Canada is facing an additional shortfall of 19,500 family doctors over the coming nine years, a situation that will create plenty of opportunity for qualified foreign nationals to gain their permanent residence here through occupation-targeted Express Entry system draws.
“Over the period 2022-2031, the number of job openings arising from expansion demand and replacement demand for general practitioners and family physicians are expected to total 48,900, while the number of job seekers arising from school leavers, immigration and mobility is expected to total 29,400,” reports the Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) website.
The paucity of family physicians is already at a near crisis level across most of the country and the situation will only get worse as Baby Boomers age and need more medical care.
“As the Canadian population ages, the number of complex health conditions as well as of those requiring additional follow-ups is expected to grow,” reports COPS. “Consequently, the employment growth rate for general practitioners and family physicians is projected to be significantly higher than the average of all occupations.”
Although there were already many ways for family physicians to immigrate to Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) added one more pathway for them in May.
That month, the IRCC changed Canada’s Express Entry system to allow it to target 82 jobs in healthcare, technology, trades, transport and agriculture starting this summer –including family physicians – and so opened the door to a new pathway to immigration for them.
The flagship Express Entry selection system had previously only conducted draws based on immigration programs, not by targeting specific occupations.
“Everywhere I go, I’ve heard loud and clear from employers across the country who are experiencing chronic labour shortages,” said then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.
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“These changes to the Express Entry system will ensure that they have the skilled workers they need to grow and succeed. We can also grow our economy and help businesses with labour shortages while also increasing the number of French-proficient candidates to help ensure the vitality of French-speaking communities.”
In early October, there were 500 job postings for family physicians on the Indeed.ca job-hunting website.
The federal government’s job-hunting and career-planning website, Jobbank, ranks the job prospects of family physicians as very good, its highest rating, over the next three years in every single Canadian province except Alberta where those job prospects are rated as only good.
Occupation-Targeted Draws Started For Express Entry Programs This Summer
In Canada, the median yearly income for the family, categorized under the National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2021 system with the code 31102, is $216,833 but that varies from a low of $76,759 right up to $451,997, reveals Jobbank.
Candidates hoping to immigrate through Express Entry occupation-targeted draws need at least six months of continuous work experience in Canada or abroad within the past three years in one of these occupations to be eligible, experience that can have been gained while working in Canada as a temporary foreign workers with a work permits or as an international student with a student visa.
Canada first signalled its intention to start occupation-specific draws through Express Entry in June last year, when changes were made to the Immigration, Refugee and Protection Act to allow invitations based on occupations and other attributes, such as language ability.
The majority of Canada’s provinces have been issuing occupation-specific invitations for several years.
Under the changes to the act, the immigration minister is required to consult provinces and territories, members of industry, unions, employers, workers, worker advocacy groups, settlement provider organizations, and immigration researchers and practitioners, before announcing new categories.
IRCC must also report to parliament each year on the categories that were chosen and the reason for the choices.
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says the number of occupations facing shortages doubled between 2019 and 2021. From 2018 to 2022, federal high skilled admissions accounted for between 34 and 40 per cent of overall French-speaking admissions outside Quebec, which manages its own immigration intake.
