In the Toronto area,
a remarkable multi-stakeholder council is working to improve
access to employment for immigrants, so they are better able
to use the skills, education and experience they bring with
them to Canada.
 The
Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) is tackling
a specific need - the effective integration of immigrants
into the labour market - but what makes this collaboration
so unique is the diverse membership it has attracted and the
number of initiatives and strategies it is pursuing.
On February 24, 2005 Ratna Omidvar, Executive
Director, and Elizabeth McIsaac, Project Manager, joined us
to discuss the TRIEC model and the learnings and successes
the council has generated thus far.
 Ratna
Omidvar is President of Maytree. Ratna also serves as a director of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, and is a member of the board of the Tamarack Institute. She was the first executive director of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and is its founding chair. In 2003, Ontario’s Premier-designate Dalton McGuinty appointed Ratna to the Transition Advisory Board. In 2004 Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed Ratna to the External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities. Ratna is a Fellow of Centennial College, and received an honorary diploma from George Brown College in 2006. Also in 2006, Ratna was appointed to the Order of Ontario.
 Elizabeth
McIsaac joined Maytree in 2001 as
Manager of Research and Policy for the Refugee and Immigrant
Program, focusing on immigrant and poverty issues. Since September
of 2003 she has held the role of Project Manager of TRIEC.
Before joining Maytree, Elizabeth
was Executive Director of the Association of International
Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, advocating for policy
changes that would create better access to licensing for immigrant
doctors in Ontario. Previous to this, Elizabeth worked in
direct service with immigrant and refugee communities, conducting
research at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
and teaching human rights and equity issues at Centennial
College.
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The Toronto Region receives over 100,000
immigrants each year. Their importance to the Region's economic
and demographic growth can not be overestimated. Immigrants
are expected to account for:
TRIEC tele-learning
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6 out of 10 immigrants are forced to make
a downwardly mobile shift in career once arriving in Canada.
Immigrants in the 1990s have shown lower employment and earnings
than previous cohorts, despite having higher education.
Immigrants face a number of challenges in
the Toronto Region:
- Immigrant skills and experience are not effectively
recognized in the labour market
- Policies are not coordinated and cities are not at the
heart of the solution seeking
- Stakeholder engagement has not been effective
- There are funding issues
- Cities and communities are not maximizing the full participation
of immigrants
- Racialization of poverty and threat to social cohesion
And yet, there is national support for immigration
and recognition of the long term benefits of better recognizing
the talents and skills immigrants bring. Immigration has been
identified as a community building strategy
That's where TRIEC comes in.
More
about the TRIEC model. [PDF]
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