New Immigration Path for Undocumented Construction Workers in Toronto Area

Ottawa has revealed a new program that will allow both an immigration pathway for construction workers who are undocumented in Greater Toronto and support to address a labor deficit in the city.

This pilot has places for 500 workers along with their family members and will open for appeals on 3 September 2019 by the Canadian Labour Congress, which will pre-screen and suggest eligible candidates for final evaluation by the department of immigration.

It’s a tiny project for us but a significant project to initiate said Hassan Yussuff, labor congress president, who understands the number of construction workers without status in the nation is in the thousands. Few workers have been here for a tenure of more than five years, and their families also settled in this country. We want to find a way to fix their status.

As per the recent estimate by Build Force Canada, a nationwide industry-run workforce management research group, Ontario requires an extra 26,100 construction workers in the coming ten years as 91,100 people presently working in the sector will enter retirement age.

Toronto is very active right now with all the condominium, transit projects, and infrastructure. It’s hard to build projects when you do not have the labor. It causes obstructions and raises costs.

To be qualified, an applicant needs to have:

• Entered legally originally as a temporary resident and resided in Canada for a minimum of five years;
• Evidence of paying income tax of Canada;
• Language skill for day-to-day communication in English or French;
• A family member residing in Canada who is a citizen of Canada or permanent resident, or a spouse or child in Canada;

The categories of job that suit for the program include skilled and trades transport and equipment operators; equipment and maintenance operation trades; commercial and residential installers and servicers; heavy equipment operators (excluding crane); and construction trades labourers and helpers.

The labor congress’ Yussuff told applications would be treated on a first-come, first-serve basis, and the initial 500 qualified principal appellants will be given a referral letter for the final evaluation of the Department of  Immigration.

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