THUNDER BAY — A major staffing crisis is looming for developmental services in Northwestern Ontario if international students aren't allowed to stay and work in the field.
The Thunder Bay Family Network is raising alarms over the exclusion of the developmental service worker (DSW) program from the Canadian post-graduate work permit program.
Changes to the federal program were announced in January but family network president, Sharon Bak, said it was only recently that the list of affected programs was released. Shock and dismay were felt throughout the development social services sector.
If the government doesn’t rescind this decision, Bak said the community will be in a catastrophic position.
The number of international students enroled at the program at Confederation College is high, with about 80 per cent of the program consisting of international students. With the DSW program excluded from the post-graduate work permit program, that means those students will not be granted work permits to remain in Canada after they graduate.
“This is very much pouring fuel on an already huge fire that is in Ontario when it comes to support for those with developmental disabilities, autism and a number of disabilities,” she said.
“With our regional aspect of being very isolated, having a lower workforce than other places that have larger urban centres and only having one college with one program, we are running a risk of losing an entire workforce up here.”
On Tuesday, the Thunder Bay Family Network hosted a townhall with a number of agencies, including Options Northwest, Ontario Autism Coalition, George Jeffery Children’s Centre, Wesway and Confederation College to raise awareness around why the developmental service worker program is essential.
“We really want to highlight the fact that developmental services workers are, first of all, essential and there's a huge gap in that workforce, but also that it is a noble profession and that they do a phenomenal job caring for our loved ones who have disabilities and we need more of them, not less,” said Bak.
Bak said there is a limited window to get the DSW program included in the work permit program as next year’s work permits will be granted in mid-January.
