IRC News update hosted by Polinsys. Today is the 15th of January, 2022

Saskatchewan No. 1 among Canadian Provinces in Job Growth

Saskatchewan is a top province for Job growth and is ranked number one among all Canadian Provinces according to Statistics Canada, a Canadian Government run national statistical office. Saskatchewan recorded the highest month over month job growth rate in comparison to other Canadian provinces. The unemployment rate in Saskatchewan reached pre-pandemic levels to 5.4% in major cities.

Provincial data also tells us that the gains were in health care and construction, 

“Even with the global economic volatility in 2021, Saskatchewan continued to create jobs and consistently had among the lowest unemployment rates in Canada. Our province is in an enviable position for economic growth in 2022,” said Jeremy Harrison, Minister of Immigration and Career Training, in a press release.

Saskatchewan offers several residency programs for foreign nationals

Under the SINP, Saskatchewan also offers PNP programs which is in addition to the Federal Express Entry picks. The following are some of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Programs:

1. International Skilled Worker Category for skilled workers
2. Saskatchewan Experience Category for foreign workers who are already living in Saskatchewan.
3. Entrepreneur and Farm Category for individuals who wish to own and actively operate a business or a farming business in Saskatchewan.
4. International Graduate Entrepreneur Category is for international students graduating from an eligible post-secondary institution in Saskatchewan and who are planning to start a business in the province.
5. Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot will allow Saskatchewan employers to recruit international workers under eligible jobs in health, manufacturing, agriculture, ag-tech, construction, hospitality, and retail sectors.
6. International Healthcare Worker Expression of Interest (EOI) pool under SINP.

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IRC News update hosted by Polinsys. Today is the 15th of January, 2022

Nova Scotia Entrepreneur Draw: Province Issues 22 Invitations

Business Migration selected 22 candidates this week. Nova Scotia selected 20 business candidates on December 22 with the lowest score of 119.Nova Scotia immigration also issued 2 invitations through the international graduate entrepreneur stream with the cut of point of 53. This was a long time waiting and an opportunity for Entrepreneurs around the world.

The Nova Scotia Entrepreneur stream offers foreign entrepreneurs and Senior Managers an opportunity to start a business venture in the province and benefit from a milestone based Permanent Residence opportunity.  Entrepreneurs or Senior Managers may start their own venture or buy a existing business in the province. They can choose to live in the Capital City of Halifax, or any other smaller cities in the province or even in rural areas. 

The province also offers its international students with entrepreneurial instincts to fulfill their dream of establishing a business in the province when on their PGWP and applying for nomination under the PNP program for International Graduate Entrepreneurs.

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This news coming to you from IRC News website hosted by Polinsys. Today is the 15th of January, 2022

Alberta launches new PNP pilot program to target tech jobs

The Alberta Immigration department is luring tech personnel into the province through a new Alberta PNP pilot program. The new Accelerated Tech Pathway began accepting applications last month. This program will offer technologists and professionals like civil and mechanical engineers, medical laboratory technicians. Software Developers and graphic designers an opportunity to be selected for Canadian Residency through the Alberta PNP program.

The minister had this to say: “Under this new pathway, tech professionals from across Canada and overseas can become permanent residents in as little as six months if they have a job offer in an in-demand tech industry occupation,” 

This program will operate similar to the other Alberta Express Immigration routes. This is a employer driven program where employers must start an express entry profile with the Government

Candidates must submit that information and their offer letter online. The province will then evaluate the information and invite the applicant to submit an application through the Alberta’s accelerated program.

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This is Joy Stephen from IRCC news coming to you from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario. Today is January 01, 2022

Nova Scotia continues to attract immigrants in strong numbers

The province of Nova Scotia continues to surpass previous immigration records and the population of the province has reached an all time high, exceeding 1 million habitants. Over the months, the province has approved 4,100 applicants with a focus on attracting skilled newcomers to essential services used by Nova Scotians. Some of the professions are from healthcare, transportation, skilled trades, education and hospitality. The following is from the press release by the Province of Nova scotia: 

In addition to strong immigration numbers, Nova Scotia experienced its sixth year of increased inter-provincial migration growth. Since 2015, inter-provincial migration has been increasing, leading to nearly 10,000 net new people coming to Nova Scotia from other provinces and territories in 2020-21.

