the college also seeks to have a greater integration of our international students into expanded offerings with domestic students. This is advantageous for learners in terms of diversity of perspective, language development and ultimately a more scalable solution for the college as we grow in this area.

In order to meet the 177,800 job openings, the college will need to expand program seats as well. Manitoba currently has the lowest level of post-secondary attainment in the country. Further, we have, by far, the lowest percentage of college attainment of the six largest provinces. If Manitoba is to be competitive and continue to grow, addressing this historical imbalance will be an important step to take in addition to measures to add pathways and access programs for those who can’t or do not qualify for post-secondary education.

Canada marks its 150th birthday this coming year. It’s a time to reflect on our history and to cast an eye to a shared future. The college will look at how it should play an even stronger role in reconciliation. More than 18 per cent of the college’s students identify as indigenous. And while we have a long history of partnerships with indigenous communities and organizations, we know there is much more that we need to do meet the commitments we have made as part of Reconciliation.

The 177,800 job openings are certainly one of the biggest opportunities before us. Bridging the prosperity gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people is a must for there to be a stronger foundation for Canada’s next 150 years. Education and labour market development can play a critical role in assisting indigenous peoples while simultaneously ensuring that Manitoba can realize our potential.

Labour market development in all its forms is critical to Manitoba achieving its economic potential. In turn, economic growth will help address our fiscal imbalance and improve the standard of living for future generations in Manitoba. There are at least 177,800 reasons to be firing on all cylinders between now and 2021.

» Mark Frison is the president of Assiniboine Community College.