Question Period Note: LABOUR SHORTAGES

Immigration responses to labour shortages across Canada

• Immigration is a driving force behind Canada's labour supply and economic growth.
• Permanent and temporary residents help to fill labour market needs and support the development of a strong and prosperous Canada.
• Although job vacancies are declining overall, structural shortages continue to exist in key sectors, such as health care and construction.

• IRCC is working to bring in newcomers with the skills needed to meet labour shortages.

• We are also bringing in more workers to support the jobs of the future, and those with strong French-language skills, to help meet economic needs.
• There is more to be done to welcome newcomers with the skills to fill in-demand jobs and to enable those already studying and working in Canada to take up those in-demand jobs.
• We will continue to make improvements to ensure that Canada can attract and retain the people we want and need.

If pressed
• In 2023, we launched category-based selection in Express Entry, which allows us to bring in more immigrants with in-demand work experience in areas such as home-building, health-care, transportation, and agriculture.
On foreign credential recognition
• Our government recognizes foreign credential recognition processes can pose a barrier that can delay or prevent newcomers from participating to their full potential in the Canadian labour market.
• That is why the government recently announced up to $86 million in funding to 15 organizations across Canada to increase capacity for foreign credential recognition of thousands of internationally educated health professions.
IRCC works to reduce these barriers and make collective advancements with our federal, provincial and territorial partners, such as by funding services that help newcomers settle and adapt to life in Canada

On temporary foreign workers
• Temporary foreign workers are essential to Canada’s labour force, as they fill short term labour and skills gaps. They help drive the economy forward by building homes, developing cutting edge technologies and supplying food to Canadians.

• Both the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program are demand driven. This provides an important source of labour for employers facing critical labour shortages, which, in turn, helps Canadian businesses thrive.

• The immigration system supports the development of a strong and prosperous Canada, in which the benefits of immigration are shared across all regions. IRCC administers a range of programs for temporary residents and permanent residents seeking to establish in the Canadian labour market, and fill persistent labour needs.

Labour Shortages

Job vacancies, third quarter 2023
• Job vacancies across Canada were 706,100 in the third quarter of 2023, marking the fifth straight quarterly decline from a record high of 990,900 unfilled positions in the second quarter of 2022.

• Six provinces experienced a decline in job vacancies in the third quarter, with the largest declines in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Other provinces experienced little change.

• On a year-over-year basis, the largest proportional decline in vacancies were in jobs requiring a high school diploma or less.

• Sector trends
o A decline in sales and service occupations job vacancies have been a driver for the overall decline in job vacancies.
o Job vacancies have been on the decline in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations, with the largest decreases in construction and transport truck driver occupations.
o While the number of vacant positions in health occupations demonstrated little change, they saw their first year-over-year decline in vacancies since 2015.

Permanent Resident Programs

• Canada has a suite of economic immigration programs, each with their own requirements and objectives that allow for the selection of immigrants, on the basis of their ability to become economically established in Canada.
• IRCC’s 2024-2026 Levels Plan demonstrated a continued long-term focus on economic growth, with over 60% of permanent resident admissions dedicated to the economic class by 2025.

Express Entry
• Express Entry is the electronic application management system for a number of federal high skilled economic immigration programs and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Program.
o Foreign nationals express their interest in immigrating to Canada by submitting a profile; eligible candidates enter the Express Entry pool and are assigned a score based on their profile information. Top-ranked candidates in the pool are invited to apply for permanent residence through regularly-held rounds of invitations.

• In June 2023, category-based selection launched in Express Entry, allowing better targeting of invitations to candidates who meet specified economic goals. Category-based invitation rounds add to general (i.e., based on rank in the pool) and program specific rounds, making Express Entry more responsive to Canada’s changing economic and labour market needs.

• Informed by labour market information and input from consultations with partners and stakeholders, the following initial categories were established, and a total of 17 category-based rounds have been held (since June 2023, as of January 17, 2024):
o French-language proficiency (six rounds, 8,700 invitations);or
o work experience in specific
 healthcare occupations (three rounds, 5,600 invitations),
 STEM occupations (two rounds, 6,400 invitations),
 trades occupations (two rounds, 2,500 invitations),
 Transport occupations (two rounds, 1,670 invitations), and
 agriculture and agri-food occupations (two rounds, 1,000 invitations).

Provincial Nominee Program
• The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is a jointly administered immigration program which provides provinces and territories (PTs) with an opportunity to address their economic development needs, while distributing the benefits of economic immigration across Canada. PTs are responsible for the design and implementation of their program streams.
• Admissions have increased more than tenfold between 2005 and 2022 (from 8,045 admissions in 2005 to 88,265 in 2022). In 2023, the program represented 40% of all planned economic admissions, making it the largest economic immigration program. The PNP has been the main source of economic immigration for nine of the 11 participating jurisdictions from 2020 to 2023.

