— A fantastic opportunity for foreign professionals
Canada’s new immigration targets are extraordinary — more than 1.4 million new permanent residents will be admitted by 2025 to aid with labor shortages and to increase productivity. This figure is simply the highest in modern Canadian history. In fact, the last time that it came close to such staggering numbers was in 1913, when 401,000 newcomers were invited to settle in Canada. At the same time, Canada’s population growth remains historically low, and the weakest growth since the First World War. Nevertheless, this presents a remarkable opportunity for foreign professionals who wish to work or live in Canada.
The new immigration plan presented by Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship aims to welcome 465,000 people in 2023, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025. The new immigration plan will expand the eligible skill levels and ease access to permanent resident status for those categories who were previously excluded from the selection system, such as nurse assistants, transport truck drivers, aestheticians, dental assistants, teaching assistants, heavy equipment operators and many more. In fact, a ministerial memorandum, dated February 21, 2022 indicated 16 new occupational jobs to be included under the new selection system for express entry.
The decision for such record levels which will continue in the coming years comes down to economics and Canada’s aging population. Canada’s working-age population has never been older. According to Statistics Canada, between 2016 and 2021, more than 1.4 million Canadians entered the ranks of those aged 55 and older. Last year alone, one out of five Canadians of working age were aged 55 to 64, averagely — this is an all-time high in the history of the Canadian census. Rupa Banerjee, Canada’s Research Chair for Economic Inclusion, Employment and Entrepreneurship of Canada’s immigrants, in an article for McLean’s magazine entitled, ‘My Prediction’ has warned that Canada could be heading toward a population crisis. He mentioned, “We’re getting older. Our birth rates are too low—10.15 per 1,000 people in 2022—and declining every year. We simply don’t have the taxpayer base to sustain our aging population or the workers to fill gaps across the labour market. In March of last year, job vacancies rose to record levels, with more than a million open positions across the country. We need people, not just in tech and health care, but across the economy.”
As Banerjee rightly predicted, in every industry, provinces are complaining of labour shortages. As of the second quarter of 2022, there were more than a million vacant jobs in Canada — the highest quarterly number on record. Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration has said, “Canada needs more workers in every sector in every region of the country, regardless of whether it’s front-line health-care workers, truck drivers, home builders or software engineers.” The good news is that the new plan focuses on the Express Entry system to fast-track immigrants with the required skills and qualifications in sectors with acute labour shortages such as health care, manufacturing, building trades, science, engineering and technology sectors.
Furthermore, in June 2002, the government passed Bill C-19 which made amendments to the Refugee and Immigration Act. The bill provides significant changes to the Express Entry system. Express Entry includes all major economic immigration categories, such as the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class, and a component of the Provincial Nominee Program. The amendment of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) was a measure to make the Express Entry system more responsive to the current labour market requirements of Canada. The Express Entry is no longer a straightforward point-based system but a system that facilitates and invites immigrants based on Canada’s pressing issues and key economic goals. These economic goals would be determined by the immigration minister who would accordingly create in-demand categories that would be eligible to receive applicants.
According to Bill C-19, the immigration authorities will invite candidates with in-demand skills in the first quarter of 2023. In other words, authorities will invite Express Entry candidates based on the most pressing economic needs and urgent labour shortages. One of the sectors which this program targets in the coming years is healthcare. Seen as one of the most pressing occupational categories as of October 2022, the job vacancy rate in healthcare stood at 6 percent. Even before the pandemic, government employment resources were forecasting a shortage of 36,500 nurses for the period from 2019 through to 2028. Moreover, a 2018 analysis predicted a shortage of 117,600 nurses in Canada by 2030 (Scheffler & Arnold, 2018). According to 2020 data, a third of registered nurses who provide direct care are 50 or older and nearing retirement (Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, 2021). For this reason, under the new amendments, Canada’s provinces are likely to focus on more immigrant nursing professionals. The nurse shortage in Canada has brought fantastic opportunities for foreign professionals. For example, a nurse in Nunavut (northern Canada) can earn an annual wage of $169,045 based on 37.5 hours of work per week. The median annual wage for nurses across Canada is $78,000 based on that standard workweek. This is in fact nothing new. Canada was experiencing nursing shortages even before the pandemic. However, the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the need for nurses in Canada. Thus, the federal and provincial governments have been adding programs to encourage more nurses to come into the labour force. One of the ways to fill job vacancies in the industry is to offer pathways to permanent residency for foreign nurses. In Ontario alone, the plan is to invest $342 million over the next five years to hire more than 13,000 healthcare workers to the province.
