Today, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said the agri-food pilot program will run until May 14th, 2025. The pilot was established to help transition experienced professionals in the food and agricultural industries to PRs in Canada. In addition, the minister also announced the lifting of annual application caps. IRCC asserts that removing such limits will allow eligible candidates to apply. Moreover, IRCC will make a few additional changes by the end of the year. The department will add new changes in the agri-food immigration pilot, like: 

 

  • Enhancing/ increasing the open work permit aces to the family of the program participants & irrespective of their skill level.
  • Giving the ability of vouching to the unions for an applicant’s work experience as an option to the reference letters of employment. 
  • Candidates living in Canada will be offered the option to meet the job requirements, which includes the median wage requirement, or they may meet education requirements. 
  • The agri-food immigration pilot participant will start accepting work experience obtained under the open work permit for vulnerable workers. IRCC says that this will provide workers with an opportunity to qualify. 

 

In 2020, Canada’s agri-food immigration pilot was launched to help to reduce labor shortages in mushroom and greenhouse production, meat processing, livestock raising, etc. 

When the program was announced, IRCC asserted it would admit up to 2,750 applicants and their family members for three consecutive years. 

In addition, the pilot’s application deadline was May 14th, 2023. 

Let’s look closely at the present vacancy data from February 2023. We’ll see that more than 243,000 people in Canada are employed in the hunting, fishing, agriculture, and forestry sector. Moreover, there are over 14,000 vacant jobs. The industry was hard hit by the pandemic that caused plant closures, delays in supply chains and market fluctuations. 

 

Occupations Eligible For The Program 

The industries, as well as occupations eligible under the pilot, include the following: 

1. Greenhouse, floriculture, and nursery production 

  • Farm supervisors and specialized professionals 
  • Harvesting laborers 
  • General farm workers 

2. Animal production, excluding aquaculture 

  • Specialized livestock professionals and farm supervisors 
  • General farm workers 

3. Meat product manufacturing  

  • Retail butchers 
  • Food processing laborers 
  • Specialized livestock professionals and farm supervisors 
  • Industrial butchers 

 

Eligibility Of The Candidate 

Applicants in the program must meet the following eligibility requirements:

  • 12 months of full-time, non-seasonal work experience in the TFWP, i.e., Temporary Foreign Worker Program in an eligible occupation 
  • Canadian level benchmark 4 in either French or English 
  • A foreign equivalent of a high school level education 
  • Getting an indeterminate job offer outside of Quebec at the prevailing or above wage. Ensure that the job role offered is full-time. 

 

Meat Processing Sector 

Professionals in the meat processing sector who wish to use the agri-food immigration pilot will be issued LMIA, i.e., Labor Market Impact Assessment of two tears. In addition, the plan should outline the employers’ plan to support the temporary foreign employee obtaining permanent residency. 

IRCC asserts that the union’s meat processing needs a letter of support from their union and non-union meat processors. In addition, they all have to meet the additional eligibility requirements to ensure that labor markets and immigrants are protected.