Manitoba Adjusts Temporary Resident Retention Pilot: 16 Skilled Trades Now Exempt from Sector Limits, Hospitality Removed from Eligibility
The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) has updated the application guidelines for the Temporary Resident Retention Pilot (TRRP). This policy shift represents a dual approach: broadening support for critical technical trades by removing sector restrictions, while simultaneously narrowing the scope of general eligible sectors by excluding Hospitality and Food Services.
16 Skilled Trades No Longer Restricted by Sector
Prior to this adjustment, only employers within specific "eligible sectors" qualified to support employee work permit extensions. With the implementation of the new policy, Manitoba has introduced a "sector-exempt" mechanism. As long as an employee is working in one of the 16 designated skilled trades, employers in any sector are now eligible to support their TRRP application.
The 16 exempt occupations and their National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes are as follows:
- Agricultural & Heavy Equipment: Agricultural Equipment Technician (72401), Heavy Duty Equipment Technician (72401).
- Automotive Service & Repair: Auto Body and Collision Technician (73202), Automotive Refinishing Technician (73202), Automotive Service Technician (72410), Parts Technician (72410), Recreation Vehicle Service Technician (72410), Transport Trailer Technician (72410), Truck and Transport Mechanic (72410), Diesel Engine Mechanic (72410).
- Industrial & Technical Trades: Boilermaker (72304), Instrumentation and Control Technician (72201), Railway Car Technician (72403), Aircraft Maintenance Journeyperson (72404), Water and Wastewater Technician (22101).
- Other: Landscape Horticulturalist (22114).
Hospitality and Food Services Removed from Eligible Sectors
While expanding exemptions for trades, Manitoba has restricted the list of standard eligible sectors. Hospitality and Food Services have been officially removed from the eligible list.
Currently, excluding the exempt occupations listed above, only employers belonging to the following sectors may submit TRRP applications:
- Agriculture
- Construction and Trades
- Information Technology (IT)
- Food Processing
- Education
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
According to the regulations, applications received from Hospitality and Food Services employers after February 4, 2026, will not be accepted, unless the sponsored employee is working in one of the 16 exempt occupations.
The TRRP Advantage: LMIA Exemption
The TRRP is a unique, employer-driven work permit program specific to Manitoba. Compared to the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), its primary advantage is that employers do not need to apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), nor are they required to advertise the position. This significantly streamlines the process, allowing eligible businesses to apply for work permit extensions for their existing employees in as little as 60 days.
Eligibility Criteria
To successfully renew a permit through the TRRP, both the employer and the foreign worker must meet strict eligibility standards.
1. Employer Eligibility
In addition to belonging to an eligible sector (or sponsoring an exempt occupation), employers must hold a valid Worker Recruitment and Protection Act (WRAPA) Certificate of Registration and demonstrate the following over the three years prior to applying:
- Active ownership and operation of a non-home-based business in Manitoba;
- Gross annual revenue of at least $350,000.
Note: Placement agencies (supplying workers only), businesses employing only owner-operators/independent contractors, businesses intending to sell within two years, and employers on the ESDC/Service Canada suspension list are ineligible. Furthermore, while employers meeting minimum requirements may apply, approval is not guaranteed as selection depends on Manitoba’s economic and immigration priorities.
2. Employee Eligibility
Foreign workers must meet the following personal criteria:
- Age: 21–45 years old (unless the employer requests otherwise);
- Status: Hold a valid work permit (expiring in <1 year) or be on maintained status, and currently reside in Manitoba;
- Language: Minimum CLB 5 for TEER 0–3 roles; Minimum CLB 4 for TEER 4–5 roles;
- Points: Meet a minimum of 60 points on the MPNP assessment grid;
- Restrictions: Must not be endorsed by a Regional Immigration Initiative or be eligible under other temporary public policies for prospective PNP candidates.
3. Employment & Position Requirements
- Tenure: The employee must have worked full-time for the approved employer for at least 18 months and possess an ongoing, long-term permanent job offer;
- Residency: The employee must have spent more than 50% of their time in Canada residing in Manitoba (including time on visitor, study, and work permits);
- Wages: Wages and working conditions must match those offered to citizens/PRs and be at least the median prevailing wage for the occupation in the region (per Job Bank data).
For employees in occupations classified as TEER 4 or 5 (lower-skilled roles) where the wage is below the regional median, the employer must provide additional support, including paying the worker’s work permit fees and providing reasonable access to settlement and integration assistance.
UNA's Observation:
This policy adjustment sends a clear signal that the Manitoba government is utilizing precise policy tools to prioritize the labor supply for critical infrastructure, maintenance, and industrial sectors. For applicants currently working in blue-collar trades such as automotive repair or heavy machinery in Manitoba, this is a significant advantage. However, for applicants in the hospitality and service sectors, the pathway to extending status through this specific pilot program has effectively narrowed.
