Alberta lifts restrictions on hiring new temporary foreign workers
Alberta has lifted restrictions on hiring temporary foreign workers in the province, to help employers meet their workforce needs. All pending applications, including those submitted prior to May 1, are subject to this change.
Background:
Before this change, the Alberta government had a “refusal to process” list. This list, which is managed by the Government of Canada, contained occupations for which employers could not hire temporary foreign workers in the province. Why? Because they were prioritizing jobs for unemployed Albertans due to the pandemic. Therefore, employers could not submit applications to the Canadian government to hire temporary foreign workers in those occupations.
Change to temporary foreign workers in Alberta
As of May 1, 2022, the Alberta government removed all occupations identified on the ‘refusal to process’ list. According to a provincial statement, the change will support sectors of Alberta’s economy that are experiencing labour shortages and are also struggling to fill available positions with Canadian workers.
Also, according to Statistics Canada, the province had about 88,000 job vacancies.
Moreover, Alberta says it will monitor the impact of this change and make adjustments as necessary to ensure the TFWP continues to benefit its economy.
It is important to mention that nationally, Canada is experiencing labour shortages across the country. For example, Ontario has more than 300,000 jobs going unfilled. Therefore, the Ontario government is committed to attracting more skilled newcomers. And, in order to do that, Ontario is investing an additional $15.1 million to improve and expand the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).
<<Also Read: Alberta: New Immigration Tech Pathway>>
Alberta’s improvements
In January, Alberta announced the Accelerated Tech Pathway, a ‘fast track to permanent residence’ for tech professionals.
In addition, in February, the Rural Renewal Stream and the Rural Entrepreneur Stream were added to the existing five streams offered under the newly-named AAIP.
Moreover, the province also renamed three of its existing streams:
- The International Graduate Entrepreneur Immigration Stream is now the Graduate Entrepreneur Stream, also
- the Foreign Graduate Start-Up Visa Stream is now the Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur Stream, further,
- the Self-Employed Farmer Stream is now the Farm Stream.
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