The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is the latest immigration scheme on the federal chopping block, with Ottawa ordering provinces to cut PNP approvals by 50 per cent.
Manitoba Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino met with Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller Thursday, the day after the department was told to slash the program’s numbers.
“We have committed to continue advocating for Manitoba and to continue those conversations with the federal government so that we can obtain the full federal allotment,” she said.
The province and stakeholders are asking for 12,000 approvals through the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) to keep up with 2025’s labour demands.
“The business community, as well as rural municipalities and northern municipalities, we’ve all come together with one voice since last fall really to be able to tell the federal minister what Manitoba’s needs are,” she said.
The province approved 9,540 applications through the Skilled Worker stream of the MPNP in 2024. Marcelino says close to 70 per cent of newcomers to Manitoba arrive through the program.
The MPNP is “absolutely critical,” Manitoba Business Council President & CEO Bram Strain told 680 CJOB’s The News Monday.
“The nominee program for over 20 years has been the main source of growth for Manitoba’s population and our labour force, so to cut that in half… is very short-sighted and I think it’s going to hold back our economy slightly in the next year,” he said.
Strain says provinces like Ontario and B.C. benefit from federal immigration programs that support their labour market, meaning they’ll suffer less from the cuts to their PNP programs.
“They’re not as dependent on the nominee program as some smaller provinces like ourselves, Saskatchewan and the Maritimes would be. So I believe we’re a victim of universality, and this is trying to fix a problem that frankly Manitoba does not have,” Strain said.
Canada Research Chair in Immigration Futures Lori Wilkinson says the program is a “cost-effective” way to bring people to the country.
“This national redistribution of migration isn’t going to work when they don’t think about the provincial context,” she said.
It’s also one of the only tools provinces have to fill area- and industry-specific labour shortages, like in healthcare. Wilkinson says the cut will result in even longer wait times, and an economic hit to the provinces and country as a whole.
“Our tax base is going to shrink, our pension base is going to shrink, and the lineup for services is going to increase. So it’s really a political issue. It’s an economic issue. And personally, as a person who studies this stuff, I think it’s a mistake that all of us will pay for.”
Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told The News Tuesday if elected as Liberal leader and prime minister, she would reverse the cut to Manitoba’s Provincial Nominee Program.
“Winnipeg [and] Manitoba is different. You have the need and the capacity, and the federal government needs to respect that,” she said.
The federal government is aiming to decrease the number of permanent residents by 21 per cent in 2025, with a projected 395,000 applications approved. The number of international study permits will also decrease by 10 per cent.