“Nova Scotia is rapidly growing, and with planned growth comes many opportunities,” said Jill Balser, Minister of Labour, Skills and Immigration. “Newcomers fuel our economy, create new businesses and jobs, fill labour gaps and add to the diversity and culture in our communities. As we look ahead to 2022, we will continue to attract, welcome and retain global talent to enrich our province and create further economic growth.”

As of October 31, 6,169 permanent residents arrived in Nova Scotia this year, up from 3,001 over the same period last year. In 2019, Nova Scotia saw its highest number of immigrants landing in one year 7,580, and despite the pandemic, 2021 is on track to exceed that number.

Nova Scotia’s retention rate remains strong at 71 per cent – the highest in Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia’s settlement partners play a lead role in helping newcomers adapt to life in the province and preparing employers through intercultural competency training. These efforts significantly impact retention. Throughout the pandemic, these dedicated organizations have adapted to ensure accessibility of their services and programming to support newcomers.

The Department continues to be innovative and responsive to current and emerging labour needs and is focused on and committed to working with businesses, across government, and other stakeholders to ensure the Province has immigration programs that benefit employers, Nova Scotians and communities.

Nova Scotia is aiming to double its population to two million by 2060 with a goal to attract 25,000 newcomers per year through a combination of migration from other parts of Canada and strategic immigration efforts.

OK, here are some numbers from the Province:

1. AIPP applications: 1657
2. Nova Scotia PNP: 2443
3. Since 2015, Nova Scotia has approved 1534 Registered Nurses and Care assistants
4. In 2021 the province approved 68 early childhood educators
5. 1,735 international graduates have been approved to stay and live in Nova Scotia after their studies in 2021
6. from January 1 to April 1, 2021, 5,696 people moved to Nova Scotia from other countries and other parts of Canada, and the province’s population grew by 2,877 – the largest increase in a first quarter since 1971
7. In November the Department added food counter attendants, kitchen helpers, related support occupations, food and beverage servers and light duty cleaners to the Occupations in Demand immigration stream to help business owners in the service industry address labour shortages

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This is Joy Stephen from IRCC news coming to you from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario. Today is January 01, 2022

Why are younger people moving to Nova Scotia? 

The population of Nova Scotia has seen an increase in population over the years not only from Immigration but also cross provincial migration within Canada as well. The government targets to hit two million residents by 2060. The year 2021 has also seen a record number of younger people moving to Nova Scotia, the highest in recent memory. Statistics Canada’s figures indicate that Nova Scotia had seen the second highest population growth in the Country during the 2nd Quarter of 2021. It also showed that people between the age group of 20 to 34 contributed to 41% of the people who moved.

Figures also show that the number of people who moved from Ontario to Nova Scotia was especially high with  9,970 people between the fourth quarter of 2020 and 2021 moving to Nova Scotia from Ontario. 

The Nova Scotian city of Halifax is growing rapidly. It is seeing the largest growth in its 272-year-old history. Data shows that between July 2020 and July 2021, the Halifax Regional Municipality was up 11,394 residents, bringing the total population to just under 460,000 residents.

Immigration and foreign move to the province was very slow during the Pandemic and is likely to increase after the Pandemic. This is further going to increase population and is likely to force the province to look at improving public transportation, and other infrastructure projects. The province’s population growth forecast has included immigration as one of the factors to achieve the 2060 goals!

More population also means strain on health care, education, and housing. All these sectors are already facing challenges already. 

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This is Joy Stephen from IRCC news coming to you from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario.