Friendly reminder: There are many pathways to immigrate to Canada. We recommend first using UNA AI to generate an objective and neutral immigration plan, so you can gain an initial understanding of the possible immigration pathways and their requirements, and then choose to proceed with one-on-one consultations with a licensed Canadian immigration consultant partnered with UNA.
IRCC Issues 4,000 ITAs to French-Speaking Candidates in Third Express Entry Draw of the Week
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held a category-based Express Entry draw on April 29, 2026, issuing 4,000 invitations to apply (ITAs) to candidates in the French-language proficiency stream with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 400 and a tie-breaking date of April 7, 2026 at 20:13:59 UTC. The round marks the fifth French-language draw of 2026 and the twenty-sixth Express Entry selection of the year overall, capping a week in which IRCC ran three back-to-back draws. Set against Ottawa's commitment to lift Francophone permanent residence outside Quebec to 9 percent of admissions in 2026 — and a freshly reserved pool of 5,000 federal spaces for French-speaking candidates — the French-language category has become, despite a comparatively low frequency of draws, the second-largest source of ITAs this year, trailing only the Canadian Experience Class (CEC); IRCC has now issued 71,627 ITAs in 2026, with the bulk going to in-Canada candidates holding provincial nominations or domestic work experience.
04/30/2026
IRCC Issues 2,000 CEC Invitations in Express Entry Draw, CRS Cut-Off Holds at 514
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) closed out April with another targeted Express Entry draw on April 28, 2026, issuing 2,000 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to candidates in the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) at a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off of 514. This marks the ninth CEC-specific round of 2026 and the 25th overall Express Entry draw of the year, lifting the year-to-date ITA total to 67,627 — of which CEC alone accounts for 34,250. With CEC and French-language draws together making up more than 80% of all 2026 ITAs and all-program draws absent from this year's calendar, the latest round reinforces Ottawa's broader strategy under the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan: prioritising candidates already working in Canada or selected through provincial nominations, and channelling more of the country's annual 380,000 permanent resident admissions toward "in-Canada" applicants.
04/29/2026
Canada Issues 473 ITAs to Provincial Nominees in April 27 Express Entry Draw, CRS Cut-Off at 795
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held a new Express Entry round on April 27, 2026, issuing 473 invitations to apply (ITAs) to candidates already holding a provincial nomination, with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 795 and a profile-creation cut-off of 11:11 p.m. UTC on April 13, 2026. This was the 23rd Express Entry selection of 2026, bringing the year's total to 65,627 ITAs, with Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draws now numbering nine — the highest count of any draw type — and continuing to share top billing with the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). Read alongside Ottawa's 2026 Immigration Levels Plan, which lifts the PNP target from roughly 55,000 in 2025 to 91,500, the latest round further confirms IRCC's broader strategy of prioritizing in-Canada candidates with provincial nominations and Canadian work experience.
04/28/2026
Canada's New TR-to-PR Pathway Shuts Out Every Major Urban Centre as Minister Confirms Full CMA Exclusion
Canada's Immigration Minister Lena Diab has confirmed that the federal government's new Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident (TR to PR) Pathway will exclude every one of Canada's 41 Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), meaning temporary foreign workers currently employed in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and other major urban centres will be shut out of the one-time program that is set to grant permanent residence to 33,000 rural and small-community workers over 2026 and 2027; speaking on the April 18, 2026 edition of the immigration show "I'm Canada," Diab said the full selection criteria — including work-experience duration and occupational scope — will be released "in the coming weeks," though she indicated applicants may need close to two years of Canadian work experience and that the pathway is unlikely to be sector-restricted; the CMA carve-out aligns with a broader federal push toward rural immigration, including temporary Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) flexibilities that took effect April 1, 2026 for rural employers outside CMAs and that have so far been adopted by Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Manitoba, together pointing to a coordinated policy shift that concentrates permanent-residence pipelines in smaller communities while tightening them in Canada's largest cities.
04/24/2026
Ontario OINP issues 918 nominations to Master's and PhD graduates in second 2026 draw
The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) held its second draw of 2026 targeting international student graduates on April 22, issuing a total of 918 invitations to apply (ITAs) to candidates who completed a master's or doctoral degree at an Ontario university — 674 under the Master's Graduate Stream at a minimum score of 61, and 244 under the PhD Graduate Stream at a minimum score of 56. Compared with the program's March 18 draw, cut-off scores climbed sharply in both streams (up 31 points for master's and 7 points for PhD), a jump industry observers attribute not to a policy tightening but to a surge of high-scoring candidates entering the pool after the previous round. The April 22 draw was also notably broader in scope: unlike the NOC-targeted March 18 round, it imposed no specific National Occupational Classification experience requirement. All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of the deepest restructuring of the OINP in over a decade — the nine existing application categories are scheduled to be formally revoked on May 30, 2026, and replaced by four consolidated pathways (Employer: Job Offer, Priority Healthcare, Entrepreneur, and Exceptional Talent), giving eligible graduates a narrow closing window in which to act on an ITA.
