As worker, housing shortages collide, Canada hones in on newcomers in skilled trades – National | 24CA News
As Canada faces a labour crunch and housing scarcity, the federal authorities is launching a separate stream of entry for newcomers with work expertise in expert trades.
Newly appointed immigration minister Marc Miller introduced on Tuesday the primary spherical of invites below the Express Entry system for folks working in trades.
“It’s absolutely critical to address the shortage of skilled trades workers in our country, and part of the solution is helping the construction sector find and maintain the workers it needs,” mentioned Miller in an announcement, making his first main announcement as Canada’s new immigration minister.
“This round of category-based selection recognizes these skilled trades workers as essential, and I look forward to welcoming more of these talented individuals to Canada.”
Sean Fraser, Miller’s predecessor, had introduced in May that Canada would amend the Express Entry program by including category-based alternatives.
“Category-based selection signals Canada’s commitment to attract top global talent and help meet the need for tradespeople to support the economy. These category-based selection rounds will continue throughout the year, alongside general invitation rounds, and more details will be announced in the coming weeks,” an Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) press launch mentioned.
The assertion added that by welcoming folks in expert trades akin to carpentry, plumbing and welding, Canada may help its building sector entice expert employees.
Trades is the newest class to be added to the listing of classes eligible for the Express Entry program. The others are French-language proficiency, healthcare occupation, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) occupations, transportation occupations and agriculture and agri-food occupations.
To qualify for Express Entry within the trades class, an applicant will need to have gathered, inside the previous three years, at the very least six months of full-time, steady work expertise (or an equal quantity of part-time work expertise) in expert trades in Canada or overseas.
The building trade is brief tens of 1000’s of employees, and consultants say a coming wave of retirements might make the issue worse. Meanwhile, Canada is hundreds of thousands of properties behind what’s wanted to succeed in housing affordability this decade.
The job emptiness price in building is at a document excessive with round 80,000 vacancies within the trade, mentioned CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal in a current be aware.
Those vacancies, which push up constructing prices and impede productiveness, come at a time when the residential building trade is below strain to satisfy the calls for of a rising inhabitants.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. forecasts a necessity for 3.5 million extra properties by 2030 than the nation is at the moment on monitor to construct.
The variety of new properties constructed, nonetheless, has been in decline, from simply over 271,000 in 2021 to 260,000 in 2022. And in May this yr, the annual tempo of housing begins dropped 23 per cent month over month, main the CMHC’s chief economist to foretell that simply 210,000 to 220,000 new properties might be constructed by the tip of the yr.
— with recordsdata from the Canadian Press
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