The government of Ontario has announced its intention to create a new immigration stream, that is specifically aimed at international workers in the technology sector, as well as a new immigration pilot program that aims to attract highly skilled immigrant workers to live and work in regional and rural communities in and around the province as a part of the Ontario immigrant Nominee program (OINP), the province’s government announced April 11 in its 2019 budget.

New Initiatives for OINP

The government announced these initiatives as a part of four priorities that were outlined in the province’s new budget, which amounts to more than a 100 billion Canadian dollars. The budget focused on four steps that addressed the priority of increasing immigration to the province, in response to demand by employers in the province for increase in the inflow of international workers in highly skilled categories, especially in the Information, communication and Engineering or ICE sectors.
The provincial government of Ontario has also announced its intention to modernize the procedures for the Ontario immigrant nominee program(https://globaltree.in/services/immigration/canada-immigration-consultant/pnp/ontario-immigrant-nominee-program/) along with other initiatives that will help the government in its effort to make Ontario’s workforce one of the most skilled in the global economy. The proposed budget would make sure that the government creates a dedicated stream that would help the province to attract highly skilled employees for its technology sector. The new stream is expected to feed the provinces rising tech sector in metro cities such as Ottawa, Toronto, and Waterloo, which have witnessed significant growth in the highly skilled and technology sectors in the recent years.
The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program has also announced plans to target international tech workers in the past through its Human Capital Priorities Stream, which is linked to the Express Entry system, The express entry system manages candidates for Canada’s three primary economic immigration categories —Federal Skilled Trades Class, the Federal Skilled Worker Class, and Canadian Experience Class.
The budget announced by Ontario, has asked for the federal government to work with the province, to ensure that the allocation for the province is fair through its nominee program. The program has received an allocation each year for a set number of candidates from the federal government for economic immigration to its province. The allocation for OINP for the year 2019 is 6900, which is significantly less than its requested allocation for 7600 nominations.