Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provided CIC News with an Access to Information Request (ATIP) describing new guidelines for how the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) distributes allocations to the provinces.
The maximum number of candidates that provinces can invite through the PNP is set. Each province and territory receives a certain amount of nominations from the federal government each year.
Provinces can choose economic immigrants through the PNP who stand out as having the connections, talents, or other qualities a province needs to boost its workforce and economy. Immigration is a shared federal and provincial duty. With the exception of Nunavut and Quebec, which have a separate agreement with the federal government, all Canadian provinces and territories (PTs) have a PNP.
After receiving a provincial nomination, candidates can subsequently apply to IRCC for permanent residency. For instance, Express Entry applicants who accept a nomination (referred to as an upgraded nomination) and submit an approved PNP application to the province that invited them might increase their Comprehensive Ranking System score by 600 points. Receiving the extra 600 points almost ensures that you will receive an Invitation to Apply in an Express Entry draw.
Candidates may also submit a basic nomination application directly to a province government.
Normative criteria for allocations
IRCC often utilizes guiding principles to determine how many nominations to provide a province government. According to IRCC, the PNP guiding principles are intended to:
- provide a methodical, evidence-based approach to calculate PNP allocations annually;
- a better precise division between based and enhanced spaces, as well as allocations that take into account historical usage and trends, will help to establish significant operational predictability.
- Encourage more openness with the provinces and territories (PTs) by letting them know the factors the IRCC takes into account when making allocation recommendations to the Minister. This involves collaborating with them on initiatives to enhance predictable allocation consumption (such as imposing size restrictions on reallocation and redistribution requests).
- The guiding principles are further broken down by IRCC into qualitative and quantitative elements that are intended to increase predictability and, over time, decrease processing times for basic PNP applications.
According to the research, by increasing predictability, IRCC would be better able to distribute nominations to provinces and cut down on the quantity of requests for revisions it receives from PTs.
According to the department, quantitative factors will take the goals and intended effects of regional immigration programming (such the PNP and the Atlantic Immigration Program) into account. It will display the retention rates in each PT as well as the proportion of economic immigrants to total populations. The IRCC will use this information to calculate the number of nominations in its allocation.
After the IRCC determines the extent of a provincial allocation increase, the number is adjusted based on qualitative factors. Through consultations, IRCC seeks input from PTs and other stakeholders to better understand their requirements and make adjustments. For example, the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) or the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot are examples of additional allocations that assist regional needs.
Program for Atlantic Immigration
The AIP is specifically mentioned in the ATIP. The AIP utilized a population model in its initial year that was based on the proportion of the regional population that each province made up. This strategy is still used by IRCC for the first 2,000 allocations.
Following the distribution of those allocations, IRCC takes into account prior allocation utilization, province immigration growth objectives, and the proportion of economic immigration slots, such as those available through Express Entry or the PNP.
Multi-year PNP allocations
The newly approved multi-year strategy for the PNP and the Atlantic Immigration Program also makes use of the standards.
Similar to the Immigration Levels Plan, the new multi-year plan will provide PT governments with allocations for three years in advance, albeit allocations are subject to change.
In the past, allocations were only given out for one year at a time, which made it difficult for the provinces to prepare infrastructure like housing or ensure there is enough healthcare as well as settlement services for immigrants.
Additionally revealed at the time was a 44% increase in the total number of PNP assignments for 2023.
Plan for Immigration Levels
By November 1st of this year, a revised Immigration Levels Plan for 2024–2026 will be made public. The Plan will include goals for admitting permanent residents during the subsequent three years and assist in determining Canada’s immigration policy.
The PNP had the greatest number of anticipated admissions of permanent residents in the 2023–2025 Plan, with projections starting at 105,500 in 2023 and increasing to 117,500 PNP admissions per year in 2025.
According to Marc Miller, minister of immigration, he does not believe that the forthcoming plan’s objectives would be lowered. There is a good chance that any adjustments to the current PNP admissions objectives would result in an increase given the already high targets and pressure from the provincial governments to increase the number of allocations.