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Immigration Minister Makes Announcement In Saint John

Moncton, NB, Canada / 91.9 The Bend
Tamara Steele
Apr 22, 2022 | 5:38 PM
Immigration Minister Makes Announcement In Saint John

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser made an immigration announcement at NBCC Saint John on Friday, April 22nd, 2022. Image by Tamara Steele.



Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser made a stop on Friday in Saint John, New Brunswick for an immigration announcement.

While on the campus of the New Brunswick Community College, Fraser said Canada will extend post graduation work permits for recent international graduates.

“For those whose permits already have or will expire this year, we will ensure that you are eligible for an open work permit for an additional 18 months. We are working on a simplified and expeditious process and details are going to be made available on the weeks ahead,” Fraser said.

Express Entry draws will soon resume and invitations for candidates to apply for permanent residence will begin in early July.

Fraser said the government has doubled the number of permanent residence decisions made in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same time period last year.

Heather Allaby, executive director of NBCC, said New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada face some demographic realities with an ageing workforce, waves of retirement hitting our labour froce and not enough young people to fill those jobs.

“If we want to transform our workforce and if we want to grow our economy and if we want to continue to have vibrant and prosperous communites, it’s pretty clear that we need to build all of the talent we have here at home and we also have to welcome more newcomers to New Brunswick than ever before. Over the past five years, we have seen our internatioal student population at NBCC grow over ten-fold. Five years ago, we had 114 international students across six campuses and today, that number is over 1200 including over 300 [students] right here in Saint John,” Allaby said.

Allaby told the story of a Jamaican woman with a background in IT who is studying network administration at NBCC in Woodstock and whose partner recently joined her in New Brunswick.