Ottawa extends refugee jobs pilot program on day it was due to expire

Globe and Mail

19 hours ago

Ottawa has extended a pilot program that matches skilled refugees with job vacancies in Canada on the day it was due to lapse, after an outcry from employers, including universities, about its imminent expiry.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has extended its Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, which was founded in 2018 as a route to permanent residence, until the end of the year, saying it is helping employers in critical sectors meet labour market shortages.
Since 2019, 970 people have come to Canada through the pilot program, which offers a route to permanent residence for refugees with skills Canadian employers want.
The decision to extend the program until Dec. 31 was welcomed by employers.
Earlier this week, after The Globe and Mail disclosed how the pilot program was about to expire, universities wrote to Immigration Minister Lena Diab urging her to extend the program.
The former immigration minister Marc Miller had said the pilot would be made permanent last year, but only days before it was due to expire employers were distraught about hearing no word from the government about its future.
Carleton University, based in Ottawa, has hired a refugee from the civil war in Sudan as a visiting professor, to help with research into artificial intelligence, through the pilot pathway.
Abeer, who fled to Somalia, holds a PhD in wireless communications and network engineering. She has researched the impact of AI and machine-learning-based algorithms on wireless communication systems.
The Globe and Mail is not publishing her full name owing to fears for the safety of family members in her home country.
She is still waiting for biometric checks and the university said it was keen for her to arrive soon to help with a research project being run by a Carleton professor.
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Norah Vollmer, manager of faculty affairs at Carleton, said the university is 'very pleased to hear that the EMPP is extended.' She hoped the pilot program would be put 'on a permanent footing' and that processing times for applications to come here from refugees who have been offered jobs would be sped up.
IRCC said in a statement announcing the pilot's continuation that the program had helped fill job vacancies, including in construction. More than 30 per cent of refugees accepted to come here through the pilot are working in health care.
From 2019 to the end of March 2025, 970 people have been admitted to Canada, under the program, it said.
It said it would cap applications for refugees offered jobs at 950 this year.
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'The extension will allow more workers in essential sectors such as health care to benefit from the pilot's pathway to permanent residence and continue to contribute to our economy,' it said.
Dana Wagner, co-founder of TalentLift, a non-profit international recruitment company that matches displaced people with employers, said the renewal was 'fantastic' but said the cap at 950 was 'very low' with 'no word about a permanent program.'
'It will be important to quickly move from a pilot to a permanent program as the Liberals have pledged,' she said.
'We want to see predictability, fast processing times that work for employers, and room to grow – this is a demand-driven program, and levels should reflect Canada's skills demand and the potential of talented individuals in refugee situations to meet it.'