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𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐣𝐨𝐛𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬,

𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen says Canada needs to bring in more foreign nationals to work in the building trades to fill jobs going begging for a lack of workers as Baby Boomers retire out of the workforce.

“We know there is over a million jobs in Canada that remain unfilled, so we need immigrants, skilled immigrants, to come in and help us fill those unfilled jobs and help us grow our economy,” Hussen reportedly told Global News in a year-end interview.                     “In addition to that, the irony is we actually need more people, skilled immigrants, to also help us in the building trades and the construction sector of our economy. We need those workers to actually come in and help us build the housing that Canadians need.”

Economists split on the impact of high immigration levels on housing costs in Canada

The housing and diversity and inclusion minister’s call for even more skilled immigrants to be allowed to immigrate to Canada comes in the wake of worries expressed by some Canadians that record-high levels of immigration are fuelling inflation in the country and exacerbating housing shortages.

“Mass immigration doesn’t make us richer,” tweeted People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier in late December.

“It doesn’t solve manpower and aging problems. And it worsens housing and healthcare shortages. Serious economists understand this.”

Economists have actually split on the impact of high immigration to Canada fuelling increases in house prices.

While some agree the increase in Canada’s population due to immigration drives up demand and pushes up housing prices, others claim the worry that immigrants in and of themselves will drive up housing prices in Canada is largely unfounded.

At the Urban Analytics Institute of Toronto Metropolitan University, director Murtaza Haider has reportedly told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that immigrants are not much of a pressure on the housing market.

“Most new immigrants … would not have cash or enough savings to go and start buying homes,” Haider reportedly said. “I don’t expect them to exert pressure on housing prices as much, but more so on the rental demand.

Canada had 959,600 job vacancies in the third quarter of 2022

“My guess is that most new immigrants will … not have cash or enough savings to go and start buying homes.”

In its 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan, Ottawa has set the target for 2023 at 465,000 new permanent residents. The country will welcome 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024 and another 500,000 in 2025.

That’s a total of 1.45 million immigrants to Canada over the coming three years.

Those newcomers to Canada could make a big dent in the country’s acute labour shortage, including in the number of jobs in the building trades that are vacant.

In its latest quarterly report, Statistics Canada noted 959,600 job vacancies in the third quarter of 2022, 8.3 per cent higher than in the third quarter of 2021 and 72.7 per cent higher than in the first quarter of 2020.

Among those job vacancies are 38,905 construction jobs advertised on the Indeed job-hunting website in late December. The Jobbank government-run job-hunting website rates the employment prospects for construction workers as good in most Canadian provinces for the next few years.

ᴬᵗˡᵃⁿᵗⁱᶜ ᴵᵐᵐⁱᵍʳᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᴾʳᵒᵍʳᵃᵐ ⁱˢ ᵇᵒᵒˢᵗⁱⁿᵍ ⁱᵐᵐⁱᵍʳᵃⁿᵗ ʳᵉᵗᵉⁿᵗⁱᵒⁿ ʳᵃᵗᵉ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵒᵘʳ ᴬᵗˡᵃⁿᵗⁱᶜ ᵖʳᵒᵛⁱⁿᶜᵉˢ8

Atlantic Canada is retaining more of its immigrants since launching the pilot program five years ago that became the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) in 2022, reveals Statistics Canada data.      “Three years into the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program (AIPP), the one-year retention rate of skilled workers and skilled trades categories had risen substantially in all Atlantic provinces,” notes Statistics Canada.

“However, such trends were not observed in most other provinces during the same period.”

Nova Scotia enjoys the most significant increase in the immigration retention rate

Nova Scotia enjoyed the most significant bump in its retention rate. The one-year retention rate of immigrants admitted in that province as skilled workers and skilled tradespersons in 2019, at 67.6 per cent, was more than three times higher than that of those admitted in 2016, at 21.5 per cent, before the AIPP was introduced.

“New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador’s one-year retention rates were also notably higher, each increasing by about 22 percentage points in four years,” notes the statistical and demographic services agency.

Prince Edward Island had the lowest five-year retention rate but the largest increase among recent arrivals.

Launched in 2017 in response to the low retention rates and the shrinking labour force in the Atlantic provinces, the AIPP recruits skilled foreign workers and international graduates and sees employers work with settlement service provider organizations to boost the retention of immigrants and their families.

Using the 2021 Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) released in early December, Statistics Canada has painted a picture of which provinces best managed to hang onto immigrants who settle there.

“Among immigrants admitted from 2010 to 2015, those who intended to reside in Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta were the most likely to stay in those provinces five years after their arrival,” notes Statistics Canada.

“The five-year retention rates of these three provinces were relatively consistent over time, with the exception of Alberta, where there was a drop from 88.9 per cent among immigrants who arrived in 2014 to 84.5 per cent among those who arrived in 2015.”

In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, provincial governments had a tougher time retaining immigrants.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan saw drops in their immigrant retention rates

“Both provinces’ retention rates decreased by more than 10 percentage points from the 2010 admission cohort to 2015,” noted Statistics Canada.

A good predictor of a province’s ability to hang onto its immigrants is the level of previous work experience of its newcomers. International students are the most likely to move out of a province but those who come to a province for a job are likely to stay.

“Among those admitted from 2010 to 2015 and who only had a work permit prior to admission, over 89 per cent filed taxes in their province or territory of admission five years after admission,” reports Statistics Canada.

“In contrast, those who only had a study permit prior to admission had the lowest provincial retention rates. The retention rate of this group was 82.5 per cent among those admitted in 2010 and fell to 74.7 per cent among those admitted in 2015.”

Those immigrants coming to Canada through family sponsorship programs were the most likely to stay put.

“Among immigrants admitted in 2010, 92.6 per cent of those sponsored by family remained in their province or territory of admission five years after admission, compared with 92.3 per cent among those admitted in 2015,” noted Statistics Canada.

“The five-year provincial retention rate of refugees was 86.1 per cent among the 2010 admission cohort and increased slightly to 87.4 per cent among that of 2015.”

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐭.

A temporary public policy has been issued to allow certain temporary residents in Canada with a visitor status to apply for a work permit from within Canada. While all visitors in Canada can apply for an employer-specific work permit under the public policy, only those who held a work permit in the last 12 months may request interim authorization to work.

The public policy came into effect on August 24, 2020, and the eligibility criteria were expanded to allow all visitors who are in Canada with valid temporary resident status to apply inland for an employer-specific work permit, regardless of when they arrived in Canada.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟐𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑.

𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐇𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐎𝐟 𝟒𝟑𝟏,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬.

Canada reached its historic target of 431,645 new immigrants in 2022, the federal government revealed on last week.

Without giving an exact figure, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) only said that it reached the target laid out in the Immigration Levels Plan for last year.

The number surpasses the record of more than 405,000 newcomers welcomed in 2021. IRCC also plans to break the record in each of the next three years, according to the 2023 to 2025 Immigration Levels Plan released in November.

𝙄𝙍𝘾𝘾 𝘼𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙏𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙩 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙮 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝟐 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨.

What’s New?

Previously, the spouses were only eligible for a work permit if the primary applicant was working in a high-skill occupation, for example, a job coming under TEER 0, 1, 2, or 3. However, now work permit holders working in any skill levels (TEER 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) can apply for spousal open work permit for their spouses. Furthermore, they can also apply for an open work permit.