Two New British Columbia Draws See Province Issue 383 Invitations

Colin Singer
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Two New British Columbia Draws See Province Issue 383 Invitations

Two new draws through the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program saw the province issue invitations to a total of 383 candidates.

The August 3 draws featured a general draw, and a second draw targeting two NOC codes: 0621 for Retail and Wholesale Trade Managers and 0631 for Restaurant and Food Service Managers.

In the general draw, the province issued 361 invitations across five streams, with minimum scores ranging from 74 to 91.

In the NOC-specific draw, 13 invites were issued through four streams, all featuring minimum scores of 107.

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Latest General B.C. Immigration Draw

Date Category Minimum Score Invitations Issued
03-Aug-21 SI – Skilled Worker 91 Total: 361
  SI – International Graduate 79
SI – Entry Level and Semi-Skilled 74
  EEBC – Skilled Worker 89
  EEBC – International Graduate 77

Source: www.welcomebc.ca

B.C. Draw Targeting NOCs 0621, 0631

Date Category Minimum Score Invitations Issued
03-Aug-21 SI – Skilled Worker 107 Total: 13
  SI – International Graduate 107
  EEBC – Skilled Worker 107
  EEBC – International Graduate 107

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International Students Drawn To Colleges and Universities in Ontario Over Last For 20 years

Colin Singer
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International Students Drawn To Colleges and Universities in Ontario Over Last For 20 years

Canada immigration news: Ontario was a magnet for international students during the two decades that ended in the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic, even as their total number in Canada more than tripled during the period, a study reveals.

In it, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) show the central Canadian province’s share of international students jumped from 37 per cent in the early 2000s to almost half, 49 per cent, during the 2015 to 2019 period.

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Ontario’s gain, though, was British Columbia’s loss.

“As the province attracting the second-largest number of international students, British Columbia saw its share fall from 31 per cent in the 2001-to-2004 period to 23 per cent in the 2015-to-2019 period,” note the authors of ‘International Students As A Source Of Labour Supply: The Growing Number Of International Students And Their Changing Sociodemographic Characteristics’. 

IRCC Sees International Students As Crucial Source of New Permanent Residents

Canadian immigration officials consider international students to be an important future source of skilled labour in Canada, as they may be eligible for permanent residency through immigration programs after graduation. 

“Attracting students from a wide diversity of countries, as well as to a variety of regions and programs, fosters sustainable growth in Canada’s international education sector and distributes benefits across the country,” notes the IRCC.

In the two decades that ended in 2019, the number of first-time study permit holders more than tripled, increasing from 70,000 annually to 250,000. Most of them came to study at Canadian colleges and universities in bachelor’s and masters’ programs. 

Prior to the pandemic, international students coming to Canada were coming in increasingly greater numbers almost every year. 

The share of first-time study permit holders for college programs grew from 28 per cent in the 2000-to-2004 period to 34 per cent in the 2015-to-2019 period. 

The share of those going to master’s programs grew by 50 per cent, while the percentage of those intending to take bachelor’s and master’s programs stayed about the same.

International Students Favour Business, Management, Public Administration Programs

The most common fields of study for international students are business, management and public administration.

The growth in international students coming to Canada has been a boon for the bottom line of educational institutions because these students pay much higher tuition than Canadian students.

“Previous analysis has shown that the reliance of universities on tuition as a revenue source has grown over the past decade and that international students are an important element of this growth, contributing an estimated 40 per cent of all tuition fees and accounting for almost $4 billion in annual revenue for Canadian universities in 2018-19,” states a previous IRCC report.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the number of international students in Canada. 

As a result of the shutdowns and travel restrictions, the number of international students whose study permits became effective in 2020 decreased by 36 per cent relative to the 2019 level. 

The sociodemographic composition of international students might also have changed since the main source countries were affected by the pandemic differently, the study notes.

China, Japan, US Among Most Important Source Countries

Seven countries – South Korea, China, Japan, the United States, France, Mexico and India – remained among the top 10 source countries over the two decades that ended in 2019.

The total share of international students from these countries also grew when taken as a group, from 59 per cent in the 2000-to-2004 period to 67 per cent in the 2015-to-2019 period. 

The United Kingdom, Taiwan and Germany made up the rest of the top 10 sources for the 2000-to-2004 period, replaced by Brazil, Nigeria and Vietnam for the 2015-to-2019 period.

International students are important for more than just the revenues they bring to Canadian colleges and universities.

“International students increase the social and cultural diversity of campuses,” states a report. “In addition, while contributing to the local economy when studying in Canada, international students provide the country with a large pool of well-educated individuals who could contribute to Canada’s workforce and obtain permanent residency. 

“According to a study that examined the rate of transition into permanent residence, almost one-third of international students with a bachelor’s degree and almost half of those with a master’s degree became permanent residents in the 10 years after their first study permit was issued.”

