The federal government has halted a pilot immigration program that matched skilled refugees with Canadian employers and offered a pathway to permanent residency, citing a growing application backlog and capacity limits within its immigration system.Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) confirmed that new applications to the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) would be paused at the end of December, with no restart date announced. Officials stated that the department will continue processing applications already in its inventory during the pause.The EMPP, launched in 2018, was designed to help Canadian employers fill labour shortages by recruiting displaced and refugee workers with experience in skilled trades, health care, engineering, and technical fields. The program also aimed to support employment in remote and underserved communities..IRCC informed organizations involved in matching employers with refugees that the pause was necessary due to a large and growing inventory of applications, along with increasing processing times. The department said available admission spaces under the federal immigration levels plan are insufficient to process all current EMPP applications.The decision comes as the federal government faces broader pressure to curb migration while maintaining targets for economic immigration. Earlier this month, Ottawa also paused a separate immigration pilot for home care workers after demand exceeded available permanent residency spaces..According to government figures, the EMPP was expected to admit up to 2,000 skilled refugees and their families. Between 2019 and the end of March 2025, 970 people were admitted to Canada through the program.Under the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government aims to offer 8,175 permanent residency spaces through economic pilot programs in 2026, followed by 8,775 spaces in each of the subsequent two years.The pause leaves employers that had already extended job offers and applicants awaiting processing in a holding pattern. IRCC has indicated the suspension will remain in place while the department works toward developing a permanent version of the program that aligns with immigration capacity and long-term targets.No timeline has been provided for when new applications to the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot may resume.
