A proposed overhaul of Canada’s Express Entry system could reshape who gets selected for permanent residency, as Ottawa considers giving greater weight to candidates with Canadian work experience, professional licences and higher-paying jobs.
A consultation document circulated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in April outlines possible changes to the country’s flagship Express Entry economic immigration system, including merging the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Trades Program into a single stream while reworking the points system that ranks candidates. The proposals would place more emphasis on labour-market outcomes such as Canadian work experience and high-wage occupations, while potentially reducing or removing points awarded when candidates have family in Canada, have studied here or have good French language skills.
New Canadian Media requested a copy of the consultation document from IRCC, but the department declined to provide it.
Amer Rehman, a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant with The Visa Canada, who shared the consultation document with NCM, said the reforms appear to lower the bar for entering the eligible pool in some respects, while making competition for invitations tougher by favouring candidates with stronger Canadian labour-market ties. In his view, that could mean more people joining the pool, even as fewer of them remain competitive enough to receive invitations.
He also questioned whether the proposed emphasis on high-wage occupations would work as intended if the existing age – point structure remains unchanged. Rehman said many higher-paid or senior-management professionals tend to be older and could still lose ground because Express Entry continues to favour younger applicants.
“If the IRCC is proposing high age, giving priority to those high-wage occupations and for senior management positions, and if they are not changing the age [points], then those changes will basically be not getting any impact,” he said.
The proposed changes are also landing at a time when businesses across several sectors continue to report hiring pressures. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s Monthly Business Barometer, 38 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses reported a shortage of skilled labour in April, while Canada recorded 391,300 private-sector vacancies in the first quarter of 2026.
He worries applicants will confuse these government proposals with current criteria. Rehman said applicants should not panic, but should rather “stress test” their profiles against the proposed changes.
Juliette Nicolaÿ, a policy analyst at CFIB, said labour shortages remain a persistent challenge for small businesses, particularly in rural and remote communities where employers can struggle to find workers with specialized skills. “Shortage of skilled labour is still an issue for small businesses,” she said.
Construction is one of the sectors where those pressures remain especially visible. CFIB says the sector had a 4.1 per cent vacancy rate and 52,100 vacancies, while 57 per cent of business owners reported a shortage of skilled labour as a constraint on growth.
BuildForce Canada, which supports the construction industry, meanwhile, projects the industry will need to hire 380,500 workers by 2034 as it replaces nearly 268,900 retirees and responds to growing demand, with a possible shortfall of 108,300 workers even after expected recruitment of younger workers.
Shilpashree Jagannathan
Shilpashree Jagannathan is a journalist from India. She now lives in Toronto and has worked as a business reporter for leading newspapers in India. She has tracked telecom, infrastructure, and real estate news developments and has produced podcast series. She currently focuses on human rights, feminist movements, and other related issues in Canada and India. Her weekends are spent bird watching in one of the Toronto birding hotspots; she loves trails, biking, and a lot of sun.