Is The Caregiver Program In Canada About To End?

Like many fresh college graduate did, job hopping has become my job with the hope of living in a country other than my birth place.

Years later an opportunity came and I found myself taking a caregiver job in Canada. For the first time, I was counting annual work anniversary instead of months or days.

So when the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) closed in 2014, being a temporary foreign workers a few years ago, I thought of those who are aspiring to start a new life in Canada right after college or leaving a familiar job for a better future.

Will they have an opportunity of having permanent residency and eventually a Canadian citizenship.

Two pathways replaced the LCP: Caring for Children and for People with High Medical Needs. This ought to be a good news. Yet I thought of the pathways leading to an uncertain, unfavourable future.

2 Pathways for Caregivers: Dead End Sign

The pathways caused more confusion and somehow served as a diversion to a startling news: end of permanent residency program.

These 5-year pilot programs are scheduled to expire on November 29, 2019.

There’s always something going on about the Caregiver Program in Canada but all I see is a dead end the moment the LCP closed. And that was just a start.

We are reviewing the Caring for Children and Caring for People with High Medical Needs pilot programs to determine how caregivers will apply for permanent residence after the pilots expire on November 29, 2019.

More than a year from now who knows  what will happen next.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC, formerly known as CIC) didn’t say that the two pathways will only last for five years until 2018.

Many are caught off guard yet the countdown begins.

Scrambling to Meet the Deadline

I don’t like deadlines especially when much is at stake and not much time left for those who recently started in the two pathways.

To qualify for permanent residency, a caregiver has to submit the application before November 29, 2019. Here are a glimpse of requirements.

Caring for Children

• Must have at least 24 months of full-time work experience in Canada as a home child care provider in the four years before applying.
• Take a language test.
• Meet minimum language levels of Canadian Language Benchmark: CLB 5.
• Must prove Canadian or foreign education.

Caring for People with High Medical Needs

• Have at least 24 months of full-time work experience in Canada in the four years before applying.
• Take a language test.
• Meet minimum language levels (CLB 7 or CLB 5 depending on work experience).
• Must prove Canadian or foreign education

Note: In either pathway, you need to prove that medical exam have been completed (by your family and yourself) within one year prior to application.

Although the Live-in Caregiver Program is closed, those who came in Canada through the program are still qualified to apply for permanent residency.

Live-in Caregivers

• Have at least 24 months of full-time live-in employment or 3,900 hours within four years from date of arrival.
• Take a language test.
• Meet minimum language levels (CLB 7 or CLB 5 depending on work experience).
• Must prove Canadian or foreign education

The keyword is 24 months of employment. Apart from time constrain, another setback is the limit to the number of permanent resident application.

Is there enough time for caregivers who applied under the two pathways to meet ALL the qualifications?

By now, the pathways shouldn’t accept new applicants unless the pilot project extends beyond 2019.

If you  want to apply as caregiver from the Philippines the process is tedious. Employers should seek help from an agency in Canada and in the Philippines. That’s a lot of work to hire a foreign worker.

Yet Filipinos are still asking me how to apply as caregiver in Canada or hire a caregiver in the Philippines.

For now, uncertainty is certain for the Caregiver Program in Canada. It may or not lead to a dead end just around the bend.

The Future of Caregiver Program in Canada

“The world is quiet here,” as Lemony Snicket says in the Series of Unfortunate Events. So far IRCC hasn’t announced any news after heralding the deadline of the 5-year term of wo pathways for caregivers in Canada.

What would become of the caregivers who wouldn’t be able to meet the deadline?

Silence is deafening.

While I’ve seen growth in the numbers of Health Care Aide in Calgary (and perhaps in other cities), daycare, and nursing home, the question is will that be enough to provide the needs for care of children, elderly, or anyone that requires health-care assistance.

Is there still a need to hire foreign caregivers especially for childcare? The long-term effect will dictate the outcome.

The Vancouver Committee Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights aims for a permanent solution: landed status for caregivers upon arrival. It’s a possibility I hope for the future caregiver program.

There are questions amidst silence. Hope in uncertainty. Fair changes for everyone.

Let me know your thoughts in the comment and tips on how you tackle this new policy.

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