Ottawa yet to launch program announced last year that would grant permanent residency to low-wage workers

Second thoughts?

More than a year after announcing a new immigration stream that would have granted permanent residency to low-wage workers already in Canada, the federal government has yet to move ahead on formally launching the program – suggesting that Ottawa could be backing away from the plan altogether. 

The plan targeting low-wage workers was informally announced in April 2024, through the Canada Gazette. Consultations were set to begin last year on amending immigration laws to admit a “new permanent economic class of workers in TEER 4 and TEER 5 jobs.” 

But the program was not included in July’s version of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s forward regulatory plan, which details coming changes to federal immigration rules and programs over the next three years. 

Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities, or TEER, is a job categorization system used by the government for immigration purposes. TEER 4 and TEER 5 workers usually have either a high-school diploma or no formal education at all, and examples of their occupations include delivery service drivers, caregivers, food production and retail workers. 

IRCC spokesperson Sofica Lukianenko said in a late July e-mail to The Globe and Mail that the department will “continue to examine the role of immigration in meeting labour market needs at TEER 4 and 5 occupations.” …

Scrapping an immigration program that would grant PR to low-wage workers would be a wise move if the government’s larger goal is to increase gross domestic product per capita through prioritizing higher-skilled immigrants, argues Mikal Skuterud, a professor of labour economics at the University of Waterloo. 

Prof. Skuterud was highly critical of the TEER 4 and TEER 5 pathway plan when it was announced last year, telling The Globe at the time that it would suppress wages and undermine public support for immigration. He said Ottawa intended to launch the program to hedge against the growing problem of visa overstayers, as offering foreign workers currently in Canada a direct path to PR en masse would reduce both temporary resident and undocumented populations. …

Source: Ottawa yet to launch program announced last year that would grant permanent residency to low-wage workers