Toronto – July 24, 2024 – Due the efforts of UFCW Canada, the provincial government has included Food and Beverage Processing Workers in the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).

The OINP In-Demand Skills stream offers some migrant workers the opportunity to apply for permanent residence with an eligible job offer for occupations such as home support workers, meat cutters, industrial butchers and more.  However, many UFCW members have been excluded from this opportunity as food and beverage processing workers (NOC 95106 – Labourers in food and beverage processing) were not included.

Workers under this classification included workers who perform material handling, clean-up, packaging in fruit and vegetable processing plants, dairies, flour mills, bakeries, meat plants, and other food and beverages processing and packaging plants.

UFCW migrant members in Ontario who fall under this classification can now qualify for this pathway to permanent residence, thanks to the tireless lobbying of UFCW officials to Queen’s Park.

UFCW officials met with ONDP leader Marit Stiles, MPP Jaime West, labour critic, MPP Doly Begum who helped advocate for the change with Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, David Piccini. The minister’s senior policy staff also met with UFCW and heard our demands for change.

Including food and beverage processing workers in the OINP will help many more UFCW members achieve permanent residency in Canada. UFCW Canada helps to support members in through this process via its Migrant Members Support Program.