Question Period Note: Labour Shortages

Immigration responses to labour shortages across Canada

• Canada’s new government has a mandate to build a strong economy by attracting the world’s brightest and best talent to fill key labour shortages.
• Immigration programs can be part of the solution to address Canada’s labour market challenges and shortages.
• My department’s role is to help get the right people here through a safe, efficient immigration process.

• That’s why the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan prioritizes economic immigration to support the Government’s commitment to attract the best talent in the world and fill critical labour gaps in high-demand occupations.

If pressed
• We have a range of programs for temporary and permanent residents that can contribute to the Canadian labour market.
• We must fill persistent labour needs, especially in critical sectors such as healthcare and construction.
• Our new government is taking an approach that is focused on outcomes, to attract skilled immigrants who can contribute to a strong workforce and build one Canadian economy.
• As stated in Budget 2025, Canada will launch an accelerated pathway for H1-B visa holders in the coming months to strengthen our country’s innovation ecosystem, address labour shortages and attract top talent in healthcare, research, advanced industries and other key sectors. More details will be communicated publicly once available.
If pressed on Levels:
• To support a return to sustainable immigration levels, the Government is committed to reducing Canada’s temporary population to less than 5% of the total population by the end of 2027.
• As supporting the Canadian economy continues to be a key priority, the economic category represents the largest proportion of admissions each year, reaching 64% in 2027 and 2028.
• The Plan increases admissions under the Federal High Skilled and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), ensuring that Canada is able to attract the talent needed to deliver on nation-building projects while also responding to the distinct labour market needs of different sectors, provinces, and territories.
If pressed child care:
• The Department offers different permanent immigration pathways for workers with experience as childcare and home support workers.
• Eligible candidates with work experience as early childhood educators are prioritized for selection in Express Entry. Pathways are also available through the Provincial Nominee Program.
• The new Home Care Worker Immigration pilots for Home Child Care and Home Support, launched in March 2025, focused intake on those already established in and contributing to Canada.
If pressed home care:
• The home support occupation faces a structural labour shortage, driven by rising demand from an aging population and compounded by challenging working conditions. Low wages and demanding roles make recruitment and retention difficult.
• There are many actors that have a role to play in making these jobs more attractive to Canadians and newcomers alike.
If pressed health care:
• My department continues to prioritize applicants in healthcare occupations, to respond to critical labour force needs.
• Between 2023 and September 2025, over 27,000 principal applicants with a primary occupation in healthcare were given permanent residence through economic programs.
• Because the ability to practice in many of these occupations is regulated by provinces and territories, my department continues to work closely with ESDC as the federal lead on the foreign credential recognition program, as well as with provinces and territories, to help ensure that foreign trained professionals can work in these occupations.
If pressed on education:
• We are conducting category-based invitation rounds of Express Entry that prioritize candidates with strong French language proficiency or work experience in occupations which include education, such as teachers, and instructors of persons with disabilities.
• The Action Plan for Official Languages, released in April 2023, includes investments of $16.3M over five years for a Corridor for the selection and retention of French teachers in Canada.
If pressed on agriculture:
• Although intake of Agri-Food Pilot has ended, the Department continues to process applications and assess the outcomes of the pilot.
• The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and the Agricultural Stream allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers (TFWs) when Canadians and permanent residents aren't available. IRCC also continues to prioritize work permit applications in this sector.
If pressed on construction:
• Immigration will remain essential in helping employers bridge critical skills gaps in the construction sector, in addition to existing efforts to train and retrain Canadians.
• IRCC is using tools to bring in construction workers when Canadians are not available, as well as workers with needed skills in new and innovative construction techniques.
• Between 2023 and September 2025, over 22,600 principal applicants with a primary occupation in construction-related occupations were provided permanent residence through economic programs.
• IRCC is working with ESDC and provinces and territories to help ensure that foreign trained professionals can work in these occupations.

