Our province’s labour shortage is impacting the financial well-being of families across Ontario. Our labour shortage increases the cost of items they purchase every day. It is disrupting businesses and the supply chain and threatens economic stability.

The Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement nominee program is vital to help fill critical vacancies in our labour market and help support jobs in my riding. Unfortunately, this agreement will expire this fall. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development: What is our government doing to not only renew this program but help to expand it?

Thank you to the member for Mississauga–Lakeshore for this very important question. Ontario proudly welcomes more immigrants than any other province. However, we are only able to select 5% of them, less than any other province in Canada. To build a stronger Ontario that works for everyone, we need to double the number of skilled immigrants we can select. That is why in our ongoing negotiations with the federal government, we have been calling, since day one, for 18,000 nominations. We need all hands on deck. That’s why we are working to welcome those with the skills Ontario needs.

On average, our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is processing immigration applications within 90 days—so within three months. But then it takes Ottawa up to 42 months to do their part. We are never going to resolve labour shortages if it takes four years to get a skilled worker into Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, we have offered our processing capacity to the federal government to help speed up the process. We want to work together to resolve these challenges and to help fill the 400,000 jobs that are going unfilled every single day in Ontario.

Thank you to the minister for that answer. I’m pleased that our government is advocating for the significant expansion of the number of skilled immigrants selected by Ontario. However, I often hear from my constituents in my riding that it takes months, or even years, to get applicants processed. Many of these people are eager to start work now, and local businesses in Mississauga–Lakeshore are ready to hire them now.

Mr. Speaker, my question again is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development: What is our government doing to help speed up this immigration process?