CIMM – CIMM 78.1 – Number of Skilled Workers Brought Through All Programs in the Past Two Years – December 05, 2023

IRCC’s response to a request for information made by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on October 24,2023

Question

Mr. Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard, CPC): … Minister, back in August you were quoted as follows: “Canada ‘absolutely’ can’t build more houses without more immigrants, minister says”. In that article you were quoted as saying “The federal government is making housing more affordable and bringing in the skilled workers required to build more homes”.

I'm going to ask you this question. This year how many workers were brought into the federal skilled trades program?

Hon. Marc Miller: Do you mean construction workers, or just workers generally?

Mr. Tom Kmiec: I mean federal skilled trades in general.

Hon. Marc Miller: We could provide you with that number in due course.

What I can say is that if we want to build the houses that we ambitiously have set our targets for by 2030, we're going to need about 100,000 workers. Those cannot be—

Mr. Tom Kmiec: I'm sorry, Minister, the answer is 80 so far this year.

Hon. Marc Miller: We will provide you with the complete answer.

[…]

Mr. Tom Kmiec: Actually when you sit down and you begin to total the total amount of persons brought in through the federal skilled trades program it's something like 15,000 people. Then when you look at the number for retail sales and supervisors by NOC codes—which is how we classify people by job—it's 12,350. How is it possible that in the past two years you've brought as many retail supervisors as you did construction workers in the past seven years when you said it yourself that we need workers to build homes?

Hon. Marc Miller: You've only named one program first and foremost. Second, I do concede that we've never been particularly great outside temporary foreign workers to match supply and demand. That's why we've made a number of innovative policy announcements in the last few months, notably in ensuring under our global express entry program that we are actually bringing in the workers whom we need and that industry is asking us to do. As I mentioned before, we need about 100,000 workers to build the homes that we want to build. They aren't in this country right now. It's work that we'll have to do in the very short term if we want to actually get this done.

Mr. Tom Kmiec: Minister, how many workers then did you bring in under the federal skilled worker program?

Hon. Marc Miller: We can provide you a complete answer at a later date.

Mr. Tom Kmiec: This year so far it's 23,415. As you've just said, and Benjamin Tal from CIBC has also said, we are short 80,000 to 100,000 construction workers. Out of those from the federal skilled worker program, how many of them were NOC codes for construction?

Hon. Marc Miller: We can provide you that full answer at a later date.

[…]

Mr. Tom Kmiec: … These are all NOC codes. I'm going to refer to them, because these are important jobs for construction workers. For example, NOC code 75110 is construction trades helpers and labourers. That's an occupation that's very much in demand. How many are there?

Hon. Marc Miller: Again, we can provide you those numbers in due course.

Mr. Tom Kmiec: Just in case, I want to make sure, so I will read out the NOC codes I would like, and your department could then provide them to this committee. I would like all members to be able to have them. These are the numbers that should have been provided to this committee right now. NOC code 73102 is plasterers, drywall installers and finishers and lathers. Plumbers are NOC code 72012. Carpenters and cabinet workers are NOC code 72013. NOC code 72014 is for concrete finishers, roofers, painters and bricklayers.

I'll just remind you, Minister, that the CMHC says that we need 3.5 million homes built by 2030.

Then the NOC codes continue. I'd like you to provide this committee down to the granular level and also for groupings: NOC code groupings 70, 71, 72 and 73. This is the basic information that I would expect we could receive.

More generally, Minister, how many construction workers have you brought in this year in 2023, and how many last year in 2022 in all programs, whether it's express entry, the Canada experience class or any one of them?

[…]

Hon. Marc Miller: Again, MP Kmiec, you seem to already have these answers yourself, but, again, our teams will get back to you and give you full ventilation of those numbers that are in our possession.

Response

The Department is providing information for both Permanent Resident programs and Temporary Resident streams from January 1, 2021 to September 30, 2023 for the specific NOC codes requested by MP Kmiec. For permanent residents, it includes the Economic Class Programs: Federal Skilled Worker (FSW), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Trades (FST), Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), Atlantic Immigration Pilot/Program (AIP), Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), and the 2021 Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway. For temporary residents, it includes Temporary Resident Work Permit holders in the NOC codes as intended occupations. The information is broken down at both high level groupings (two-digit NOC codes) and detailed level (four-digit specific NOC codes) as follows:

Note: Values are rounded to the closest multiple of 5, as a result the words “around” or “approximately” are being used. This is done to prevent individuals from being identified when IRCC data is compiled and compared to other publicly available statistics. These totals are a unique count and may not be equal to the sum of permit holders in each occupation as an individual may hold more than one type of permit over a given period.

Permanent residents admitted under four-digit and two-digit NOC codes:

• Approximately 2,225 persons under the four digit NOC codes (around 5 of them were spouses or dependants, while the rest were principal applicants)
• Approximately 25,740 persons under the two-digit NOC codes (around 120 of them were spouses or dependants, while the rest were principal applicants)

Notes:

• Data are preliminary estimates and are subject to change.
• All values between 0 and 5 are shown as “--”. This is done to prevent individuals from being identified when IRCC data is compiled and compared to other publicly available statistics. All other values are rounded to the closest multiple of 5 for the same reason; as a result of rounding, data may not sum to the totals indicated.

Temporary resident holders of work permit in the four-digit and two-digit NOC codes:

• approximately 7,235 persons under the four-digit NOC codes had a work permit(s) that came into effect which allowed these permit holders to work in the following occupations.
• approximately 37,620 persons under the two-digit NOC codes had a work permit(s) that came into effect which allowed these permit holders to work in the following occupations:

Notes:

• Data are preliminary estimates and are subject to change.
• All values between 0 and 5 are shown as “--”. This is done to prevent individuals from being identified when IRCC data is compiled and compared to other publicly available statistics. All other values are rounded to the closest multiple of 5 for the same reason; as a result of rounding, data may not sum to the totals indicated.