Canada has a labor shortage. Its provinces want to attract foreign workers and to do that they need more privileges. In this context, Ontario wants more power on the issue of immigration, as is the case for Quebec.

In fact, the Ontario government wants to gain better control over immigration into its province. It strives to attract more skilled workers from abroad to fill its labor shortages in certain industries. That is why the state government wants to renegotiate the immigration agreement with the federal government in autumn. The Provincial Minister for Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, Monte McNaughton, is responsible for this mission. That department has indicated that it is working closely with its federal counterpart, Sean Fraser, on the issue.

He says his province primarily needs craftsmen and medical staff. “I let him know that the biggest economic challenge for Ontario today is that we have 378 jobs to fill,” the provincial minister said during his meetings with the federal minister, adding that “immigration could be a key tool to help us to help solve our work shortage”.

“We need a lot of immigrants to meet the need for labor”

Monte McNaughton also states that Ontario has decision-making power only 5% of immigrants selected to settle in the province. He says the provincial government deserves more power than Quebec already has. Commenting on this comparison with Québec, the provincial minister explains: “We know that Québec has more autonomy in relation to its immigration system and that it uses this for cultural reasons. We believe that for economic reasons we deserve equal control.”

However, it must be said that the negotiation process is slow. Gilles Grenier, a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa, confirms that the two levels of government agree on at least one point: “Rightly or wrongly, we need a lot of immigrants to meet the demand for labour. “However, the delays are very long,” he explains, adding that the federal government has raised its immigration thresholds significantly in recent years, but lacks the administrative resources for the process.