George Carothers and his team know how to fix Canada's credentialing problem

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George Carothers is Senior Director, Ideas & Insights at the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), where he leads and scales the ICC's thought leadership on immigration.

Raised by a South Indian physician and a Canadian international development practitioner, George trained at Waterloo (Canada), UCL and Cambridge (UK), and has worked as a researcher and consultant in Toronto, Mumbai, and Trivandrum.

He has lived in slums, huts, and high-rises; built high-performance teams; scaled national programs; and worked with everyone from street hawkers to global executives and boards.

Listen now: Apple | Beehiiv | Spotify

Takeaways

Irrational dedication is a good way to describe how George and the folks are approaching the credentialing conundrum. And we need more of that across various issues in Canada. They know regulators will push back. They know the timeline is five to ten years at best. They put it out anyway because, in George's words, "it's not sufficient to take that criticism and say, all right, I'll take it back to the drawing board and come back to you in 10 years."
We talk about immigration and credential recognition as if they're newcomer issues. But they're Canadian issues. The 80-year-old in a long-term care home who can't get a PSW doesn't care whether their caregiver is trained in the Philippines or in Ontario. They just need someone to show up.
I find the Fair Licensing Act proposal interesting because it skips the well-used approach of asking the provinces nicely. It dangles a juicy, plump carrot in front of them. The provinces can always say no, but there's a cost to making that decision.