Premier Gordon Campbell has laid out a $43 million welcome mat that will help new migrants to settle into life in British Columbia over the next two years.

The campaign, entitled “Welcome to BC” will benefit new arrivals to the province in various ways, including finding suitable employment, becoming familiar with health, education and recreation services and gaining information on language courses.

An expected one million jobs will need to be filled in British Columbia over the next 12 years, and with only 650,000 students expected to graduate in that time, a further 350,000 migrants will need to be recruited if the province wants to maintain its quality of life and remain the top destination for migration throughout Canada.

A fundamental aspect of the pledge is to ensure that it does not take new migrants up to five years to re-commence the type of work that they are experienced in and which they held in their previous homelands, as has been the case in previous years. Of the $43 million pledged towards the scheme, $23 million will be used to cut down waiting lists for skilled employment, enabling new migrants to resume the work they were trained to carry out as soon as possible.