The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) was created to develop and champion solutions to better integrate skilled immigrants into the Toronto region labour market while helping employers benefit from the talents and skills that immigrants bring with them to Canada. The creation of TRIEC was proposed in the Toronto City Summit Alliance’s 2003 report Enough Talk: An Action Plan for the Toronto Region, and launched as a project of the Alliance and Maytree, a private foundation, in September 2003. It was incorporated as a non-profit charitable organization in 2007.

TRIEC has three objectives:
1. Convening and collaborating with partners in all sectors to create opportunities for skilled immigrants to connect to the local labour market;
2. Working with key stakeholders, particularly employers, to build their awareness and capacity to better integrate skilled immigrants into the workforce; and
3. Working with all levels of government to enhance coordination and effect more responsive policy and programs for skilled immigrant employment.

As of October, 2010, TRIEC had matched 5,000 skilled immigrants with Canadian professional mentors through The Mentoring Partnership, helped 1,300 skilled immigrants gain Canadian job experience through Career Bridge internships, promoted the case for integration through hireimmigrants.ca and its well-respected advocacy on credential recognition and other issues. The TRIEC model is being replicated in other Canadian cities through Maytree’s ALLIES project and Maytree’s Cities of Migration initiative is sharing the TRIEC model and other best practices with migrant-receiving cities worldwide.

To learn more, visit TRIEC.
 

• TRIEC is led by Chair Gordon Nixon and Co-Chair Zabeen Hirji (President & CEO and Chief Human Resources Officer of RBC Financial Group) and Board Chair Ratna Omidvar (President of Maytree). Retired Manulife Financial CEO Dominic D’Alessandro and Executive Vice President Diane Bean were TRIEC’s founding Co-Chairs. The members of TRIEC’s Board and Council represent employers, labour, occupational regulatory bodies, post-secondary institutions, assessment service providers, community organizations, and all three levels of government.  TRIEC’s Executive Director is Elizabeth McIsaac.