International Experience Canada

International Experience Canada: In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Cuzner suggested that current Jobs Minister Jason Kenney had switched the focus of the program to satisfy perceived labour market needs. When he was in Ireland, on one of the television shows, he was saying that one of our biggest economic problems in Canada is a skills shortage and that we encourage young people from Ireland to come to our country, Cuzner said, according to Huffington Post. International Experience Canada was originally designed as a cultural exchange with the goal of having a neutral effect on the Canadian labour market. Under the Conservatives, however, it has shifted focus to become a temporary foreign worker program for those 18 to 35 years of age, Liberals say and A youth exchange program is drawing the attention of opposition parties and student groups who question whether it is being used as a back door for temporary foreign workers at a time when youth unemployment remains stubbornly high. Liberal labour critic Rodger Cuzner told The Canada he is very concerned about the explosive growth of the International Experience Canada IEC program and the lack of reciprocal job opportunities for Canadian youth. In 2004, 23,869 young foreigners came to Canada to work under the program while 20,836 young Canadians left to work abroad. Eight years later, however, the program had mushroomed, with 58,094 foreign youth coming to Canada in 2012 but only 17,731 young Canadians had gone abroad. Meanwhile, young Canadians have lost about 200,000 jobs in this country since then. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.