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Get your free Roadmap SnapshotOntario has signalled a new Entrepreneur Stream under OINP Phase 2, reportedly for 2027 and aimed at people already running Ontario businesses. An RCIC separates what is confirmed from what is proposed.
Business owners ask me the same two questions every week: is Ontario going to bring back an entrepreneur stream, and should I wait for it? Since the OINP redesign began, Ontario has had no provincial route for an entrepreneur who wants a nomination for permanent residence on the strength of a business they own and run. The honest answer today, as a regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC), has three parts. There is a credible official signal that a new Entrepreneur Stream is coming under Phase 2 of the redesign. The design appears to favour people who already operate a business in Ontario rather than people who promise to invest. And no launch date and no eligibility rule have been published. This article separates what Ontario has confirmed from what stakeholders have proposed and what has been reported second-hand, and ends with what I would and would not do while waiting.
Status as of November 8, 2026. Everything in this article about Phase 2 is a proposal or a report, not a programme you can apply to. Nothing here predicts or guarantees that any stream will open, when it will open, or with which rules.
What Ontario has confirmed, and when
The official record is thinner than the online chatter suggests. These are the dated steps that can be verified on Ontario's own pages.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| December 2023 to November 2024 | Ontario paused new Entrepreneur Stream applications on December 4, 2023, then wound the stream down and closed it in November 2024. Since then Ontario has had no provincial entrepreneur route. |
| December 3, 2025 | Ontario posted its OINP redesign proposal on the Ontario Regulatory Registry: consolidate the remaining streams into four new ones, in two phases. Phase 2 would include an Entrepreneur Stream. Comments closed January 1, 2026. |
| May 30, 2026 | Amendments to Ontario Regulation 421/17 took effect to prepare the redesign. Applications already submitted continue under the rules in place when they were filed. |
| June 25–26, 2026 | Phase 1: Ontario Regulation 422/17 was amended, the eight remaining streams were removed and the Ontario Workforce Priority stream was created. Ontario called this “the first of a 2-phase program redesign”. |
| August 4, 2026 | The expression-of-interest portal for the Ontario Workforce Priority stream opened, with pathways for job offers in every TEER category and for self-employed physicians. |
| October 16, 2026 | A new round of the Regional Economic Development through Immigration (REDI) initiative was announced, running to the end of 2027 in six communities outside the Greater Toronto Area. |
| November 8, 2026 | No Phase 2 launch date, no draft Entrepreneur Stream criteria and no Phase 2 regulatory amendment have been published. The OINP home page, updated October 27, still says only that the Workforce Priority stream is open, all other streams are closed, and to “watch for more changes coming soon”. |
What Phase 2 is expected to contain
The December 2025 proposal described three further streams. None has been enacted, and the final design could differ from the proposal.
- Entrepreneur Stream. For foreign nationals who have established and are actively operating a new business in Ontario, or who have purchased and are operating an existing Ontario business. The proposal gave no net worth, investment or job-creation figures.
- Priority Healthcare Stream. For regulated health professionals who hold registration with an Ontario regulatory body, with no job offer required.
- Exceptional Talent Stream. A qualitative assessment of a candidate's contributions and potential impact on Ontario in research, technology, innovation, academia or the creative sector. Our earlier note on the proposed talent stream covers it.
The most important point for entrepreneurs is the change in philosophy. The old stream, like most provincial entrepreneur programmes, selected people on a business plan and a promise to invest, then checked performance later. The proposal describes people who are already operating, or have already bought, a business in Ontario. If that survives into the final rules, the stream will reward demonstrated operation in Ontario rather than a plan on paper, and the natural candidates are owner-operators who came to Ontario on a work permit.
The October 29 session: 2027, not 2026
On October 29, 2026 the OINP held an information session with the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC) for licensed consultants. A fellow RCIC who attended published a same-day summary. According to that account, OINP representatives said the Phase 2 Entrepreneur and Priority Healthcare streams are expected to move forward in 2027; that the opening date is still uncertain, in part because the ministry is briefing a new minister; and that the Exceptional Talent Stream would follow at a later stage. The same account reports that Ontario's 2026 nomination allocation is not yet used up and that further Workforce Priority invitations are expected before the end of the year.
- Weigh it correctly. This is an attendee's account of oral remarks, not a written announcement, and OINP has published none of it. It is still more informative than the generic “coming soon” that Ontario has repeated since June.
- The new minister is a fact. Ontario's cabinet shuffle of September 10, 2026 moved the labour and immigration portfolio to Trevor Jones. A new minister reviewing a programme redesign is a plausible reason for a slower timetable, and it fits with Ontario having said nothing concrete about Phase 2 since June.
The Ontario Bar Association's proposal for C11 and ICT entrepreneurs
The most detailed public proposal for the new stream comes from the Ontario Bar Association (OBA), which filed its submission on the redesign on December 30, 2025. It asked Ontario for a pathway for work permit holders who already operate a business in Ontario, with a separate business-succession pathway for people who buy an existing business. The figures it suggested are worth knowing because they show what the profession thinks a workable stream looks like.
| Criterion | OBA recommendation |
|---|---|
| Work permit | Holders of open work permits, or of closed permits under C11 (entrepreneurs and self-employed), C12 (intra-company transferees) and C10 (significant benefit) |
| Time operating in Ontario | At least two years |
| Ownership | At least 50% of the business |
| Jobs, Greater Toronto Area | Three full-time-equivalent positions held by Canadian citizens or permanent residents, created or maintained for at least one year |
| Jobs, rest of Ontario | Two full-time-equivalent positions |
| Jobs, rural and Northern Ontario | One full-time-equivalent position |
| Language | CLB 4 in speaking and listening |
| Buying a business | A separate business-succession pathway with 50% or more ownership and criteria aligned with the above |
| Investment and net worth | No figure proposed; the OBA asked only that investment requirements “remain reasonable” |
Why a business owner cannot simply use the Workforce Priority stream
Readers sometimes ask why an owner-operator does not just have their own company make them a job offer under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream. Ontario Regulation 422/17 rules this out for most owners. A registrant is disqualified if they or a family member have ever held equity in the employer, unless that equity was obtained purely as employee remuneration and the combined holding is under 10%. A founder who owns half the company, or a transferee with a meaningful stake in the Canadian subsidiary, therefore has no route through the current stream. That gap is exactly what a dedicated entrepreneur pathway would fill, and it is why the OBA aimed its recommendation at work permit holders rather than at new investors abroad. Our explainer on the Workforce Priority stream covers that stream's actual requirements.
When might it open? My reading
Nobody outside the ministry knows the date, and I will not pretend to. Weighing the official record against the October 29 account, this is how I plan with clients today.
| Window | My assessment | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Before December 31, 2026 | Less likely | No draft criteria, no regulatory amendment and no consultation notice for Phase 2 have appeared; the ministry has a new minister; OINP staff reportedly pointed to 2027. |
| During 2027 | More plausible | Ontario has repeatedly described the redesign as two-phase, Phase 1 is complete, and 2027 is the horizon OINP staff reportedly gave. Which part of 2027 is unknown. |
In one sentence: treat 2027 as the realistic planning horizon, and treat every figure in this article as unconfirmed until Ontario publishes regulations and programme guidance.
What I would do now, and what I would not
Two groups of clients should be preparing, for different reasons.
What I would not do is make a major investment solely in expectation of Phase 2. The final stream may set different ownership, operating-period, job-creation or investment rules than anything proposed so far, or may arrive later than 2027. Invest because the business works on its own terms; let the nomination be the upside.
- If you already run an Ontario business on a C11 or intra-company transfer work permit: keep the evidence an operation-based stream would ask for. Corporate records showing your ownership percentage from day one, payroll records and T4 slips for every employee, CRA filings and HST returns, a lease or title for the premises, and proof of your own residence in Ontario. If the OBA numbers are any guide, two years of operation and a small number of full-time positions for citizens or permanent residents are what a future officer would look for. Plan your permit renewals so your status does not lapse while you wait; our work permit page covers C11 and intra-company transfer permits.
- If you are considering buying an existing Ontario business: the proposal expressly names purchasing and operating an existing business, and the OBA asked for a separate succession pathway. Businesses outside the Greater Toronto Area may matter twice over: the OBA's job-creation numbers fall as you move away from the GTA, and Ontario's REDI initiative is reserving nomination spaces for six communities in Northern and Eastern Ontario through 2027. Do ordinary commercial due diligence first; immigration should never be the only reason a deal makes sense.
- Language: the OBA suggested CLB 4 in speaking and listening. That is a low bar, but it is not zero, and in some countries a test takes months to book. Taking one now costs little.
How this fits the rest of Canada's entrepreneur landscape
Ontario's gap is part of a wider contraction. The federal Start-Up Visa and Self-Employed Persons programmes closed to new applications on January 1, 2026, and Saskatchewan's entrepreneur categories closed permanently in March 2025, while British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and New Brunswick continue to run entrepreneur or business streams. Our provincial entrepreneur programmes page is the one place we keep those thresholds current, and our guide for business owners and managers explains the work permit routes that remain open. For many Ontario-based owners the practical sequence is unchanged: enter and operate on a C11 or intra-company transfer permit, build a record, and keep both the Ontario proposal and the other provinces in view.
What to watch
Three official pages will carry the news first: Ontario's 2026 OINP updates page, where every dated change since the redesign began has appeared; the OINP home page, which still carries the “more changes coming soon” line; and Ontario Regulation 422/17 on e-Laws, which must be amended before any new stream can open. A Phase 2 consultation would also appear on the Ontario Regulatory Registry, as the December 2025 proposal did. When Ontario publishes anything new we will cover it in a new article and add a dated note here.
