VICTORIA – The Canadian Roofing Contractors Association (CRCA) has announced a partnership with Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) to bring skilled refugees to Canada to work in the roofing trade.

TBB is a referral partner of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada under the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) and has supported over 150 refugees to secure job offers from employers in Canada, a CRCA release said.

“This partnership, a first of its kind for the construction industry and the roofing/building envelope sector, will provide CRCA members a new source of much needed labour,” CRCA executive director Jim Facette said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to see the CRCA pioneering the use of the EMPP to fill labour gaps in the roofing/building envelope sector. We hope this will open the door for more sectors in the construction industry to take advantage of this innovative immigration program,” TBB Canada director Lara Dyer added. 

Roofer is a Red Seal trade under the Red Seal Program, which sets common standards to assess the skills of tradespeople across Canada.

CRCA members can register at TBB’s site to begin the process of hiring foreign workers through the program.