Canada is going to introduce new “selection tools” next year that will help its immigration system better target sectors such as health care and construction that have the highest need for labour, immigration minister Sean Fraser said on Tuesday.

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Canada to admit 1.4 million immigrants in three years to address labour shortages Back to video

Fraser didn’t elaborate on the new mechanism, but said it would provide a “more nimble and flexible way” to address labour shortages. He also announced that the country’s latest immigration targets are 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2025 and 500,000 in 2025.

The numbers are higher than last year’s plan, which targeted 447,055 newcomers in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024.

“We can’t afford to keep bringing doctors here who aren’t able to work as doctors, we can’t afford to bring skilled tradespeople here who aren’t working as skilled tradespeople,” Fraser said.

The new mechanism will attract newcomers “with the skills that will be in demand in Canada,” he said, “specifically the workers who are going to help release pressures on our health-care system and build more homes for Canadians.”

Immigration plays a key role in Canada’s labour supply, accounting for 84 per cent of the growth in the total labour force during the 2010s, according to Statistics Canada.

At the same time, data shows the skills of newcomers are regularly underutilized. The number of university-educated immigrants working in jobs requiring a university degree fell to 38 per cent in 2016, from 46 per cent in 2001, compared to 60 per cent for Canadian-born workers, according to Statistics Canada.

We can’t afford to keep bringing doctors here who aren’t able to work as doctors

Sean Fraser

At least a third of 500 newcomers recently surveyed by Angus Reid Institute and Publicis Media had to “downgrade their jobs to get their foot in the door.”

Fraser said the federal government wants to address the issue, but “can’t do it alone” since regulated professions — in which workers need certificates to practice — are controlled by provincial governments.

For example, he said the federal government cannot insist upon new criteria to recognize health-care professionals. However, he hopes the new mechanism will encourage provinces to “sort out” the foreign credential issue.

If the provinces do, Fraser said “we can more easily justify a targeted draw in your part of the country that will allow someone to come and work at their full potential.”

The latest immigration plan also indicates that about 60 per cent of newcomers who enter the country by 2025 will be part of the economic immigration categories. People who aren’t part of this category include those who enter the nation on humanitarian grounds and for family reunification.

The Business Council of Canada (BCC), a group of 150 large companies that had previously proposed that 65 per cent of newcomers belong to the economic category, said the country needed “bolder admission targets” to fill nearly one million job openings.

“Unfortunately, economic-class permanent residents represent only 58.5% of total admissions in the plan announced today. This is far fewer than the number needed to support Canadians’ high standard of living,” BCC chief executive Goldy Hyder said in a statement.

Carrie Freestone, an economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, said the decision to prioritize sectors that have labour shortages was a positive one.

“We have over a million job vacancies in Canada right now and even if we do meet these immigration targets over the next three years, we won’t necessarily be able to fill all the labour shortages,” she said. “So, obviously, we want to prioritize the sectors where we have the labour shortages.”

However, she said it was also important to focus on “embedding” the targets into Canada’s infrastructure plans to make sure the infrastructure is in place “to welcome everyone.”

Rebekah Young, vice-president and head of inclusion and resilience economics at the Bank of Nova Scotia, said the targets needed to be “integrated into a broader economic growth agenda,” with authorities considering a sector’s contribution to growth and its track record to invest in labour. 

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield