Diab in Dieppe: Provinces Get Optional Space for Up to 100,000 Workers and Families

On November 12, 2026, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab gave more details, in Dieppe, New Brunswick, of a time-limited measure announced in Budget 2026. According to IRCC's news release, the federal government is offering provinces and territories optional, additional space to move up to a combined total of 100,000 workers and their families to permanent residence in 2027. These are workers who already live in Canada. Below is what the release says, what it leaves out, and what that means for a file like yours. For our wider analysis, read 200,000 Extra PR Admissions in 2027: Who Really Benefits.

What IRCC announced

The release sets out four things for the workers part of the measure. It is separate from the In-Canada Worker Initiative announced in Budget 2025, and IRCC's measures page describes the workers in this cohort as people in communities outside Quebec.

• Extra PNP space, chosen by each province. Provinces and territories will receive additional Provincial Nominee Program allocations. IRCC says they can decide how much of this space to use for workers who are established in their communities and who meet their labour market needs.
• A target date. The allocations are intended to be used by March 31, 2027, to support the transition of workers and their families to permanent residence in 2027.
• Pending files can be identified too. Provinces and territories can also identify workers who have already applied for permanent residence, including through several federal programs, and who are waiting for a decision. IRCC names the Atlantic Immigration Program and the federal programs and pilots now closed to new applications: the Start-Up Visa Program, the Self-Employed Persons Program, the Agri-Food Pilot and the home care worker programs.
• Nothing is reopened. IRCC says the measures do not create new programs or reopen closed pathways, and that applicants do not need to do anything or contact IRCC for their applications to be processed under these additional spaces.

The other group: transitions IRCC handles itself

Alongside the provincial space, the release lists groups that IRCC will help move to permanent residence under the same time-limited measure. Each figure is stated as an upper limit:

• up to 32,000 people who applied under the Hong Kong permanent residence pathways, which closed to new applications in August 2026
• up to 18,800 people who applied under the Ukraine Family Reunification Pathway, which closed to new applications in October 2024
• up to 12,600 people already found eligible for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds
• up to 45,000 spouses, common-law partners and dependent children of Canadian citizens or permanent residents living in Canada

What the release does not say

Several questions that matter to applicants are left open:

• How each province will choose. There are no selection criteria, no list of the provinces that will take part and no allocation per province.
• Express Entry. The release does not mention it. Budget 2026 said the workers part would cover workers eligible for Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program, and how Express Entry candidates fit in has not been explained.
• The steps for a worker who has not yet applied. The release does not describe what a worker who has not yet applied to a provincial nominee program should do.
• Linked co-founders abroad. The Start-Up Visa Program is named, but the release does not say how the other members of a team are treated if only one founder is in Canada.

What it means for you

This is our reading, not IRCC's:

• Workers in Canada who may qualify for a provincial program. More nomination space exists in 2027, but each province decides whether and how to use it, and the stated target date is March 31, 2027, about four and a half months from today. Watch your province's nominee program page for any announcement.
• Pending Start-Up Visa, Self-Employed, Agri-Food, home care or Atlantic Immigration Program files. These programs are named, but the release says provinces can identify such workers. That is not a commitment to process every file. IRCC says you do not need to contact it.
• Everyone else. Nothing in the release opens a new route or changes the eligibility rules of programs that are open.

We will add a dated update here when IRCC or a province publishes allocation figures or selection rules. For the full analysis, including who benefits and the Start-Up Visa co-founder question, read our November 8 analysis. For the targets behind the measure, see our breakdown of the 2027–2029 Levels Plan.