To spread the benefits of immigration to all parts of the country, we have launched several pilots that have a regional or sectoral focus and are currently developing, with stakeholder input, options for the Municipal Nominee Program.
These pilots enable the Government to respond to specific labour market challenges through targeted economic immigration strategies, including regional ones.
The Department has worked with provinces and territories, regions, employers, and communities, including Francophone minority communities, to develop and implement economic immigration pilots that test new approaches to program delivery, meet targeted labour needs, and to understand the factors that are important for retention of newcomers in regions outside of major cities.
Supplementary messages
Regional economic pilots
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot and the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot allow regional partners and stakeholders to align immigration to address economic and demographic challenges.
These pilots maintain a level of flexibility and innovation so the federal government, provinces and communities can prioritize the sectors or occupations that they identify as being most important to meet their economic development and labour needs, including to support efforts to fill labour gaps resulting from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also provide an opportunity to target other objectives, such as increasing Francophone immigration outside Quebec.
Further, these pilots are designed so that newcomers arriving to Canada are provided with tailored settlement supports to ease their integration, and ultimately retention, into their new community.
While admissions under these pilots are small relative to IRCC’s overall annual admissions, these innovative initiatives are invaluable tools allowing us to test out new approaches to immigration and settlement which influence future program design, including for a proposed Municipal Nominee Program.
Atlantic Immigration Pilot – next steps to permanency
Consultations with provincial partners and stakeholders on permanent program design features have been completed and next steps towards making the program permanent include anticipated regulatory amendments and bilateral agreements with each provincial partner, which aim to be completed before the Pilot concludes in 2021.
Sectoral economic pilots
The Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots, as well as the Agri-Food Pilot, help to fill longstanding sectoral labour market needs across Canada.
These economic immigration pilots provide additional pathways to permanent residence for experienced workers in specific caregiving and agri-food occupations. Eligibility criteria were established in recognition of factors which have been shown to lead to long-term economic establishment in Canada.
The recently-launched Agri-Food Pilot tests a new, industry-based approach to economic immigration. The success of this initiative could help to drive further innovation in leveraging immigration to fill key sectoral labour market needs.
Supporting facts and figures
Atlantic Immigration Pilot
Since its launch in 2017, participating employers in the Atlantic Immigration Pilot have made over 7,500 job offers in key sectors including accommodations and food services, manufacturing and health care. This has resulted in over 6,900 approved permanent residents in the Atlantic region.
From January to September 2020, 1,395 newcomers have been admitted through the Pilot, as compared to 3,066 over the same time period in 2019. Under the Pilot, the established processing standard is six months in 80% of the cases, however, service disruptions and restrictions due to COVID-19, as well as more flexibility around submission of supporting documents, will all have an impact on processing times.
Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
The Government of Canada is working with 11 community partners in Ontario and Western Canada to test a community economic development driven approach to immigration.
As of November 2020, community partners have recommended about 200 candidates and their families for immigration to their communities. The first two permanent residents were admitted under the pilot in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, in October 2020. These candidates were already living in the community.
(If announced before CIMM) To provide greater facilitation during the pandemic, candidates no longer have to obtain eligible work experience over a continuous period of time, therefore candidates are not penalized for short breaks in their employment history, including temporary work interruptions or layoffs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, applicants can now demonstrate that they have accumulated the required one year of eligible work experience (1,560 hours) in the three years preceding their application, even if there were breaks in their employment. The policy applies to all applications received under this Pilot, as well as all future applications going forward.
IRCC also introduced a temporary measure that allows Pilot applicants who are waiting for a decision on their permanent residence application to apply for a work permit without being penalized due to processing delays caused by the pandemic.
Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot
From April 2018 to November 2020, Canada landed 7 skilled refugees through existing economic pathways (e.g. Provincial Nominee Program, Atlantic Immigration Pilot) as permanent residents, plus 13 family members.
