Ottawa extends permits for 2,700 foreign workers in Manitoba after months of pleas from immigration minister
Federal work permits set to expire for thousands for international workers in Manitoba are being extended after months of protests and pleas from people fearful they would be forced to leave.
Ottawa is extending the work permits for 2,700 foreign workers until Dec. 31, 2027, according to a news release from Manitoba MPs Terry Duguid (Winnipeg South) and Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North).
Lamoureux said in a statement Monday the workers are contributing to the local economy, built their lives in Manitoba and "should not be pushed out of status while their nominations are being finalized" through the Manitoba provincial nominee program (MPNP).
The announcement comes amid calls from Manitoba Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino for an extension and higher immigration allotments through the MPNP.
Duguid suggested the so-called Manitoba Workforce Transition Bridge announced this week is a restrained approach amid the Liberal government's shift toward less immigration in recent years.
In a statement, he said the federal government is "restoring order to Canada's immigration system" and that the extension is a "time-limited" exception for workers from abroad already in Manitoba waiting on the province to process a backlog of MPNP applications.
Protesters wanting an extension filled the steps of the Manitoba Legislature during several rallies this year, including in April.
In a statement Tuesday, Marcelino said the "proposed extension is the result of ongoing requests" from her office since last fall "to ensure we can continue to bolster our workforce."
The NDP continues to ask for more allocations for its provincial nominee program since the federal government scaled back immigration targets, including for international student seats, near the tail end of former prime minister Justin Trudeau's time in office.
The Liberal government did an about-face after an influx in temporary foreign workers and international students came to Canada during COVID-19 pandemic labour shortages.
The party faced calls to pull back on immigration amid a housing crunch and cost of living pressures.
Beginning in 2023, Ottawa said it would stop extending post-graduate work permits.
The next year, Manitoba successfully obtained an extension for thousands of workers for two years. As part of the deal, the province agreed to finish nominating all supported candidates through the provincial nominee program by the end of 2026, according to the federal government.
The province indicated it won't clear that deadline, the federal government says, so the extension will enable 2,700 workers to hang onto their legal status until the end of 2027 while they wait.
The need for extensions in the first place arose when Ottawa "drastically reduced" MPNP numbers, said Bram Strain, president and CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba.
The Liberals cut immigration allotments through provincial nominee programs nationwide, from 110,000 in 2024, to 55,000 in 2025.
Manitoba's PNP allotment sunk from 9,600 in 2023 to 6,239 in 2025. That caused tension in Manitoba's manufacturing, agriculture, food processing and other sectors reliant on international workforces.
The cut also complicated things on the ground for thousands who had already filed provincial nominee applications, like international students, and obtained temporary work permits while they waited for their applications to be processed.
"Their permits were running out, but their [PNP] nomination hadn't been completed [and] It really put those folks in severe limbo," Strain said Tuesday.
"You can imagine what that would do to employers, too, if all of a sudden 2,700 workers just disappeared tomorrow."
Strain was among a team of Manitoba representatives that accompanied Marcelino on a trip to Ottawa earlier this year to try and persuade her federal counterpart to again push the work permit expiration date and up Manitoba's provincial nominee allotment.
News of the extension is a good first step, said Strain. Manitoba still needs the cap on its PNP allotment raised back to at least where it was in 2023, above the 9,000 mark, he said.
"Extending these work permits means continuity for businesses and for those folks have those work permits," Strain said.
"It's also very important that we increase the number of nominations that we get to able the province to to process these folks so that they can stay permanently."
Written by Bryce Hoye