04/23/2026
Saskatchewan Burns Through a Quarter of Its 2026 PNP Allocation in Q1, With Priority Sectors Leading the Pack
The Government of Saskatchewan has released first-quarter data for the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP), showing that as of April 21, 2026, the province has issued 1,223 nominations — roughly 26 percent of its 4,761-nomination annual allocation — leaving 3,538 spots to be distributed over the remainder of the year; against the backdrop of Ottawa's sweeping 50 percent cut to all Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) in 2025, Saskatchewan's 2026 allocation sits at only about 60 percent of the roughly 8,000 nominations the province received in 2024, prompting a structural overhaul that slices the annual quota into "priority sectors," "capped sectors" and "other sectors," with capped trades such as accommodation and food services, retail and trucking now managed through a fixed-window intake schedule; Q1 figures show the seven priority sectors — healthcare, agriculture, skilled trades, mining, manufacturing, energy and technology — moving fastest, using up 29 percent of their internal allocation and accounting for more than half of all nominations issued so far, while the capped retail, trade and other services sector leads usage in its category at 31 percent, followed by accommodation and food services at 26 percent and trucking at 19 percent, with non-priority, non-capped "other sectors" sitting at 19 percent overall; the next capped-sector intake window opens on May 4, 2026, on a first-come, first-served basis.
04/22/2026
BC Issues 14 Invitations in April Entrepreneur Draw as Base Stream Cut-Off Slips to 115
British Columbia held its latest Entrepreneur Immigration (EI) selection round on April 14, 2026, issuing 14 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) through the Base stream of the BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) with a minimum qualifying score of 115 — two points lower than the March 10, 2026 Base-stream draw and the largest standalone EI round the province has run so far this year. With six entrepreneur draws and at least 41 ITAs now issued in 2026 under a federal 2026 allocation of 5,254 nomination spaces (up roughly 31% from BC's initial 4,000-spot allotment in 2025 but still below what the province requested), BC PNP continues to focus on business candidates expected to generate high economic impact in the province.
04/21/2026
Ontario Issues Over 1,300 OINP Invitations in Back-to-Back In-Demand Skills Draws
On April 15, 2026, the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) held two back-to-back draws under its Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills stream, issuing a combined 1,334 invitations to apply (ITAs) to candidates with qualifying job offers in either agriculture-related occupations or other priority occupations, of which 315 invitations (minimum score 35) went to agriculture candidates and 1,024 (minimum score 36) went to non-agriculture priority occupation candidates — approximately 77% of the total; the two draws together targeted 39 National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes and required candidates to be residing in Canada with a valid work or study permit at the time of selection, with eligible profiles having been created and attested to no earlier than July 2, 2025 and no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 13, 2026, marking OINP's third round of selections in April; notably, OINP is expected to undergo a major program overhaul on May 30, 2026 that will revoke existing applicant categories and consolidate the three current Employer Job Offer streams into a single unified stream, though the province has yet to clarify how existing candidates will be transitioned.
04/20/2026
Prince Edward Island Issues 127 Invitations in Largest PNP Draw of 2026
Prince Edward Island's Office of Immigration held its fourth provincial nominee draw of 2026 on April 16, issuing 127 invitations — the largest single round of the year so far. The draw was conducted through the Labour Impact and PEI Express Entry pathways, the only two streams the province has used this year, and focused on candidates currently working in Prince Edward Island (PEI) in priority occupations and sectors deemed to have high economic impact. International graduates from three local post-secondary institutions — the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), Holland College and Collège de l'Île — were given further priority. With this round, PEI has now issued a total of 363 invitations under the Prince Edward Island Provincial Nominee Program (PEI PNP) in 2026. The draw took place on the exact date listed in the province's publicly released invitation schedule. Candidates who receive an invitation now have 30 calendar days — down from the previous 60-day window — to file a complete application for provincial nomination.
04/19/2026
International Student Population in Canada Falls by More Than 200,000 Over Two Years as Study Permit Caps Take Effect
Canada's population of international students holding only a study permit has dropped sharply over the past two years, signalling a clear structural shift in federal immigration policy. According to the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the number of study-permit-only holders fell from 673,920 in December 2023 to 460,695 in January 2026, a net reduction of more than 210,000 people, or over 30 percent. The decline became visible from mid-2024, accelerated sharply between March and July 2025, and has remained consistently below 500,000 since late 2025. Analysts broadly attribute the drop to Ottawa's systematic effort to cap international student volumes — a policy first introduced under Justin Trudeau's government in January 2024 and since extended and tightened under Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose 2025 budget slashed the 2026 new study permit allocation from 305,900 to 155,000 (a 49 percent cut), alongside stricter eligibility rules, tougher scrutiny of designated learning institutions (DLIs) and explicit links between intake and housing and labour market capacity. Observers say this is not a short-term correction but a structural turning point that will reshape tuition revenues at Canadian post-secondary institutions, the future pool of permanent resident candidates and housing demand in major cities.
04/17/2026