Today is January 01, 2022  Canadian Residents had a good chance of becoming Canadian Permanent Residents in 2021,   The two Canadian Provinces Ontario and British Columbia took in the most number of Temporary Residents to Permanent Residents in 2021 based on IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s data. However most applicants under this quota based application process is still waiting for their Permanent Residence status. The Program closed on November 5, 2021 and had received 84,177 applications totally. The 30K application quota for the Workers in Canada quota received its full potential and the 40K Quota under the Essential, Non-healthcare stream also was filled.   In the streams accepting both anglophones and francophones, the program reached the maximum number of 30,000 applications for the Workers in Canada: Essential, Non-healthcare stream and also the maximum number of 40,000 applications under its Recent International Graduates From A Canadian Institution stream. French speaking workers in Canada did not have a quota and received 271 applications. Ontario Temporary residents attributed to more than half of the applications and Ontario also got most of the residents who were issued permanent residence in 2021. Data also shows that form Jan 2021 to Oct 2021, 5990 which translates to 52.4% new Permanent residents under this program settled in Ontario followed by BC with 3235 or 28.3% Here is a province wise breakdown of people who obtained permanent residence under this program: Newfoundland and Labrador 35 Prince Edward Island 70 Nova Scotia 395 New Brunswick 180 Manitoba 510 Saskatchewan 200 Alberta 770 Yukon 20 Northwest Territories 20 This news update is brought to you by The Student Herald and Polinsys, from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario

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This is Joy Stephen from IRCC news coming to you from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario. Today is January 01, 2022

A peek at Quebec’s Immigration plan for 2022

Quebec is facing labour shortages and is in need of certain professionals based on a streamlined processing of LMIA applications with Service Canada. The following professionals are in demand in Quebec:

1. material handler.
2. transport truck driver, bus driver, heavy equipment operator and public maintenance machinery operator.
3. chainsaw and logging vehicle operator, operator of metal processing machines, machining tools, plastics processing machines, and machinery and industrial processing of food, beverages and related products.
4. logging worker, foundry worker, fish and seafood processing worker;
5. Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers;
6. plastic products assembler, finisher and inspector;
7. industrial painter, coater and metal finishing process operator.

Their plan is to allow employers a % of their workforce for overseas recruitment and the Quebec government also provides financial support to such employers.

Quebec also will allow upto 20% foreign workers for a single workplace. Most other employers are allowed only a 10% temporary foreign workers for a single work place. The identified jobs in sectors are the following:

1. retail (cashier, clerk, specialized cleaner);
2. food and lodging (cashier, waiter, housekeeping attendant);
3. food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing (food processing labourer);
4. management of companies and enterprises (housekeeping attendant, specialized cleaner, janitor, building superintendent and landscaping labourer);
5. health care (housekeeping attendant);
6. forestry labour;
7. rubber and plastic products manufacturing labour;
8. wood, pulp and paper processing labour.

Many companies are altering their HR plan by including hiring foreign workers into their overall strategy to offset labour shortages

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This is Joy Stephen from IRCC news coming to you from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario. Today is January 01, 2022

2021 For Canada Immigration: A snapshot:

The Corona Virus or the Global Pandemic continued to influence movement to Canada and we have seen significant impact on the entire system. Major adjustments were made during 2020 and 2021 to address the pandemic. Several Provinces nominated Permanent Residents but many newcomers such as COPR holders waited without direction overseas as the virus levels were threatening movement across borders. Not withstanding the challenges, Canada has achieved a high landing figure of over 401K new Canadian Permanent Residents in 2021 

Some of the strategies IRCC adopted to achieve this high number was to transition many temporary Canadian Residents to Permanent Residency. IRCC focussed on Canadian Experience Class to achieve this high level of intake in 2021. Some of the momentous events in 2021 which led to these high numbers were  

1. February 13, 2021 draw of selecting 27,322 candidates drawn from the express entry pool of CEC or Canadian Experience Class candidates. 
2. In May IRCC launched six temporary streams by establishing a intake quota of upto 90000 essential workers and international graduates who were currently Canadian Temporary Residents. 
3. By around June, IRCC improved their processing capacity by landing 35K Permanent Residents per month mostly from inside Canada and recent months has seen landings of over 45K monthly

Currently IRCC’s backlog of mostly international applications has grown to around 1.8 million applications which they admit is primarily because they are now strategizing in-Canada applicants because of the Pandemic situation. 

