(CANADA) — The Institute for Canadian Citizenship released a report on June 2, 2026 calling for a binding federal Fair Licensing Act that would tie funding transfers to provincial performance on foreign credential recognition.

The group said the proposal aims to end what it called “licensing discrimination” that keeps internationally trained professionals from working in the occupations Canada selected many of them to fill. Its model borrows from the Canada Health Act: provinces would have to meet enforceable standards or risk losing federal funds.

Under the proposal, provinces that remove barriers for qualified immigrants could also receive incentives, including increased Provincial Nominee Program allocations. The report frames the measure as a national labor-market fix rather than a provincial administrative change.

The Institute for Canadian Citizenship said barriers to foreign credential recognition cost the economy up to $50 billion annually in lost potential. It said about 640,000 immigrant degree-holders, or 26%, are overqualified for their jobs, compared with 11% of Canadian-born workers.

Healthcare sits at the center of the case. The report said only 41% of internationally trained physicians and 37% of internationally trained nurses work in their fields, and that closing those gaps could add 16,000 doctors and 27,000 nurses to the workforce immediately.

Daniel Bernhard, chief executive of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, cast the issue as a failure of policy design as much as labor supply. “Hand-picking immigrants because we need their skills and then refusing to put those skills to use is not just an act of bad faith—it’s an act of bad leadership.”

The report, titled “Ready to Contribute: How a Fair Licensing Act Can Put Immigrants’ Talents to Full Use for Canada,” lands at a moment when Canada continues to rely on immigration for labor-force growth while many regulated professions remain controlled by provincial licensing bodies. That split has long left foreign credential recognition uneven across the country.

Ottawa already runs a Foreign Credential Recognition program, but the Institute for Canadian Citizenship argues that current efforts do not impose binding standards on provinces and regulators. Its proposal seeks federal leverage, not another advisory framework.

The organization’s report also widens a policy contrast with the United States, where immigration agencies moved in the opposite direction this year. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security have not issued a formal statement on the Canadian proposal, but they have issued directives that reshape how immigrants move from temporary status to permanent residence.

On May 22, 2026, USCIS issued policy memorandum PM-602-0199, restricting adjustment of status inside the United States. Zach Kahler, a USCIS spokesman, said, “We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”

DHS said that shift would move more processing to U.S. consulates abroad and would “reduce the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows.” The language marked a harder consular-first posture than the Canadian debate over how to speed professional entry into licensed work.

USCIS had already signaled a tougher direction on March 30, 2026, when it issued an update tied to Executive Order 14161 on “strict screening and vetting.” The agency said prior vetting measures were “wholly inadequate” and announced Operation PARRIS, which adds background checks and merit reviews, including broader social media vetting and financial screening.

Those U.S. moves do not address occupational licensing in Canada, but they shape the wider North American immigration environment in which both countries compete for workers. Canada’s debate centers on retention and use of immigrant talent after arrival; the United States has focused on screening, discretionary review, and overseas processing.

That divergence carries practical effects for internationally trained professionals deciding where to build careers. In Canada, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship says a Fair Licensing Act would create faster and more predictable pathways to licensure if governments adopt it and enforce it. In the United States, temporary residents seeking permanent status now face a narrower route and a higher bar for exceptions.

The numbers in the Canadian report sharpen the economic case. A country that admits skilled immigrants and then leaves more than a quarter of immigrant degree-holders in jobs below their qualifications absorbs the costs twice: once in underused training and again in labor shortages that remain unresolved.

Healthcare offers the clearest example. Canada has debated staffing gaps for years, yet the Institute for Canadian Citizenship argues that a large reserve of already trained workers remains locked out by fragmented licensing rules, long assessment timelines, and inconsistent recognition standards across provinces.

The proposed Fair Licensing Act would not abolish provincial control over professions. It would use federal transfers to push provinces toward enforceable minimum standards on foreign credential recognition, an approach the group says matches the national scale of the problem.

Whether provinces would accept those conditions is likely to determine how far the idea goes. Professional regulation sits close to provincial authority, and funding penalties tied to compliance would test how much pressure Ottawa is willing to apply in an area where governments often prefer coordination to confrontation.

The Institute for Canadian Citizenship has presented the proposal as a labor-market reform with direct consequences for employers, hospitals and immigrants who arrive with degrees and years of experience only to find that Canadian licensing systems treat those credentials as partial or provisional. Its report argues that the country cannot keep recruiting talent internationally while leaving recognition decisions to a patchwork that produces long delays and uneven results.

The contrast with current U.S. policy adds a wider strategic angle. One side of the border is debating how to convert immigration into licensed work more efficiently; the other is tightening screening rules and requiring many applicants to leave the country before they can pursue permanent residence.

Canada’s case for change now rests on whether that mismatch between selection and licensure becomes politically harder to defend. The Institute for Canadian Citizenship has put its argument in fiscal, workforce and healthcare terms, not only fairness, and attached it to a concrete enforcement tool rather than a call for more study.

Readers can find the group’s report, “Ready to Contribute: How a Fair Licensing Act Can Put Immigrants’ Talents to Full Use for Canada,” through the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. Federal background on foreign credential recognition appears on Canada.ca, while recent U.S. directives are posted in the USCIS Newsroom and DHS press releases.