BC helps ease entry of migrant workers

The following article from today's Vancouver Province was interesting:

Program changes to ease entry for foreign workers

Tens of thousands of foreign workers are B.C.-bound to fill jobs left by retiring baby boomers.
Changes to the province's immigrant-worker visa program will bring workers to B.C. from all over the world, to fill jobs in trucking, tourism and the hospitality industry.
The expanded provincial nominee program will recruit entry-level and unskilled workers, with the prize being permanent residency status for the workers and their families.
B.C. Economic Development Minster Colin Hansen said the province needs to ramp up recruitment to fill the anticipated labour shortage of 350,000 jobs over the next 12 years.
"We are facing a shortage of positions in skilled labour," said Hansen. "We are now facing a shortage of workers, period." Hansen said construction projects have been put on hold, and hotels can't operate because of the lack of staff.
Last week, B.C. signed a deal with the Philippines government to recruit 30,000 workers per year into B.C.
Hansen said the province is also actively recruiting foreign workers in the U.S., China, India and Eastern Europe. Under the program, it will take a week to two months to bring a foreign worker here. It currently takes nine months and as long as six years for some foreign-worker visas.
Paul Landry, CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association, said trucking firms need 5,000 new drivers each year, especially long-haul truckers.
With the average trucker about 55 years old, and young people entering the profession at half the industrial average, new drivers are going to come from the Philippines, Eastern Europe and the U.K. "Of all economic sectors, we have probably the biggest problem relating to an aging workforce," said Landry.
James Chase, CEO of the B.C. and Yukon Hotels Association, said hotels are trying to replace their aging workforce with younger workers. "These are tough jobs," he said. "You are making beds, lifting mattresses. You've got to be in pretty good shape."
Chase said hotels hope to recruit 500 Filipinos this year, and predicts more than 20,000 hotel jobs could be filled by foreign workers.
Mark von Schellwitz of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said up to 44,000 new jobs will have to be filled by 2015. "The B.C. government listened to our industry and clearly understands we are facing a people shortage, not just a skills shortage," said von Schellwitz.