Filling Labour Market Shortages: The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program

1. Filling Labour Market Shortages: The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program Deb Fehr Barkman, Director Immigration Promotion and Recruitment Branch Manitoba Labour and Immigration February 2007

2. Overview • Manitoba’s Immigration Directions • Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program • Facilitating Temporary Foreign Workers to Manitoba • Manitoba’s New Initiatives

3. Manitoba’s Immigration Directions • 1996 – Canada-Manitoba Immigration Agreement • 1998 – Provincial Nominees and Settlement Services • 2003 – Manitoba Action Strategy for Economic Growth – 10,000 immigrants • 2006 – Manitoba seeks 20,000 immigrants/year by 2016

4. Immigration To Canada by Destination Province 2006(preliminary) Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada Prepared by Manitoba Labour and Immigration

5. 9,989 3,014 3,711 4,644 4,588 4,621 6,492 7,427 8,097 Manitoba Immigration Levels Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada Prepared by Manitoba Labour and Immigration

6. Shifting Trends Federal Immigration Streams Provincial Nominees Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada Prepared by Manitoba Labour and Immigration

7. Manitoba Immigration by Top Source Countries Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada Prepared by Manitoba Labour and Immigration

8. Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) • The Provincial Nominee Program is a tool to facilitate application processing due to: • Ability to expedite processing • Meet regional needs • Provide flexible and dynamic responses

9. How does the Provincial Nominee Program work? • Partnership with Families, Communities, Employers and Post-Secondary Institutions • Applicants with Strong Connections to Manitoba • Diversity of Immigration Streams • Entrepreneurs and Farmers • Employers and Temporary Workers • Family Supported Skilled Workers • International Students • Strategic Initiatives with Industry, Regional and Ethno-cultural Communities

10. What is Manitoba’s Role in the Recruitment of Temporary Foreign Workers? • Temporary Foreign Workers: • Meet immediate employer needs • Provincial Nominee Program: • Meet long term labour market needs • Contribute to community development • Positively affect demographics

11. Choosing Canada’s Foreign Worker or the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program • Temporary Foreign Workers: • Address immediate labour market needs • Not prepared to make a permanent job offer • Provincial Nominees: • Part of a long term human resource plan • Permanent job offers • Direct role in screening and selecting workers

12. MPNP Accessible to Temporary Foreign Workers • Candidates are eligible to apply to the MPNP if they: • Have worked in Manitoba for a minimum of six months • Have a valid work permit • Have a permanent full time employment offer

13. New Initiatives • Recruitment of Temporary Foreign Workers Abroad (i.e. partnership with German Federal Employment Service (ZAV)) • Canada – Manitoba Working Group on Temporary Foreign Workers

14. www.immigratemanitoba.com www.immigreraumanitoba.com