Question Period Note: Labour Shortages

Immigration responses to labour shortages across Canada

• We are committed to building a strong economy by attracting the world’s best and brightest talent to fill key labour shortages.
• My department’s role is to help get the right people here through a safe, efficient immigration process when Canadians are not available to fill gaps in the job market.

• 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 on occupations with persistent labour shortages:
• Immigration remains essential in helping employers bridge critical skills gaps in key sectors like construction, health care, and others, in addition to existing efforts to train and retrain Canadians. My Department offers a range of immigration pathways for workers with experience in occupations facing persistent labour shortages.
• Express Entry categories are designed to help address long-term shortages in critical sectors – health care and social services, trades, education, STEM and transport – and are informed by the Canadian Occupational Projection System, as well as input from partners and stakeholders.
• We continue to work with provinces, territories, and communities to help them attract and retain newcomers who want to build their lives outside major urban centres.

Express Entry
• 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.

• Category-based selection allows Canada to invite candidates with the skills and experience needed to fill critical labour gaps and drive economic growth in key sectors and occupations. In 2026, IRCC will conduct category-based invitation rounds in the following occupations:
o Medical doctor, researcher, and senior manager occupations (requiring Canadian work experience).
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;
o Transport occupations, including pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors, and automotive service technicians; and,
o High-skilled foreign military applicants recruited by the Canadian Armed Forces in key occupations such as military doctors, nurses, and pilots.

• While STEM and education categories are also in place, the Department anticipates meeting targets for STEM and education workers, without dedicated category rounds.

Regional Economic Immigration Programs
• Regional economic immigration programs—including the Provincial Nominee Program, the Atlantic Immigration Program, and the Rural and Francophone Community Immigration Pilots —provide targeted pathways to address local labour shortages.
• In 2025, these programs admitted approximately 3,920 principal applicants in select construction occupations and 5,665 principal applicants in select health‑care occupations.

Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots
• From 2015 to 2024, over 114,800 home care workers and their family members were admitted as permanent residents through caregiver programs. In 2025, approximately 5,840 persons were admitted as permanent residents through caregiver programming.
• As of December 1, 2025, there are approximately 41,300 persons in the inventory the vast majority of who (an estimated 80%) are likely to be in Canada.
• To help bring immigration back to sustainable levels and provide clients with more predictability, IRCC paused the intake of new permanent residence applications until further notice.
• Home Care Workers with expiring work permits may apply to renew their work permit under Canada’s work permit programs. Those who are unable to do so will be expected to leave Canada when their permit expires.

Temporary Worker Programs
Even while Canada decreases overall numbers of non-permanent residents, temporary foreign workers are essential to Canada’s labour force, as they fill short term labour and skills gaps. 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 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 Adjusting Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program eligibility to include language requirements and to better align with labour market needs;

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. Budget 2025 provided $97 million over five years 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.

Immigration programs are also complemented by Settlement’s pre-arrival and in-Canada settlement services to help support labour market and social integration.

If pressed on Levels:
• We are working to reduce Canada’s temporary population to less than 5% of the total population by the end of 2027, while also prioritizing economic growth. In the 2026-2028 Immigration levels Plan, the economic category represents the largest proportion of permanent resident admissions each year, reaching 64% in 2027 and 2028.
• The Plan also increases admissions under the Federal High Skilled and Provincial Nominee Program, 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 on labour shortages in rural Canada
• Immigration remains an important tool to help fill roles that cannot be staffed locally.
• The Rural Community Immigration Pilot, allows communities to identify priority occupations and select candidates to address their most urgent needs. Early results show strong uptake in high‑pressure sectors, particularly health care and education.