Labour Shortages

Employment data , second quarter 2025, Job vacancies, first quarter of 2025
• The Canadian labour market has largely withstood the impact of the trade dispute on U.S. exposed sectors in 2025 and continued slow hiring. However, US tariffs have begun to hurt employment in the sectors most dependent on trade, particularly the energy and forestry, manufacturing, and transportation sectors. Together, these sectors make up about 10% of employment.
• The total labour demand (the sum of filled and vacant positions) rose by 42,200 (+0.2%) in the first quarter of 2025, due to an increase in employment (+62,800; +0.4%).
• Job vacancies fell for both full-time (-14,000; -3.4%) and part-time (-6,600; -5.0%) positions in the first quarter of 2025. Vacancies for permanent positions (-18,000; -4.0%) also fell in the first quarter of 2025, while temporary positions saw little change. The recent drop in job vacancies has been broad-based across industries.
• However, layoff data shows that three industries (wholesale trade, durable goods manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing) posted slightly higher layoff rates in Q2 2025 compared to pre-pandemic levels.
• As of August, the competition for jobs has increased, demonstrated by the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio in August 2025 (3.5) compared to August 2024 (2.8), an increase of 0.7 unemployed persons per job vacancy . In addition, the unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 years reached 14.7% in September 2025 compared to 7.1% for the national average, adding to a notable increase recorded since spring 2023 .
• The U.S. tariff measures on Canada will create economic instability and impact national and regional labour markets in the long term. Immigration levers will need to adjust to minimize disruption to the Canadian economy and support Canada’s evolving workforce strategy while avoiding a displacement effect on domestic labour as competition for jobs increases.

ESDC Labour Market Diagnostique
• Despite a slowing economy and a new trade environment, many occupations will still face structural labour shortages.
• Sectors that are facing pressure include construction, agri-food; health care sector; education sector; energy and renewable energy; as well as, defense and cybersecurity.
• Rural and urban regions also face different sector specific labour market challenges.

Immigration’s Role in Addressing Labour Shortages

• 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 and permanent residents seeking to contribute to the Canadian labour market, and fill persistent labour needs, including in critical sectors such as healthcare and construction.

Express Entry
• IRCC is adjusting adjusting the Express Entry system to prioritize top talent and skilled workers who can meet labour market needs.

• Express Entry provides a pathway to permanent residence for a range of highly-skilled candidates who demonstrate the potential to successfully integrate, contribute to Canada’s economy, address labour market needs across the economy.

• 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.

• In 2025, to meet Francophone immigration targets and help address long-term labour market needs, IRCC has been conducting category-based invitation rounds that prioritize candidates with strong French language proficiency, or work experience in the following categories:
o Healthcare and social services occupations, such as family physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, psychologists and chiropractors;
o Trades occupations, such as carpenters, plumbers and contractors; and,
o Education occupations, such as teachers, child care educators and instructors of persons with disabilities.
• As a result, the number of invitations to apply issued to francophones and those with work experience in in-demand occupations, such as trades and healthcare, has increased.

Regional Economic Immigration Programs
• Permanent immigration options to address key labour shortages include regional economic immigration programs such as the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP); the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP); and Rural and Francophone Community Immigration Pilots (RCIP and FCIP), which provide regionally targeted options tailored to local labour market needs.
• From January 2023 to September 2025, Permanent Economic Immigration Programs admitted approximately 22,600 principal applicants in select construction related occupations.
• From 2023 to September 2025, Regional Economic Immigration Programs admitted approximately 11,300 principal applicants in select healthcare occupations.

Provincial Nominee Program
• The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is a jointly administered program which supports provinces and territories (PTs) in meeting their evolving labour market needs by allowing them to design targeted streams in their respective jurisdictions.
• Since the launch of the PNP, the number of economic immigrants settling outside of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia increased from 11% in 1998, to 36% in 2024. As of 2024, it has been the main source of economic immigration for nine of the 11 participating jurisdictions.

Atlantic Immigration Program
• The Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) aims to attract skilled immigrants to Atlantic Canada to address demographic and economic needs, and includes targeted measures designed to increase retention and prioritize sectors with in demand labour market needs.