The new plan also aims to increase regional programs to address targeted local labour market needs. As such, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is what the government uses to address specific labour market needs that are becoming increasingly more prominent across the country. With this program, provinces can nominate certain candidates for their specific job market needs. Consequently, in 2023 we are expecting that Canada will admit 105,500 new permanent residents PNPs. More importantly, the plans for 2024 and 2025 will continue with more newcomers through PNPs and are expected to grow. In addition, Canada also operates a number of employer-driven pilot programs targeting specific areas of the economy or regions with chronic labour shortages such as the Atlantic Immigration Program. Covering the four Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador and Prince Edward Island, the program has an allocation of 8,500 spaces for skilled workers and international graduate immigrants in 2023. However, one of the main requirements for applying is a job offer from a designated Canadian employer. The greater advantage of the pilot project is that it provides a pathway to permanent residency for experienced workers in specific occupations and industries.
Moreover, an auspicious news for international students in 2023 is that the government has announced very positive changes to the Working Hours policy for international students in Canada. This change will allow over half of a million international students to work more hours while they attend their classes, making Canada an even more attractive international student destination. In addition, Canada’s federal Economic Immigration Programs and many Provincial Nominee Programs offer bonus points for candidates who studied and graduated in Canada. As such, since the Express Entry Program was introduced in 2015, the system has been adjusted to give certain advantages to international students who completed studies in Canada. For example, the addition of up to 30 points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score for those who have completed a Canadian post-secondary educational credential. Also, international students and graduates who have worked in Canada for at least one year can immigrate permanently through the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) which is part of Canada’s Express Entry immigration system. These new immigration rules are intended to make it easier for foreign students to stay in Canada even after they graduate. By allowing them to work while they study, and giving them more time to find a job after graduation, Canada hopes that more foreign students will choose to make Canada their home in the future.
As Canada continues to recover from the COVID 19 pandemic shockwaves, Canadian employers are actively looking to fill hundreds of thousands of vacant positions in all sectors across the Canadian economy. At the same time, Canada is currently undergoing a labour shortage due to an aging population and low birth rate. At this important juncture in Canadian history, immigration is more important than ever to fuel Canada’s economy. Canada’s new and exciting plan embraces immigration as a strategy to help businesses find workers and to attract the skills required in key sectors—including health care, skilled trades, manufacturing and technology — to manage the social and economic challenges Canada will face in the years ahead. The government’s targets of 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025 are unparalleled in Canadian immigration history. Moreover, with the launch of the new National Occupational Classification (NOC 2021), 16 new occupations now qualify for Express Entry through the Federal Skilled Worker Program. This provides a unique and a fantastic opportunity for Foreign Professionals to immigrate to Canada.
The Canadian government’s new immigration plan will be in effect during 2023-2025. The strategy includes several changes to the current system, including a new points-based system for assessing potential immigrants. The plan is designed to increase the number of immigrants coming into the country, while also ensuring that those who do come are better equipped to enter the workforce and contribute to Canada’s fast-growing economy. The extraordinary recent changes in Canadian immigration with the introduction of Bill C-19, has altered how the government chooses applicants through its Express Entry system. Canada’s new “selection tools” will help its immigration system to better target sectors. However, this new system might be complex and challenging for new applicants. While you do not need to use an immigration professional such as a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant or an immigration lawyer, we are happy to assist those who wish to use a professional to assist them with assessing their eligibility and filing their immigration, work permit, study permit and for visitor visa applications for Canada. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our team at One Heart Immigration Services.
