Last Updated On 18 May 2024, 9:29 AM EDT (Toronto Time)

Manitoba has secured a new work permit extension public policy from Immigration Minister Marc Miller in a bold attempt to address expired or expiring work authorizations for temporary residents.

This new policy will offer open work permits to eligible 6,700 temporary workers within the province whose work authorizations expire in 2024.

As per the latest update on May 17, MPNP revealed more details about this policy, as listed below:

PGWP holders who are eligible to apply to the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) and who have submitted a valid MPNP Expression of Interest (EOI) profile prior to May 10, 2024, are eligible for open work permit
This temporary public policy will make it possible for students to get a province-specific open work permit in Manitoba with a validity of up to 2 years.

Details on how to apply are yet to be revealed under this policy.

Previously, on May 7, Minister Miller revealed that Manitoba reached out to his department with a request to extend the work status of temporary residents who are currently employed in Manitoba and whose work permits are expiring in 2024.

Manitoba is counting on these temporary residents (on work permits) to meet the provincial labour needs.

Marc said that they will be introducing a new public policy that will allow eligible temporary workers in Manitoba PNP Expression of Interest pool to have open work permits.

Furthermore, he said that they anticipate that these applicants will get a formal nomination from Manitoba and settle down as permanent residents in the next two years.

Based on this statement by Minister Miller, we can anticipate that an open work permit could be issued for 2 years, that is, until 2026.

Recently, Manitoba PNP conducted a huge round of invitations for International Education Stream on May 2nd. Click here for full details of latest MPNP draws.

When will the new policy for work permit extensions be launched?

According to the official letter that Minister Miller sent to the Immigration Minister of Manitoba, officials will soon share a letter of intent outlining the specifics of the public policy as well as additional conditions and qualifying criteria.

To support this facilitative step, the letter will include conditions, such as a schedule for performance reporting.

The minister also said, “I believe this will be an opportune time and context to also revisit the renewal of the Canada-Manitoba Immigration Agreement, as well as to advance discussions on how Manitoba will use its PNP to transition more temporary residents to permanent residency.”

With the implementation of this one-time facilitation measure, Canada aims to directly and positively affect prospective nominees by allowing them to work in Manitoba while their PNP applications are processed.

Long-term, as these temporary residents move to permanent status, this policy will add to Manitoba’s varied skilled labour supply.

Manitoba has requested support from my department to extend the work status of 6,700 temporary residents who are employed in Manitoba, and whose work permits expire in 2024. This represents a challenge as Manitoba counts on those workers to meet its labour needs.
— Marc Miller ᐅᑭᒫᐃᐧᐅᓃᐸᐄᐧᐤᐃᔨᐣ (@MarcMillerVM) May 7, 2024

Provincial Effort For Expiring Work Permits

Apart from securing temporary policy from the Immigration Minister, the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) has recently stepped up to help temporary residents with expired or expiring work permits.

Effective April 26, Manitoba is also giving assessments of MPNP applications filed by holders of post-graduation work permits (PGWPs) and other work permits that are about to expire priority.

To ensure priority processing, MPNP applicants whose work authorizations have expired or will expire within the next 45 days must notify the MPNP by filling out the Skilled Worker Webform.

What about other provinces?

This effort, addressing larger concerns about the need for a coherent immigration plan across Canada, will support thousands of important temporary workers in Manitoba while they await their applications for permanent residence.

Discussions of the difficulties encountered by international students on post-graduation work permits with expired or about-to-expire work permits have sparked requests for similar actions in other provinces.

The question that still remains as the country observes this trend is if other provinces would follow suit in offering temporary residents working inside their borders routes to open work permits.

The Immigration Minister is also holding a yearly meeting with all the provincial and territorial immigration ministers on May 10.

So let’s hope we see some positive development in such a scenario for other provinces as well.

Stay tuned to INC News for the latest Canada immigration news and updates.

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Satinder Bains

Satinder brings expertise, knowledge, and experience related to internal work flows at IRCC. She worked at Canadian Consulate in Chandigarh before moving to Canada. Her articles on “Chinook – An internal IRCC tool used to bulk process temporary applications” was one of the notable work on our news website