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OTTAWA — Buried in the Liberals’ budget is a major change to the immigration system, allowing the government to target new immigrants with specific occupations or skills, just as the nation’s labor shortage hits. an unprecedented level.

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The changes are incorporated into the government’s budget bill, which is still pending in parliament. It gives Immigration Minister Sean Fraser the power to designate certain jobs or skills as high priority and target those groups for permanent residency.

The government’s current system has an express entry pool, where potential migrants are assessed using a points system, given a set number of points for their education, language skills, professional experience and other measures. When the government draws lots from the pool, it takes the people with the most points and invites them to apply for permanent residency.

During the pandemic, the number of people waiting in this pool grew to more than 200,000 people, as the government made few draws due to travel restrictions and instead focused on people already in Canada with work or student visas.

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The change in the budget would allow the government to be more selective, choosing people in certain categories, such as healthcare workers or shopkeepers, or even those destined for specific regions of the country. New draws are expected later this year to tackle the backlog, but they could use this new system to target specific professions.

Fraser said Canada’s economy is growing, but labor shortages are getting in the way and this change would help get workers to where they’re needed most.

“Our unemployment rate is not only the lowest level since the start of the pandemic, but the lowest level since we started tracking these statistics in 1976,” he said. “Despite the extraordinary economic recovery we are already seeing, there is more we can do.”

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Fraser said the points system does a great job of finding the best and the brightest, but it doesn’t necessarily match the needs of the economy.

“We will have the ability to not only bring in people who are highly educated or have incredible work experience, but who are educated and have experience in the sectors that need them the most,” he said.

Fraser said it could allow the government to send French-language health care workers or educators to his home province of Nova Scotia or other specific professions to areas that need them.

“It gives flexibility to the Express Entry system without increasing the burden on Canada’s immigration system,” he said.

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Betsy Kane, an immigration lawyer in Ottawa, said the current system excludes some people, despite high demand for their skills, and she welcomes the change.

“There are a lot of factors that I would say artificially push them to the bottom of the pool. It’s a way of screening the people they recruit to go straight into the job market,” she said. “This pandemic has shown us that we don’t always need the best and the brightest. We need boots in the field to get the job done.

Fraser said the government will rely on conversations with the business community as well as data from Statistics Canada to select the professions it targets. He stressed that his intention was to add to the existing system and not to replace it.

The Liberals’ immigration plan calls for a continued increase in the number of immigrants, with a target of more than 400,000 arrivals this year.

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With such high levels, Fraser said the government should continue to be able to bring in large numbers of economic immigrants. He said people who score high in the current system will still be recruited, but it will give everyone an opportunity.

“Right now, the people who are being left out are those who may have the skills they’re looking for, but don’t necessarily have the highest score.”

Figures released Thursday by Statistics Canada show more than one million vacancies across the country right now, a record high, with vacancies in every province.

Leah Nord of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the change but urged the minister not to be too selective as employers are struggling in all sectors.

“We are in an unprecedented labor shortage, it’s not even a labor shortage, it’s a labor crisis in this country,” he said. she stated. “Right now, we would say don’t choose. We need all professions.

Nord said the government should also ensure that people who come to Canada can work in their field and not be held back if their credentials are not recognized.

“The recognition of diplomas is the key for this. It’s just not numbers, it can’t happen in a vacuum.

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