On October 23, 2023, Premier David Eby and Minister of Workforce Development Andrew Mercier unveiled Bill 38, a new piece of legislation that enables recent immigrants to British Columbia to find employment as fast and easily as possible.
Bill 38, also known as the International Credentials Recognition Act, aims to boost British Columbia’s economy by luring qualified international workers from all over the world to the province.
Establishing and executing a fair, effective, and open worldwide credential evaluation procedure is one of the “General Responsibilities” included in the law.
Regulatory agencies will be required to eliminate obstacles in 29 professions if the measure is enacted, and it will also make it simpler and faster for certified professionals to request certification recognition, regardless of where they obtained their training.
The 29 professions include lawyers, engineers, social workers, paramedics, and early childhood educators.
The legislation will also remove redundant language testing. If the applicant has already submitted valid language testing results as part of the application, a regulatory body is not allowed to impose submitting new language testing results.
Furthermore, there will be caps for maximum processing times and a guarantee that a determination will be made regarding an application within a reasonable time. Specifically, communication about determinations made in an international credential assessment must be given to the applicant within 14 days. The bill also requires credential-assessment information to be available online.
In British Columbia, Eby claims that “we have many unfair processes that force new arrivals to go through extremely complex, contradictory, difficult-to-understand, expensive, repetitive processes that are frustrating and ultimately cause people to give up and work in a field that they’re not trained in.”
In his mandate letter to Mercier dated December 2022, Eby stated that “too frequently, artificial barriers to working in their fields limit new immigrants from contributing right away to help build our province to the best of their abilities.”
Since he was elected premier in November 2022, Eby has committed to increasing the number of immigrants admitted and accelerating the hiring process for those with foreign training.
In the summer of 2024, if Bill 38 is approved, it would go into effect, and a new superintendent would be chosen, tasked with promoting equitable credential recognition.