As announced in the Immigration Levels Plan for 2024-2026, Canada aims to welcome a total of 485,000 permanent residents (PRs) in 2024. Alongside this increased level of immigration, Canada is expected to launch updates across various programs and leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline the client experience.
Updates to the Express Entry System
In 2023, IRCC began conducting category-based Express Entry draws. These draws were implemented to help Canada find foreign nationals best suited to address the country’s most pressing labour gaps and demographic needs.
In the first year of category-based draws, IRCC chose to prioritize the following categories of immigration candidates.
Those with French language proficiency
Those with recent work experience in any of the following five industries: Healthcare; Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM); Trades, Transport and Agri-Food/Agriculture
In 2024, IRCC is expected to continue with category-based draws. However, the department has made it clear that they will reassess the focus categories chosen for 2023 and potentially alter them based on the changing needs of Canada’s labour market. This means that new sectors and proficiencies may be chosen as areas of focus by IRCC, potentially enabling new groups of newcomers to be eligible for category-based Express Entry draws this coming year.
New Provincial Nominee Program guidelines
Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) are immigration pathways that allow local governments to hand-select candidates that will best help them address labour market gaps. According to IRCC’s latest Immigration Levels Plan, PNPs are projected to make up the country’s biggest (by immigration targets) immigration pathway in 2024.
Provinces were recently provided with a new set of guiding principles for PNPs, detailed here.
IRCC is also introducing new multi-year plans for the PNP starting in 2024. This will enable provinces and territories to better planfor their immigration strategies, as they will know their 2025 allocation a year in advance.
Taken together, these new PNP developments mean that prospective newcomers pursuing this immigration pathway should have a clearer picture of their options to immigrate to their province or territory of choice due to better planning by each regional government.
More Parents and Grandparents Program admissions spaces
Beginning on December 1 this year, Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) across Canada are now “required to confirm every applicant’s letter of acceptance directly with IRCC.” The department says that this “new, enhanced verification process aims to protect prospective students from fraud while ensuring that study permits are issued based only on genuine LOAs.”
IRCC also announced in November that, leading into 2024, the department will be conducting a review of its Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program. Many international students who intend to apply for PR benefit from the PGWP, as the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score treats Canadian work experience favourably.
This review is expected to result in IRCC “introducing reforms [that] better calibrate the [PGWP] to the needs of the country’s labour market, as well as regional and Francophone immigration goals.”
More: Be sure to stay updated with future stories from CICNews regarding this and other crucial developments for Canada’s international student population in 2024.
More changes are coming to Canadian immigration next year
IRCC has committed to several other changes intended to improve the experience and life of Canadian newcomers making their way through the immigration process.
Increasing the use of AI and technology
In an effort to “out-compete other countries for talent,” IRCC has committed to further the use of technology and AI in the immigration space in 2024. This initiative aims to reduce processing times, improve tools for IRCC officers, help Canada meet the country’s immigration, and diversity priorities.
Specifically, this digital transformation will improve the client experience for immigration candidates in several ways, including but not limited to:
Improving service standards
Strengthening partnerships with employers and institutions that rely on immigration, while addressing fraud and strengthening student and worker protections
Making applications more user-friendly using digital and virtual technologies
Note: Changes like the above, and more, have all been outlined here as part of Canada’s Digital Platform Modernization initiative
New IRCC advisory board
Furthermore, IRCC will develop a new advisory body to focus on matters relating to immigration policy and service delivery. Uniquely, this board will include people “with lived experience in immigration”, allowing newcomers to Canada to have more say in programs and processes affecting them. This new advisory board hopes to “strengthen policy and program development [while ensuring that Canada’s immigration system remains anchored] in a human-centric approach.”
Introduction of the Chief International Talent Officer
According to the department, “the responsibilities of [this individual] entails the ability to affect a huge amount of change in Canada’s annual immigration.” Prospective immigrants to this country in 2024 and beyond should pay attention to developments once someone is appointed.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
