On June 26, 2010 Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Minister Jason Kenney moved to change the rules for Skilled Workers wishing to immigrate to Canada and drastically reduce the number of Federal Skilled immigrants. This move was made by eliminating more then 7 professional categories and limiting the number of total applicants accepted in a year to 20,000 people. This contrasts to over 30,000 applicants in the first quarter of 2009! What is very surprising is there will be a limit of 1,000 applicants in each profession.

This move mean that there will likely be no chance for a Registered Nurse to immigrate if they try to apply in late December or at the start of 2011. If 1,000 nurses apply to immigrate to Canada by November 2010,  this will max out the number of applicants unless, they have the support of an employer. A new number may be allowed in after June 30, 2011 but we do not know how many that will be.

A labour-market outlook for 2009 to 2019 released by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development, predicts a shortage of 1,710 workers in the Vancouver Island region by 2014. The shortage is expected to worsen each year, reaching a deficit of 7,860 workers by 2019. With all of Canada competing for skilled workers this deficit will be hard to fill.

On Vancouver Island masonry and plastering; medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine; and nursing jobs are all expected to grow at more than four per cent each year. With only 1,000 people or less immigrating to Canada under in each category it will be up to employers to hire directly through the Provincial Nominee Program or compete with all employers across Canada.