Question Period Note: LABOUR SHORTAGES

Immigration responses to labour shortages across Canada

• Permanent and temporary immigration continue to be a driving force supporting Canada's labour market needs and economic growth.
• Long-term shortages continue to exist in key sectors, such as health care and construction.
IRCC is working to bring in newcomers to support the jobs of the future and help meet Canada’s economic needs.
• 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 French-speaking immigrants, and immigrants with in-demand work experience in areas such as trades, health-care, transportation, STEM, and agriculture.
• In 2023, 17,170 skilled workers, with work experience in occupations expected to be in long-term shortage, were invited to apply for permanent residence through category-based selection rounds.
• Regional economic programs such as the Provincial Nominee Program help to spread the benefits of economic immigration programs across Canada and filling local labour market needs that are critical to each jurisdiction.
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.

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 provide an important source of labour for employers facing critical labour shortages, which, in turn, helps Canadian businesses thrive.

• However, Canada’s absorptive capacity has been challenged by the growth in population due to temporary residents, including international students and foreign workers.

• For the first time, the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan will incorporate targets for temporary resident arrivals – including under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program -in addition to those set for permanent resident admissions. These efforts aim to strengthen the alignment between immigration planning, community capacity and labour market needs.

• 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, first quarter of 2024
• Job vacancies fell by 24,300 (-3.6%) to 648,600 in the first quarter, marking the seventh consecutive quarterly decline from the record high of 983,600 reached in the second quarter of 2022.

• Labour market tightness continued to ease, as job vacancies decreased, while unemployment rose.

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.

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 August 21, 2024):
o French-language proficiency (13 rounds, 28,100 invitations);or
o work experience in specific
 healthcare occupations (five rounds, 12,850 invitations),
 STEM occupations (three rounds, 10,900 invitations),
 trades occupations (three rounds, 4,300 invitations),
 Transport occupations (three rounds, 2,645 invitations), and
 agriculture and agri-food occupations (three rounds, 1,150 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.
• Admissions have increased more than tenfold between 2005 and 2024 (from 8,045 admissions in 2005 to 81,820 as of July 31, 2024). As of July 31, 2024, the program represented 44% 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 July 31, 2024.

Atlantic Immigration Program
• The Atlantic Immigration Program has brought over 5,330 principal applicants and their families to the Atlantic region in 2024 (as of July 31, 2024). 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 3,000 employers have been using the Atlantic Immigration Program to fill their labour market vacancies and have presented over 10,200 job offers to skilled foreign nationals (as of June 30, 2024).

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.

• From January 2024 to July 2024, over 2,800 newcomers and their families have been admitted through the RNIP, helping address critical labour shortages in priority sectors (such as hospitality and food services, health care and social assistance, retail, manufacturing, and transportation).

• As the RNIP expired on August 31, 2024, we are launching a new Rural Community Immigration Pilot, and a complementary Francophone Community Immigration Pilot. These new pilots will continue to allow small and medium-sized communities across the country to address labour shortages by playing a direct role in attracting and retaining newcomers to fill priority jobs. The Francophone Community Pilot will also focus on increasing the number of French-speaking newcomers settling in Francophone minority communities outside of Quebec.

• IRCC will announce selected communities and the launch of the new pilots this fall.

Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP)
• The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) is Canada’s complementary pathway model to allow skilled refugees an opportunity to fill specific labour market needs in Canada, while accessing existing economic immigration programs. It further supports changing 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 July 31, 2024, over 3,800 temporary residents and their families have been welcomed through this Pathway. Applications will continue to be processed for the rest of the year.

Temporary Worker Programs and Facilitation

• Temporary foreign workers coming under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP) play an important role in many sectors of the Canadian economy.
• The TFWP is jointly administered by Employment and Social Development Canada (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. Work permits issued under the IMP can be employer-specific or open, meaning that the foreign national can work for virtually any employer, in any occupation.

• 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 has created a new Innovation Stream under the IMP, to enable innovative Canadian employers selected by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada under the Global Hypergrowth Project to hire highly talented individuals. The stream will be in place for a 2-year pilot period, and will offer an LMIA exemption for foreign nationals with a job offer in a TEER 0-3 occupation from a GHP company.
• Facilitation for Prospective Provincial Nominee Program applicants
o The department is focused on recalibrating the temporary resident to permanent resident ratio in Canada, including by supporting provinces and territories in transitioning eligible temporary residents via their Provincial Nominee Programs. Within the existing group of temporary residents in Canada, a plethora of strong Provincial Nominee Program candidates can be found. In their time as temporary residents, these workers have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to establish themselves economically and develop community roots.

o To reinforce the department’s priority of transitioning a greater portion of current temporary residents to permanent residency, the department is facilitating access to open work permits to this population via a time-limited public policy. This population will be supported by their province or territory of residence as Provincial Nominee Program candidates, and will be issued letters to this effect by their respective province or territory. Skilled workers already filling critical labour market needs in Canada will be retained and provided a more certain pathway to permanent residence.

• Despite targeted facilitation, Statistics Canada research indicates that over the period from 2010 to 2019, the employment of temporary foreign workers became increasingly concentrated in three sectors that mostly offer low-paying jobs: accommodation and food services; retail trade; and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services.

• This may be in part driven by unprecedented volumes of open work permit holders, under policies that respond to government priorities, international events, and stakeholder needs.

Reduction of Temporary Resident Volumes

• On March 21, 2024, IRCC announced plans to integrate temporary resident arrivals into annual immigration levels planning, beginning with the 2025-2027 multi-year levels plan. This includes a plan to reduce the share of temporary residents (workers, students, asylum claimants and protected persons) in Canada to 5% of the total population by the end of 2026. Targets will be finalized in fall 2024, following consultations with provinces and territories.

• IRCC has already tightened eligibility requirements to limit access to only spouses of international students in Masters, doctorate and professional programs. Work is ongoing to identify broader options for management work permit volumes within the International Mobility Program, while ensuring that Canada’s talent needs continue to be met.

• In parallel, ESDC has also implemented measures for the TFWP, including: expanding employer recruitment obligations to include asylum seekers; reducing LMIA validity periods from 12 months to 6 months; and returning to a 20% cap on low-wage workers for most sectors, except construction and healthcare.

• Beginning September 2024, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) will be introducing a 6-month moratorium to refuse to process Labour Market Impact Assessment applications from employers hiring within specific low wage sectors in the Montreal economic region. This will be applied to the accommodation, food services, and tourism industries. Exemptions will be in place in the healthcare, construction, food processing, and education sectors.

• IRCC will continue collaborating with ESDC to better align temporary foreign worker streams with federal priorities, labour market needs, and longer-term permanent residence objectives. These changes are needed to make the worker selection more efficient and sustainable.

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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