Canada’s Premiers Discuss Affordability and Global Challenges

To support the retention of Canadian educated international students, Premiers urge the federal government to remove barriers to international students accessing federal employment support programs, including collaboration with provinces and territories in optimizing the Post-Graduate Work Permit for international students to meet local workforce needs and more efficient transitions to permanent residency.

Provinces and territories are best placed to ensure alignment between immigration and our local labour market needs. Premiers call on the federal government to work with provinces and territories to expand Provincial and Territorial Nominee Programs and ensure the necessary federal resources are in place for timely and efficient processing of nominees. As immigration is an area of shared jurisdiction, the federal government should improve partnership on multi-year planning, including levels and economic priorities. Federal immigration policies should complement and respect the role of provinces and territories in economic immigration through Provincial and Territorial Nominee Programs.

Under the Canada-Québec Accord, Québec assumes sole responsibility for the selection of immigrants and settlement services in Québec. However, it shares the concerns of all provinces and territories about undue delays in the assessment and processing of applications by the federal government and calls on the federal government to urgently improve its processes in this area.

Despite significant progress, Canadians may still face delays when seeking to begin work in a regulated occupation in another province or territory, particularly health care workers. To improve labour mobility, provinces and territories will work with regulatory authorities to encourage reduction and streamlining of application requirements, and work together to help regulatory authorities further align occupational standards.

Climate Change

The impacts of climate change and catastrophic weather events are being felt from coast to coast to coast, with devastating effects on communities, the economy and critical infrastructure.

Meeting the challenge of climate change will require provincial and territorial leadership in reducing carbon emissions. Each province’s and territory’s climate plan is tailored to its circumstances and reflects a common aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. Provinces and territories have an essential role to play in delivering a lower carbon, cleaner growth future, including through participation in international forums such as the upcoming United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in November 2022.

– MORE –