Monte McNaughton, Ontario’s immigration minister wishes to witness double the immigrants for the province through the Provincial Nominee Program and also gain more power over economic immigration.
As per official reports, there are over 211,000 immigrants to be welcomed in Ontario this year. McNaughton even reiterated that Ontario gets to choose less than five percent of the immigrants. He shared examples of other provinces, such as Quebec, which had a chance to select over 50,000 candidates this year, British Columbia could also choose over 11,000 candidates, and even Nova Scotia could select 50 percent of the immigrants. With other provinces having more control over economic immigration, McNaughton felt that Ontario remained at a significant disadvantage. He even stated that he seeks a new deal with Ottawa related to immigration.
McNaughton also reported that while 211,000 new immigrants will come to Ontario, over 378,000 jobs will remain vacant and unfilled. This is the reason why Ontario can send only 9,750 nominations through Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) for attaining permanent residency in Canada.
McNaughton even narrated his experience where he could only witness signs for required help in businesses rather than any election signs. He even acknowledged the second consecutive victory of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party. He even believes that if Ontario has to fill labor shortages, the federal government must work in close alignment with them.
The Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement determines the entire framework of Ontario’s relationship with the federal government for immigration purposes. COIA will soon be expiring during the fall season. Canada’s immigration system operates based on shared jurisdiction between the provincial, federal and territorial governments.
The federal government finalizes the Canadian immigration decisions. However, the Canadian provinces and territories are authorized to have their own selection criteria for each immigration program. Now that the COIA is due for expiry, Ontario can certainly request changes regarding its immigration bond with the federal government.
McNaughton even confirmed that he is frequently in touch with the Canadian immigration minister, Mr. Sean Fraser. He even stated that the request for changes is already under process.
Ontario requests two primary things from the federal government
Ontario has displayed its support for the federal government’s initiatives to bring families together and help refugees re-settle. Recently, Ontario’s immigration minister requested the federal government for two primary changes, one being Ontario’s PNP allocation increase to 18,000 and the other, gaining more control over economic immigration.
He further explained that he only wished to have more power over the immigrants coming over to fill vacant jobs. Since the current system doesn’t seem to work out, it is better to change the ways by getting more immigrants. Increased immigrants will help fill labor shortages.
Ontario has taken initiatives for improving its credential recognition by abolishing the need for Canadian experience to attain a license in several regulated occupations. Ontario’s minister believes there is still scope for improvement for provincial economic immigration. He feels the need to improve the temporary foreign worker program and have more authority over the allocated spots.
Ontario’s immigration
Ontario bears one of the rare and unique immigration systems and is the largest province for the population. Hence, it is accustomed to welcoming a greater number of immigrants to Canada.
As recorded, Ontario welcomed 45 percent of Canada’s population before the pandemic occurred. Currently, Ontario comprises 40 percent of the Canadian population. Over 405,000 newcomers arrived in Canada because IRCC shifted temporary residents to permanent residency through Express Entry. IRCC took the initiative to meet the target of the immigration levels plan with over 400,000 new permanent residents. IRCCs policy shift benefitted Ontario significantly due to a greater population of international students and temporary foreign workers.
Ontario leads Canadian immigration due to several factors, such as its vast economy, presence of Diaspora communities, and immigrant settlement services. The first step toward improving immigration for smaller provinces and territories was way back in 1988, with the introduction of the PNP.
Provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta also operate through PNPs to meet the gap in the Canadian labor market. However, these provinces do not significantly benefit from PNP as much as they benefit from the federal economic immigration programs.
Before the arrival of the pandemic, Ontario was the only province that brought more immigrants from the family and refugee class compared to those from the economic class. The province even debated the fact that economic development was out of the question at a time when most adults were meeting their retirement age.
Canada and Ontario have been feeling the pangs of labor shortage a bit too much. The federal government is likely to experience challenges while maintaining the balance of national immigration goals. The primary issue is that Ontario is already one of the popular destinations for immigrants, particularly the economic-class immigrants selected through the federal government. If more power is given to Ontario, the rest of Canada’s immigration goals are likely to suffer.
The department might find a neutral solution to the problem by providing more OINP allocations along with PNP allocations to other provinces and territories as well. An increase in PNP allocation will greatly reduce the chances of OINP allocations.
The Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 was declared in February and it will be welcoming over 83,500 newcomers through PNP in 2022. The target will only gradually rise to 93,000 by 2024. In the entire history of Canada, these are the highest immigration figures, especially when compared to the first PNP which welcomed only 400 immigrants in 1999.
Sean Fraser will also bring forth the Immigration Levels Plan 2023 to 2025 by November 1, 2022. The targets for this plan will depend upon the feedback he receives from the Canadian communities and he even hinted at higher immigration levels.
