Evaluation of the Global Skills Strategy (GSS)

Research and Evaluation Branch
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Project reference number: E7-2019

July 2022

Executive Summary

Background

This report presents the findings of the evaluation of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Global Skills Strategy (GSS). The evaluation was conducted in fulfillment of requirements under the Treasury Board’s Policy on Results and covered the period of June 2017 to February 2020.

The evaluation’s primary focus was to assess the early implementation and outcomes of the GSS and report on the results story to date. The evaluation assessed the extent to which GSS has contributed to the attraction of global talent, the effectiveness of concurrent outreach and engagement activities, and, where feasible, the economic impact of the Strategy.

Summary of the findings

The evaluation found that GSS meets the needs of Canadian companies making a significant investment and wanting rapid entry into Canada for highly skilled foreign workers to remain competitive. While many competitor countries offer expedited processing of work/residence permits for highly skilled workers and their accompanying spouses and/or dependants, Canada's inclusion of short-term work permit exemptions, is relatively unique.

While IRCC does not currently collect information on the significant investments in Canada made by referred employers under the GSS, the evaluation was able to examine benefits related to the temporary workers and their dependants who were processed under the GSS.

In response to the evaluation findings, and to support continuous program improvement, three recommendations are proposed.

Recommendation 1: Support for GSS Referred Employers

The Dedicated Services Channel (DSC) had conducted many and diverse outreach events across Canada and efforts have been made in terms of promotion and outreach to employers. Those efforts promoted the value of the various features of the GSS. The evaluation revealed that referred employers (eligible for DSC) account manager services and support) tended to be more aware of the various features of the GSS relative to their non-referred counterparts. The evaluation revealed that while DSC services and support are useful in increasing awareness and understanding of immigration program options available for many referred employers, they may be underutilized and missing some employers who could benefit from them.

DSC services and support, while designed not only to provide assistance for work permits processed on an expedited basis under GSS but also to support other employer-based programs, are offered only to a subset of employers who have been referred on the expectation that they will make a significant investment in Canada. IRCC defines significant investment in very broad terms to allow for flexibility in its application. However, in the absence of clear metrics and monitoring by IRCC, it is difficult to measure what investments have been made and the associated benefits brought about by the GSS.

Recommendation 1: IRCC, in consultation with referral partners, should:

1. Review the profile of referred employers under the GSS and ongoing employment sector needs to identify gaps and opportunities to optimize the reach of DSC services and support, as well as resource utilization; and
2. Develop indicators and a monitoring strategy to capture information on the significant investments made by referred employers.

Recommendation 2: Implementation and Monitoring

Short-term work permit exemptions are generally perceived as useful by different stakeholders but, compared to other GSS features, awareness of the work permit exemptions was relatively low, even among Border Services Officer (BSO) who are responsible for assessing eligibility for these exemptions at Port of Entry (POE).

Also, these work permit exemptions are not systematically tracked making it difficult to fully measure their usefulness and benefits.

In addition, it is also important to note that for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the issuance of a visitor record with the necessary information is not mandatory. It is at the discretion of the BSO to issue it or not, and these inconsistencies are compounded by the lack of knowledge and/or training of POE staff regarding GSS work permit exemptions.

This poses an extra challenge for GSS, because for foreign nationals, it is important to obtain a visitor's record.  Without a visitor record that clearly indicates that the foreign national is authorized to work without a work permit under GSS, it is impossible to obtain a Social Insurance Number and without that, to be paid by the employer. And, for IRCC, it is difficult to establish clear reports on foreign nationals who have used short-term work permit exemptions. In particular, Global Case Management System (GCMS) is not used as a tool to document who gets the exemptions, when, and where. The lack of metrics and information makes it difficult to report on the full impact and outcomes of GSS and to identify potential integrity issues.

Recommendation 2: IRCC should work with the CBSA, on promoting awareness of the work permit exemptions among BSOs, and on consistency in their administration at the POE (including issuance of the visitor record) to help strengthen client service, as well as monitoring and, reporting capacity.

Recommendation 3: Design

In terms of design, some emerging issues and opportunities were highlighted by the findings. The GSS was created following extensive consultations with Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industry partners who wanted a fast-track work permit process for highly skilled workers (National Occupational Classification (NOC) 0 & A), which has led to a different interpretation of “highly skilled” compared to other IRCC programs and initiatives, such as Canadian Experience Class and Atlantic Immigration Pilot. This narrow interpretation is less aligned when looking at the overall Canadian economy and labour needs as some occupations (e.g.: the health sector) are excluded (NOC B). Targeting some NOC B occupations in certain sectors where there shortages would be helpful for employers in meeting their needs.

However, extending beyond NOC 0 & A would require consideration of resource needs, particularly in light of processing pressures in all IRCC business lines, and an updated assessment of the national and regional labour needs in Canada.

Also, while facilitating the transition to permanent residency is not a program objective, there is considerable interest among work permit holders in transitioning to permanent residency.

Recommendation 3: In order to maximize the benefits of the Strategy, IRCC should explore options and develop a plan to enhance the GSS that considers:

1. Expanding GSS eligibility for expedited work permit processing to other skilled occupations in NOC B in sectors and regions where there are labour needs;
2. Resource implications for potential expansion and better meeting the processing time commitment; and,
3. Augmenting connections between GSS and permanent residence pathways as a means to further contribute to the recruitment and retention of highly skilled foreign talent.