IRCC is also committed to take in more international applicants after the Pandemic and 2022 looks promising. India remains Canada’s major source country for International Immigrations and flight and travel restrictions could impact Canadian Immigration programs as well.

IRCC has adapted itself during a crisis and has made changes on how it handled some challenging situations. PGWP holders were allowed to apply for a one time extension of their Open Work Permit if it expired so as to allow them the opportunity to apply for Canadian Permanent Residence which was impacted by the Pandemic

The pandemic is likely to continue to pose challenges but the immigration policy and goals on the long term remains unchanged.

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PNP updates for Week ending 15th January 2022

Good day ladies and gentlemen, this is joy stephen coming to you with this week’s PNP updates for week ending January 15, 2022.

The first province we are going to talk about is British Columbia.

British Columbia invited 232 immigration candidates through Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draws held on January 11.  The province picked candidates through draws through the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) and invited candidates from the Skills Immigration (SI) and Express Entry BC (EEBC) streams.  Invitations went out to those from the Skilled Worker, International Graduate as well as Entry Level and Semi-Skilled sub-categories of SI and EEBC streams.

201 invitations were sent if they met the minimum score requirements between 78 and 110 depending on their eligibility.

Another draw targeted candidates whose occupation falls under NOC 0621 (retail and wholesale trade managers) or NOC 0631 (restaurant and food service managers). That draw resulted in 31 invitations with minimum scores of 110 across the board.

The next province we are going to talk about is Ontario.

The province of Ontario targeted 18 Occupations With 502 Express Entry NOIs to those with profiles in the Federal Express Entry pool with a Comprehensive Rating System (CRS) score of between 464 and 467. The province did their pick on January the 12th. This was the first Human Capital Priorities draw this year.

Let us now list the NOCs under this draw 

0114 Other administrative services managers

0122 Banking, credit and other investment managers

0124 Advertising, marketing and public relations managers

0125 Other business services managers

0211 Engineering managers

0311 Managers in health care

0601 Corporate sales managers

0631 Restaurant and food service managers

0711 Construction managers

0731 Managers in transportation

0911 Manufacturing managers

1121 Human resources professionals

1122 Professional occupations in business management consulting

2161 Mathematicians, statisticians and actuaries

3012 Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses

3211 Medical laboratory technologists

3231 Opticians

3233 Licensed practical nurses

Those who receive a NOI under this draw and can show their work experience was in one of the eligible NOC codes can apply for permanent residence in Canada.

The next province we are going to talk about is Saskatchewan. 

The 3rd province which is in our radar for this weeks PNP update is Saskatchewan. The province of Saskatchewan invited 104 immigration candidates to apply for a provincial nomination on January 12. This was the 1st draw of the year and SINP invited 37 candidates who may be eligible for the SINP’s Express Entry subcategory, and 67 candidates may be eligible for the Occupations In-Demand sub-category. The lowest score was 68 under the Saskatchewan’s points grid

Saskatchewan invited candidates with work experience in one of six occupations: medical laboratory technologists, paramedical occupations, psychologists, medical sonographers, occupational therapists, and medical radiation technologists.

This is all we have to report for this week. From all of us here at the Polinsys studios in Beautiful Cambridge, Ontario, Adios until next week!

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Good day ladies and gentlemen, today is the 8th of January, 2022 and I am coming to you with this week’s PNP update for the week ending today, Saturday, the 8th of January. Like most January’s this week we only had one province in our radar and that is the province of British Columbia
British Columbia invited 102 tech workers to apply for a provincial nomination on January 4.
The invitations were issued through the BC PNP Tech, which is a stream under the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP).

Candidates invited through BC’s Tech draws must meet the requirements of one of British Columbia’s Express Entry BC and Skills immigration categories, which are managed through the Skills and Immigration Registration System (SIRS).

Candidates who received invitations in this draw were from the Skilled Worker and International Graduate subcategories and needed a minimum provincial score of 80.

This is all we have to report for the week, and from all of us from the Polinsys studios in beautiful Cambridge, Ontario, Adios until next week!

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