Rural and Francophone Community Immigration Pilots

• Built on the success of the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) and other regional programs, the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP), were launched in January 2025, to support 18 rural and Francophone-minority communities across Canada with attraction and retention of newcomers.

• The RCIP offers a pathway to permanent residence for newcomers that can help address critical labour market gaps in priority sectors (as determined by each community annually) in rural communities. The complementary FCIP aims to increase the number of French-speaking newcomers settling in Francophone-minority communities outside of Quebec, supporting local economic development, and helping restore the demographic weight of Francophones within these communities.

Agri-Food Pilot (Expired)
• The five-year Agri-Food Pilot, which expired on May 14, 2025, tested an immigration approach to help address the longstanding labour needs in year-round occupations in the mushroom and greenhouse crop production, meat processing, and livestock raising industries. The pilot provided experienced full-time workers with a pathway to permanent residence.
• Applications received under the pilot will be processed to completion, according to the Immigration Levels Plan.

Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots
• In March 2025, the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots were launched, one for home child care providers and one for home support workers.
• These pilot programs test a direct-to-permanent residence approach, and expand access to qualified home care workers, with adjusted language and education requirements. Home care workers provide important services to seniors, children and individuals living with disabilities, helping meet care sector needs.
• Over the past decade (2015 to 2024), over 114,800 home care workers and their family members were admitted as permanent residents through caregiver programs.
• The current caregiver inventory (as of October 1, 2025), is approximately 43, 300 persons, the vast majority of who (an estimated 80%) are likely to be in Canada.

Temporary Worker Programs

• Though IRCC is decreasing the number of temporary workers overall, temporary work programs are important to labour mobility and attracting talent. 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 (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP) provide an important source of labour for employers facing labour shortages.

• IRCC continues to prioritize work permit applications in essential sectors such as agriculture, food processing, and health care, to ensure that the labour needs of these sectors continue to be supported.

• Strategic measures to help fill labour shortages and skills gaps under the IMP include:
o Innovation Stream
 This enables innovative Canadian employers selected by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada under the Global Hypergrowth Project (GHP) to hire highly talented individuals. The stream is in place for a 2-year pilot period until March 2026, and will offer an Labour Market Impact Assessment exemption for foreign nationals with a job offer in a TEER 0-3 occupation from a GHP company.
o Foreign Apprentices
 On February 26, 2025, IRCC launched a new public policy allowing foreign apprentices in eligible construction trades already working in Canada to study without a study permit to meet their apprenticeship study requirements.

• In 2024, ESDC implemented several changes to the TFWP, primarily to tighten access to the Low-Wage stream.

• In parallel, IRCC announced several policy changes to recalibrate the IMP and strengthen the integrity of the immigration system, including:
o Restricting open work permit access for family members to 1) spouses of students in a Master’s program of 16 months or longer, doctoral programs, certain professional programs, and select pilot programs; and 2) spouses of high-skilled workers employed in a management or professional occupation, or a job linked to sectors with labour shortages or government priorities and the principal foreign national has 16 months or more remaining on the work permit;
o Tightening Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program eligibility to include language requirements and to better align with labour market needs;
o revoking – ahead of expiry - a temporary public policy that allowed visitors to apply for a work permit from within Canada.

Measures Supporting Labour Market Integration

• IRCC continues to work 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.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 Settlement’s pre-arrival and in-Canada settlement services. They help permanent residents integrate into Canadian society and the labour market more effectively by providing language and skills training and supporting employer engagement, ultimately supporting for faster workforce integration.

• IRCC is also improving labour market access for open work permit holders, like asylum claimants. This includes providing timely access to open work permits and working with a range of stakeholders to facilitate employment connections for asylum claimants. Through these efforts, the Government aims to assist asylum claimants in achieving independence, help employers fill important labour market gaps and grow the Canadian labour force.

• Budget 2025 proposes to provide $97 million over five years, starting in 2026-27, to ESDC to establish the Foreign Credential Recognition Action Fund to work with the provinces and territories to improve the fairness, transparency, timeliness, and consistency of foreign credential recognition, with a focus on health and construction sectors. This funding will be sourced from existing departmental resources.

None