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Ontario expanding immigrant nominee program, wants Ottawa to double allocation

Ontario is spending $15.1 million to expand its provincial immigrant nominee program (OINP) .

The investment builds on the recently-launched entrepreneurship pilot and will allow Ontario to attract the skilled immigrants needed to fill labour gaps when local workers are not available, the province said in a press release.

“Newcomers are crucial to growing our economy and building a stronger future for all of us,” said Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development. “We’re lowering the barriers they face and have called on our partners in the federal government to double the number of newcomers Ontario can select in 2022.”

This new investment will allow the program to grow, enhance security and fraud detection and other IT updates to ensure the system can handle increased capacity now and in the future. Nominating newcomers to work in Ontario helps meet the needs of our growing economy, by filling jobs in health care, computer programming, web development and trucking.

Ontario wants feds to double allocation

While almost 120,000 economic class immigrants to Canada arrived in 2021, only 9,000 newcomers were nominated through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program in that year. An increased nomination allocation would allow Ontario to fill targeted labour market gaps across the province and drive overall economic growth.

This is why Minister McNaughton continues to call on federal Immigration officials to double Ontario’s allocation for the coming year.

Quick facts

• There are currently more than 300,000 jobs in Ontario going unfilled.
• Ontario’s OINP allocation from the federal government has increased from 6,500 in 2017 to 9,000 in 2021.
• The OINP allows the province to nominate, for permanent residence, individuals who have the skills and experience to contribute to Ontario’s economy. With an Ontario nomination, individuals then apply to the federal government, through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for permanent residence.