To be allowed into Canada, international students approved for a study permit must be attending a Designated Learning Institution with a COVID-19 readiness plan approved by their provincial or territorial government. 

As Economy Rebounds And COVID-19 Wanes, Canada Jobs Are Returning

Colin Singer
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As Economy Rebounds And COVID-19 Wanes, Canada Jobs Are Returning

Canada immigration news: As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, job creation exploded throughout Canada in June and experts are now expecting that growth in employment to carry on throughout the rest of the year. 

“The stage is now set for a smoother job recovery through the second half of the year, with total employment down 1.8 per cent from pre-COVID levels,” wrote Robert Kavcic, a senior economist with the Bank of Montreal.

The tone of his latest Regional Labour Market Report Card is ebulliently titled It’s Upward from Here. 

In the second quarter of this year, Canada rode a rollercoaster of lay-offs as companies shut down during lockdowns throughout much of the country and then re-opened. That led to more people being hired than had been laid off.

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“Ontario posted the steepest decline, with employment down 67,000 in the quarter, but the province also saw a hefty 117,000 gain upon partial reopening in June,” reported Kavcic.

The francophone province of Quebec re-opened earlier and so managed to snag job growth gains of 51,000 during the second quarter of the year. 

British Columbia Has More Jobs Than Before Pandemic

On the West Coast, British Columbia pulled off the amazing feat during the pandemic of actually growing its employment levels to finish with more jobs now than before the start of the pandemic. It is the only Canadian province to have managed to pull that off, says Kavcic.

Among Canadian cities, the results are mixed. Many of the big cities didn’t do as well in terms of job creation in the second quarter of this year as the smaller ones. 

“The large urban centres generally rank in the upper-middle of the pack, but should stand to benefit most through the second half of the year,” says Kavcic. 

“Smaller cities that top the ranking could reflect work-from-home shifts (e.g., if you’ve moved to Peterborough or Abbotsford, you’re employed there, even if the employer is based in Toronto or Vancouver).”

Peterborough, Ontario Tops List Of Best Performing Labour Markets

The Top 10 Canadian Cities For Labour Market Performance in the second quarter of this year were:

  1. Peterborough;
  2. Abbotsford;
  3. Regina;
  4. Victoria;
  5. Vancouver;
  6. Kitchener;
  7. Saskatoon;
  8. Trois-Rivieres;
  9. Montreal, and;
  10. Edmonton.

Among the most notable stand-outs in this recent ranking is Vancouver, which shot up 25 spots from last year to fifth place this year; Montreal which rose 16 spots to number nine; and Edmonton which came in 10th in these rankings after soaring 18 spots in one year.

At the very top of the rankings, the medium-sized city of Peterborough sits at number one after jumping 17 spots. Regina, Saskatchewan’s capital but still one of the medium-sized municipalities, came in third after leapfrogging 11 spots. 

St. Catherines The Worst Performing Labour Market

The bottom 10 cities in Canada based on Labour Market Performance in the second quarter of this year were:

  1. St. Catherines;
  2. St. John’s;
  3. Sudbury;
  4. Barrie;
  5. Oshawa;
  6. Kingston;
  7. Saint John;
  8. Thunder Bay;
  9. Windsor, and;
  10. Saguenay.

Despite their dismal placement for job creation, both Windsor, Ontario and Saguenay in Quebec actually rose in the rankings this year compared to last year.

Not so for the others in the bottom 10. 

Barrie plummeted in the rankings, falling 28 spots to number 30. St. John’s slid 22 spots to 32nd. And Sudbury in northern Ontario dropped like a stone 19 spots to 31st place. Saint John in New Brunswick fell 10 spots to 27th.

With the rebounding of the Canadian economy and the gradual re-opening of the Canadian border announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month, immigration will almost certainly pick back up in the second half of this year. 

Jobs Available For Economic Immigrants, Temporary Workers

There will be jobs waiting to be filled for those coming to Canada for work, including those applying under the International Mobility Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Certainly, Ottawa has remained bullish on immigration throughout the pandemic and set ambitious immigration targets for this year and the next two.

Its 2021‒2023 Immigration Levels Plan has set immigration targets of about one per cent of the Canadian population for each of those years. That’s 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023. 

The federal government’s previous plan set targets of 351,000 in 2021 and 361,000 in 2022.

“Immigration is essential to getting us through the pandemic, but also to our short-term economic recovery and our long-term economic growth,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino has said. “Canadians have seen how newcomers are playing an outsized role in our hospitals and care homes and helping us to keep food on the table.

“As we look to recovery, newcomers create jobs not just by giving our businesses the skills they need to thrive, but also by starting businesses themselves,” he has said. “Our plan will help to address some of our most acute labour shortages and to grow our population to keep Canada competitive on the world stage.”

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