Absolutely, yes.
As long ago as 1997, a government-commissioned report, not just numbers, determined that ability in English, or French if you're going to Quebec, was one of the key indicators of how well someone would do. You could hit the ground running if you were reasonably fluent. And if you weren't, then you were in trouble.
Interestingly enough, the recommendation was shot down by people who said this would be favouring people from non-English-speaking countries. It doesn't matter whether they're from an English-speaking or non-English-speaking country. If they can speak English fairly fluently, they're much more likely to do well on the Canadian labour market than if they can't.