Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting IRCC to speak to the committee as part of the committee's study. With an aging population that is contributing to more workers leaving the workforce every year than entering it, immigration will be a key source for population and labour force

Human Resources committee  I'm happy to. Express entry isn't actually NOC-based. It's not occupation-based. It balances different factors that have been shown to contribute to the longer-term success of economic immigrants. They include language ability, education and level of education, whether or not the

Human Resources committee  The pilot was only fully launched in March 2017. Of course, it took some time for admissions to actually follow, because there was a process in place. Provinces had to designate employers in order for them to actually participate under the pilot. Then, those who were recruited ha

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. As permanent residents, they have the mobility rights that all permanent residents have under the charter. They are free to move, but what the pilot is trying to test is whether those greater settlement supports early on and the enhanced role by the employer in trying

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chair, unfortunately I don't have the BuildForce report in front of me and—

Human Resources committee  NOC B occupations—those are skilled trades—are all eligible under express entry. Based on the data I have here, about 3,200 immigrants with skilled trades background have been admitted over the last four years through express entry. About one third of those settled in Ontario, b

Human Resources committee  Those would be under NOC B, which includes things like carpenters, masons, roofers, electrical tradespeople, welders—interestingly, at different skill levels. So, for example, in the construction trades and helpers, which I think the previous witness talked about, we actually fin

Human Resources committee  I guess I would say that it's something that's not isolated to the greater Toronto and Hamilton area in the construction trades—

Human Resources committee  Nationally, demographically that's a challenge we're facing, and that's why immigration definitely will play a role going forward as a—

Human Resources committee  We'll be interested to see the committee's recommendation in terms of broader outlooks. For example, we don't see that there is a projected shortage nationally when it comes to construction. We certainly are constantly looking at our programs to see how we can better adapt or res

Human Resources committee  I wouldn't call them caps. As mentioned, the levels plan is the government's plan for permanent resident admissions every year. It breaks that down by category, including what comes under our federal high-skills program. I believe it's about 80,000 this year, so they're not small

Human Resources committee  That's right. That includes family members as well. There are no caps per se, but there are planned admissions for permanent immigration.

Human Resources committee  Overall, I'd say that Canada often doesn't have an attraction problem when it comes to immigration. There is often much more demand to come here than there is supply. Under our levels plan, we do try to manage the amount of immigration Canada takes in every year, but often the nu

Human Resources committee  I'd have to see; I think Statistics Canada released something in December that showed there were very high levels of employment.

Human Resources committee  I can follow up, yes.