In June 2020, the Minister of IRCC announced Canada’s ongoing commitment to labour mobility for refugees by committing to admit 500 refugees through economic pathways over the next 2 years, with Project facilitation. This will support the COVID economic recovery efforts by targeting chronically in-demand sectors, and responding to regional and local labour needs.
Agri-Food Pilot
The Agri-Food Pilot was developed to help address labour needs and support export growth in the agri-food sector. The three-year pilot launched on May 15, 2020, with a total of up to 2,750 applications accepted for processing annually. Including family members, 16,500 new permanent residents are expected throughout the duration of the Pilot.
The Pilot is testing an industry-specific approach to help address labour shortages in the Canadian agri-food sector, particularly in the meat processing, mushroom and greenhouse crop production, and livestock raising industries. It provides a new pathway to permanent residence for experienced, non-seasonal workers in specific occupations and industries.
Caregiver pilots
Interest in the Home Child Care Provider pilot is high: Estimates indicate that we have received at least 2,750 applications under this pilot for 2020.
Background
Atlantic Immigration Pilot
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot is a collaborative partnership between IRCC and the Atlantic provinces. Specifically, the Pilot is designed as a pan-Atlantic approach to address labour market needs and increase newcomer retention through an employer-driven model with enhanced settlement supports.
Since its launch in 2017, the Atlantic Immigration Pilot (the Pilot) has been well received, and has significant brand recognition across the region and internationally. According to the recently completed IRCC evaluation, the Pilot was successful in meeting its objectives in the Atlantic region, with a large majority (90%) of Pilot principal applicants still living in Atlantic Canada.
As a result, the Government will transition the Pilot to a permanent program in January 2022, following the completion of the initial “pilot” phase. IRCC is working with partners and stakeholders, including weekly engagement with the Atlantic provinces, to ensure that the roll-out of the permanent program incorporates all of the lessons of the Pilot, and the findings of the evaluation. For example, adjustments will be made to strengthen program integrity by increasing information sharing among delivery partners and the Canada Border Services Agency; making design adjustments that ensure the program is limited to genuine Atlantic employers; and, continuing to leverage the tools IRCC has implemented to maintain program integrity, including the Anti-Fraud Working Group, a robust performance measurement framework and a program integrity dashboard.
The Department is finalizing negotiations with the Atlantic provinces, and will launch the regulatory process shortly.
Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
Through a community-based economic development approach, this pilot partners IRCC with 11 community organizations in northern Ontario and western Canada, who will recommend immigrants based on local economic development and labour market needs.
This pilot is testing new partnerships to determine whether pairing meaningful career opportunities with community-tailored settlement approaches can increase the attraction and retention of newcomers in smaller Canadian centres. The objective of this program is to help distribute the benefits of immigration to all regions of Canada.
Ten of 11 community partners have launched the pilot, some of them with a significant proportion of Francophones. To date, community partners have recommended about 200 candidates for permanent residence. All of the communities are expected to be launched and operational by the end of 2020.
The impacts of COVID-19 have meant some adjustments in the first year of the pilot, but communities have indicated that their long-term labour market needs continue to exist despite the pandemic. The Pilot offers some built-in flexibilities for communities to adjust to the current environment, for example, by prioritizing candidates in occupations that continue to face shortages even in the context of rising unemployment.
As a paper-based application program, the Pilot is facing processing delays due to the impacts of the pandemic. As a result, the number of newcomers who have arrived under the Pilot is well below what was expected in the first year, but is expected to grow once processing resumes.
As IRCC worked to develop this Pilot, they also worked with the Government of the Yukon to develop a community-driven pilot, within the context of their Territorial Nominee Program, tailored to the needs of the region. The Yukon Community Pilot will run for three years and partners the territorial government with six communities (i.e. Whitehorse, Watson Lake, Dawson City, Haines Junction, Carmacks and Carcross). The pilot allows applicants with a valid nomination from the Yukon and who meet the pilot requirements to apply for a location-restricted work permit. Applicants are able to work for up to three different employers in one of the participating communities while they await their permanent residency.
Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot
The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot is a complementary pathway to help refugees with the skills our economy needs to access Canada’s existing economic pathways to permanent residence, and meet the labour needs of Canadian employers.
Through this initiative, the Department seeks to raise awareness among Canadian employers about the untapped potential of the skilled refugee talent pool as another option to consider when recruiting for their labour needs.
This seeks to “change the narrative” about refugees, highlighting their skills and qualifications and not just their vulnerability, and further support economic development, while also ensuring these skilled refugees have the appropriate settlement and integration supports both pre and post arrival.
The Department is working to rapidly scale up the Project to bring in 500 refugees by June 2022, by working closely with interested provinces and territories, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot communities, employers and industry partners, and non-governmental organizations such as UNHCR, Talent Beyond Boundaries, RefugePoint, Shapiro Foundation, and World Bank.
Municipal Nominee Program
We look forward to adding a Municipal Nominee Program among our immigration pathways. Underserved communities have been expressing interest in meeting their specific needs for attracting and retaining a greater number of immigrants.
Throughout the summer and fall, IRCC engaged stakeholders, as well as provinces and territories, to identify key program objectives and potential design and delivery options. A report of what we heard from these consultations, as well as immigration levels consultations, is currently available on IRCC’s website. IRCC will continue to consult and collaborate with stakeholders and partners as the program is developed.
A Municipal Nominee Program represents an additional opportunity to actively engage Francophone communities, and bring players together (municipalities, economic development, employers) to better use immigration pathways toward attracting and retaining Francophones and delivering on Francophone Immigration Strategy objectives.
NOC C Initiative
In 2016, the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities produced a report on temporary workers that recommended that IRCC review pathways to permanent residence for temporary workers who fill labour market needs and have long employment tenure in Canada.
In response to this recommendation, 2,000 supplementary Provincial Nominee Program base spaces will be distributed to provinces and territories every year from 2019 to 2021. This allocation specifically targets increasing transitions to permanent residence for intermediate-skilled (National Occupational Classification skill level C) temporary foreign workers.
In addition to providing additional dedicated pathways to permanent residence for temporary foreign workers, this initiative allows provinces and territories to focus additional allocations on meeting their labour market needs in key sectors of the economy. In response to provincial/territorial requests, in 2019 the Department provided them with additional flexibility to recruit caregivers in NOC 3413 (nurse aides, orderlies, and patient service associates) and NOC 3414 (other assisting occupations in support of health services) via the initiative. The initiative is also testing a dedicated allocations model through the Provincial Nominee Program.
Caregiver pilots
The Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots opened for applications on June 18, 2019, and will run for five years. The two pilots can each accept up to 2,750 applications for processing annually, for a total of 5,500 principal applicants per year (plus family).
The objective of the pilots is to test a new two-step selection approach to provide a clear, assured pathway to permanent residence to caregivers from abroad and their families, while continuing to provide Canadian families with a range of caregiving options. Caregivers receive an open occupation-specific work permit if they have a job offer in Canada to work as a home child care provider (NOC 4411) or as a home support worker (NOC 4412) and meet select criteria for permanent residence upfront (language proficiency and education). Once working in Canada, caregivers can start working towards gaining the required two years of Canadian work experience.
Caregivers who already have two years of eligible work experience can apply directly to the program for permanent residence (in one step).
Agri-Food Pilot
The Agri-Food Pilot was developed to help address labour needs and support export growth in the agri-food sector. The three-year pilot, launched on May 15, 2020, with a total of up to 2,750 applications to be accepted for processing annually supports Canada’s commitment to attract the talent needed to fill skill shortages and drive local economies to benefit all Canadians.
The agriculture and agri-food industry is an important contributor to Canada’s economic growth and vitality, supporting one in eight jobs across the country. In 2019, agricultural exports hit a new record, reaching $67B.
