In an effort to keep the families of open work permit holders, which includes many Indians, together, Canada has announced that from 2023 their spouses will be eligible to work in the country. Open work permits allow foreign nationals to work legally for any employer and in any job in Canada. “Today we’re making an announcement that will make it easier for employers to find workers and for families to stay together while they’re here,” Sean Fraser, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, announced Friday. “Today, I am announcing that we are expanding open work permit eligibility for spouses and dependent children of principal applicants under a variety of temporary programs,” he added. The move will allow more than 200,000 workers who have family members in Canada or who will come to the country to continue to be with their loved ones and work while they are here to support themselves, the minister said. With the new policy change, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expects more than 100,000 spouses to fill gaps in the workforce. This policy change, according to Fraser, will be implemented in three phases to allow people to continue to come and be with their families who are not just in the highest skilled occupations. The first phase includes people coming through a high-salary stream in the temporary foreign worker scheme, the international mobility scheme and the graduate work scheme. This is expected to launch early in the new year. The second phase will seek to extend access to the same rules for people entering through lower wages, “so people who are here contributing to Canada’s economy don’t have to make the tough decision to be away from their children and spouse them while they’re at it,” Fraser said. This phase will take root after consultation with the Canadian provinces and territories. In the third phase, the program would be expanded to include families of agricultural workers, which would again require consultation with provinces and territories. Fraser said the move will not only fill gaps in the Canadian labor market, but also make the immigration system more “friendly.” “Recognizing that a person who’s here is contributing to our economy, they deserve to be with their loved ones while they’re making that contribution,” he said. The policy change is likely to have a huge impact on the Canadian economy, which lost nearly $13 billion last year due to a nationwide shortage of manufacturing workers and skills, according to a labor survey. The most recent job vacancies data showed there were 958,500 open jobs in Canada in August and one million unemployed. To address acute labor shortages, Canada unveiled its ambitious immigration plan last month to welcome half a million immigrants each year by 2025. The North American nation raised its 2023 immigration target to 465,000 and its 2024 target to 485,000, an increase of 4 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. IANS
