In a staggered approach beginning in January 2023, Canada will extend eligibility to work in Canada to spouses and children who are of productive age. This measure is provisional for two years. This would include, for instance, including families of employees in the health care, trades, and hospitality industries. The family members of more than 200,000 international workers may start working in Canada as a result of this new strategy.
To ensure its successful execution, the interim measure will be executed in three stages:
- Initial phase will provide the opportunity for family members of employees who enter Canada through the high-wage stream of the TFWP or the IMP to apply for an open work permit.
- In Phase 2, upon consultations, the policy will be expanded to include family members of workers from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program’s low-wage stream.
- Phase 3 of the project will involve discussions with partners and stakeholders in agriculture to see whether it is practical to extend the measure to agricultural employees’ families.
Sean Fraser added, “By recognizing that a person who is here contributing to our economy deserves to be with their loved ones while they make that contribution,”
In comparison to the 163,000 work permits issued over the same time period in 2021, Canada issued approximately 645,000 work permits between January and October 2022, an increase of almost 4 times.
One million individuals were unemployed in Canada in August, according to the most recent data on open positions.
Canada published its ambitious immigration proposal last month to accept 500,000 immigrants annually by 2025 in order to overcome the severe labour shortage.
The country of North America raised its immigration targets for 2023 and 2024 by 4% and 7.5%, respectively, to 465,000 and 485,000, respectively.
