Province ‘allowed to select disproportionately small allocation of economic immigrants compared to other provinces’
Ontario is calling on the federal government to double the province’s current annual economic immigrants allocations to 13,300 over the next two years to address its skilled labour shortage.
“To ensure a prosperous future for Ontario, our province requires immigrants with the skills and experience our economy needs,” says Monte McNaughton, minister of labour, training and skills development. “Ontario is only allowed to select a disproportionately small allocation of economic immigrants compared to other provinces, at around 15 per cent — no other province is below 40 per cent.”
Last year, Ontario asked the federal government for increased allocation but only got 50 additional positions, he says.
“This simply does not meet the needs of Ontario’s economy, and does not support economic growth and job creation.”
Ontario started accepting applications for international students with job offers in the province last week and reached the maximum number of applicants allowed within hours.
“We need greater control to help ensure our specific economic needs are met. We need it to create jobs and prosperity for everyone," says McNaughton.
Nova Scotia and Manitoba recently announced they broke their immigration records in 2019.
Private firms continued to face a record-high job vacancy rate of 3.2 per cent for the sixth consecutive quarter in the last three months of 2019, according to a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB).
Skills availability, shortage of talent and talent attraction are among the top concerns of company executives for the future.
