In Canada, we face a situation where there entire regions are plagued by labour shortages, but there are also pockets of unemployment in various parts of the country.

This from Steve Lafleur, with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The federal government has been discussing plans to alter its employment insurance program to encourage out-of-work Canadians to move, if it will mean getting them working.

It's also in the midst of a full-scale revamp of its immigration policies to ensure newcomers are skilled, and have jobs waiting for them when they arrive.

Lafleur says employment insurance often acts as a dis-incentive for people to change jobs, learn new skills, or move to where the work is, "We can't live in a world where everybody has their dream job, that's the reality. We need people to do a lot of things; there are a lot of occupations that Canadians are just choosing not to get into. Part of that, I think, can be met by immigration. But we can't just expect that every job no one wants to do will be done by immigrants."

Lafleur thinks the government ought to combine their efforts to revamp immigration and unemployment policies into a unified strategy to help address labour shortages.

(pb may 19/12)