Milestones

• 2002: UW/CO and LASI/World Skills along with the Canadian Labour and Business Centre produced “Tapping the Potential: A Statistical Profile of Ottawa’s Immigrant Workforce”, a labour market analysis of the immigrant community.


• 2003-4: A series of roundtables convened by ITWP examined barriers and explored solutions to immigrant employment issues. The strategy was presented to a Community Forum of over 120 participants, which affirmed the need to establish a council of community leaders to champion the issue.


• 2004: ITWP received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to develop a governance structure for the recommended “Council of Champions”, and to conduct an in-depth study of barriers to employment for skilled immigrants, “Moving Forward: a Strategy for the Integration of Internationally Trained Workers in Ottawa”.


• 2005: OCRI TalentWorks and ITWP conducted joint research into labour market needs of Ottawa employers, “Ottawa@Work: Large Employers Workforce Needs Analysis.”, while ITWP conducted parallel research into the needs of small and medium sized enterprises.


• 2006: Secured funding from Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration for a three-year project called Hire Immigrants Ottawa.


• 2007: Launched Hire Immigrants Ottawa's Employer Council of Champions, featuring 27 employers and four sector-specific working groups (IT, finance, health, public).