Syed Khan – January 02, 2022
The IRCC has worked on improving the online Express Entry application system by announcing that certain pathways would have their applications processed in under 2 weeks. The Express Entry system has the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class, and Provincial Nominee Program under it.
The IRCC has set the goal of welcoming 108,500 economic immigrants in 2021. The programs that target economic immigrants are the Start-Up Visa Pathway, the Provincial Nominee Program, and the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program.
Canada has also set a goal of bringing in almost 57,500 refugees and human rights activists, protecting persons under humanitarian and compassionate grounds in the Immigration Levels Plans of 2021-2023.
Immigration boosted Nova Scotia’s population by 6,170 in 2021 and helped the province surpass 1 million people in population figures. The top countries that newcomers arrived from are India, China, the Philippines, the UK. The province is credited with having the highest retention rate for any Atlantic Canadian province at 71%.
Nova Scotia immigration also announced a $2.5 million marketing campaign to attract immigrants and Canadians living in other provinces to settle down in Nova Scotia. This campaign aims to encourage more people to move to the Atlantic Canadian province and fix serious labor shortages. Nova Scotia welcomed new immigrants this year despite the border and travel restrictions, many of them who moved here from other provinces.
In January, the IRCC announced a policy allowing Post-Graduation Work Permit holders to apply for a one-time extension to obtain an open work permit. This is to give them more time to obtain work experience in order to be eligible to apply for permanent residence.
On February 13, 2021, the IRCC held its biggest Express Entry draw ever and invited 27,332 candidates to apply for permanent residence. In May, the IRCC launched 6 new temporary streams and announced that it would be accepting more applications than ever in the following sectors:
| Name / Type of occupation | The number of applications to be accepted: |
| Temporary workers in the healthcare sector | 20,000 |
| Temporary workers in non-healthcare essential occupations | 30,000 |
In December, the Prime Minister wrote an immigration mandate letter addressed to Fraser, outlining 13 issues that call for action like refugees, citizenship, temporary workers, economic immigration, processing times, the reunification of families, and francophone immigration.
The main theme of the letter highlights the need to prioritize and continue policies that fortify Canada’s immigration and refugee framework, bring in more newcomers to all Canadian provinces, which will, in turn, support Canada’s financial recuperation from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It goes on to encourage policies that will assist Afghans and human rights activists and to ‘continue to fortify family reunification and minimize application processing times, particularly those affected by COVID-19.’
The Trudeau government has also emphasized the reduction of application processing times, and addressing the delays that have been impacted by COVID-19. Over 1.8 million applications are still being processed in the IRCC database adding to the backlog.
Trudeau has also asked the Minister to coordinate and partner with the Minister of Employment in the establishment of a Trusted Employer system for Canadian companies hiring temporary foreign workers.
The immigration minister is expected to present his first Immigration Levels Plan, after assuming office, to the parliament in February 2022.
To boost immigration, it has been announced that the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program, launched in 2017 is to be turned into a permanent Canadian immigration program. This will come into effect from 1st January 2022.
This program can bring 6,000 new immigrants to Canada every year. From 2017 – 2021, over 9,800 candidates have been invited through the program in sectors like healthcare, food servicing, manufacturing.
In the report titled, Evaluation of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot, released by the IRCC last year, it has been noted that this program has been very successful in retaining immigrants in Atlantic Canada.
The government has made great efforts in bettering humanitarian policies and fostering an environment of secularity and welcomeness towards immigrants and refugees. However, at the end of the year, as Omicron cases rise, the government has started imposing restrictions back again.
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