Manitoba secures increase in immigration allocation

Manitoba will now be able to nominate more foreign nationals for permanent residence (PR).

The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) has successfully lobbied the federal government to raise its immigrant nomination allocation in 2025, claiming an additional 1,489 nomination spots.

This change brings the province’s total nomination allocation for this year to 6,239 nomination spots.

With this rise in their nomination allocation, Manitoba will now be able to nominate close to 1,500 additional candidates to gain PR and settle in the province before the end of 2025.

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What does this change mean for the MPNP?

With the restoration of 6,239 nomination spots, the MPNP has now recovered 65% of its 2024 nomination allocation of 9,500 spots.

While the province has not declared which streams these additional nomination spots have been assigned to, it did state that the increase will aid the “MPNP’s capacity to address provincial labour market needs and deliver on Manitoba’s strategic priorities.”

Throughout 2025, the MPNP has primarily focused on inviting candidates through two of its skilled worker streams:

Through the latter, the MPNP has emphasized the invitation of candidates through its “strategic recruitment initiatives*”. The province may continue this trend, inviting candidates through both streams — though this remains to be seen.

The Skilled Worker Overseas stream is an enhanced, or Express Entry-aligned stream, meaning that the province can also issue invitations to, and even pick from, individuals with valid Express Entry profiles. Applicants who receive a nomination through an enhanced pathway can benefit from faster processing times for their PR applications.

* Strategic recruitment initiatives are specialized initiatives led by employers or communities in Manitoba that enable the province to identify and invite candidates who possess essential skills currently lacking in the province. These initiatives support local employers in addressing ongoing labour shortages while offering foreign nationals a pathway to PR.

To participate, employers must satisfy eligibility requirements for their available positions and complete Manitoba’s ABC Recruitment Process. Once approved, they may submit the details of international candidates to Manitoba’s Employer Services.

Candidates must also meet specific eligibility conditions—such as minimum language proficiency, relevant work experience, education, and age—along with the criteria for the particular stream in which they are being considered.

If a candidate demonstrates stronger ties to another Canadian province or territory (for example, through previous work or study), they may be viewed as a retention risk. This could lead to a refusal from Employer Services or the MPNP. Each case is evaluated individually by the MPNP.

One of many increases

Manitoba now joins several other Canadian provinces and territories—including Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Northwest Territories—in seeing a rise in its nomination allocation.

This wave of allocation increases follows a dramatic cut to provincial allocations at the start of the year, where all of Canada’s Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) saw their allocations cut to 50% of their 2024 levels.

This decrease runs downstream of higher-order changes detailed in Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan. In October of last year, the federal government announced that it would drastically scale back permanent immigration to the country in response to housing shortages and affordability issues. As part of the reduction, the overall admissions levels to Canada's provincial programs were cut in half.

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