Atlantic Immigration Program
• The Atlantic Immigration Program has brought over 20,250 principal applicants and their families to the Atlantic region (as of November 30, 2023). It aims to attract skilled immigrants to Atlantic Canada to address demographic and economic needs, and to increase retention in the region.
• Since transitioning to a permanent program, over 2,630 employers have been using the Atlantic Immigration Program to fill their labour market vacancies and have presented over 7,470 job offers to skilled foreign nationals (as of December 31, 2023).

Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
• Launched in 2019, the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot uses a community-based economic development approach with the aim to support 11 partner communities located in northern Ontario and western Canada. Communities have the ability to set their candidate selection criteria, to target labour market needs in priority occupations and sectors.

• . As of December 31, 2023, over 4,500 newcomers and family members have been admitted through the RNIP.

• The RNIP will expire in August 2024, which will bring its initial pilot phase to a close. Taking into account the results of the ongoing review and given its success and positive stakeholder feedback, IRCC is exploring options to make the pilot a permanent program, with particular attention to the needs of Francophone communities. Details regarding participating communities, program design and implementation are currently in development, and will be announced in the coming months, including timelines.

Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP)
• The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) is Canada’s complementary pathway model for refugee labour mobility. Its goal is to allow skilled refugees, who can fill specific labour market needs in Canada, access to existing economic immigration programs, as well as to change the narrative on refugees by focusing on their skills, education and experience, rather than just their vulnerability.

• To date, the EMPP has been successful in filling critical shortages in the health care sector, manufacturing, skilled trades and IT. IRCC continues to work with stakeholders to support the growth of the pilot.

Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway
• In 2021, IRCC created a time-limited Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway, which targeted recent international graduates and essential workers in areas such a healthcare. Dedicated streams for French-speaking temporary residents were included. As of December 31, 2023, over 99,000 temporary residents and their families have been welcomed through this Pathway. Applications will continue to be processed in 2024.

Temporary Worker Programs and Facilitation

• Temporary foreign workers coming under the Temporary Foreign Worker and the International Mobility Program (IMP) play an important role in many sectors of the Canadian economy. The TFWP and the IMP are demand-driven with no limits and caps on the number of work permits that can be issued.

• The TFWP is jointly administered by ESDC, which processes the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), and IRCC, which is responsible for work permit issuance.

• The program helps employers fill labour shortages where Canadian citizen or permanent residents are not available. Work permits issued under this program are employer-specific, meaning the foreign national can only work for the employer indicated on their work permit.

• The IMP is administered solely by IRCC, and facilitates the entry of workers without an LMIA to support Canada’s broader economic, social, and cultural objectives, or other reciprocal benefits enjoyed by Canadians and permanent residents abroad.

• IRCC continues to develop measures to facilitate the hiring of qualified workers to help employers fill labour shortages and skills gaps. For example:
o Innovation Stream of the International Mobility Program
 IRCC is creating a new Innovation Stream under the IMP, exempt from the LMIA requirement, to enable innovative employers in Canada to hire highly talented individuals. Further details will be made available in the months ahead.
o Quebec flexibility under the TFWP
 The Government of Canada expressed an intention to provide Quebec with more flexibility under the IMP and the TFWP. This includes:
• Expanding the Traitment simplifié to include Quebec-destined workers in Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities (TEER) 4 occupations. This provides additional flexibility for Quebec employers under the TFWP to address their labour needs. This measure will be extended for an additional year.
• On January 1, 2024, Quebec launched the Quebec Investor program with support from IRCC. Through this program, foreign nationals in possession of a Notice of Intent to Select issued by the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration (MIFI) are eligible to apply for an open work permit, valid for up to 3 years, under which the foreign national will be able to come and settle in the province before applying for permanent residence. IRCC will continue to work with the province of Quebec to meet their immigration and labour needs.

Post-Graduation Work Permits (PGWP)

• Facilitative measures on distance learning will continue to be in place for students who begin a study program until the end of August 2024. International students who begin their program on or after September 1, 2024, will not be eligible for the measures, which have allowed international students to retain eligibility and accumulate time towards a future PGWP while pursuing a study program via distance learning, from inside or outside Canada.

Measures Supporting Labour Market Integration

Foreign Credential Recognition (FCR) and Settlement Supports

• IRCC is working closely with Employment and Social Development Canada as the federal lead on the foreign credential recognition program, as well as with provinces and territories, to make collective advancements on foreign credential recognition in Canada.
o The Department continues to support provincial and territorial efforts to coordinate the FCR and immigration selection process for newcomers through their PNP and the AIP.

• Immigration programs are complemented by IRCC-funded pre-arrival and in-Canada settlement services to help permanent residents with their longer-term integration in Canada. Services provided through the Settlement Program provide clients with skills and support to help them prepare for, and connect with, the Canadian labour market. This includes employment counselling, soft-skills training, and job bridging programs.

o The Settlement Program also provides services that inform newcomers of the FCR processes they may need to undertake and refer them to employment resources, such as those funded by ESDC or the provinces and territories.

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