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TL;DR
Manitoba Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino travelled to Ottawa this week with business leaders and was denied requests for work-permit extensions and a larger provincial nominee allocation.
Manitoba says about 6,000 workers in the province could face work-permit expiry by the end of the year.
Manitoba's 2026 Provincial Nominee Program allocation stands at 6,239, part of a national 31% PNP expansion, but still well below the 12,000 spots the province had sought.
Ottawa says it has no plans for another round of permit extensions but will continue working with provinces on permanent resident transitions.
Manitoba Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino returned from Ottawa this week after federal officials denied her requests for work-permit extensions and a larger share of provincial nominee spots. About 6,000 workers in the province could face work-permit expiry by the end of the year.
Manitoba's Provincial Nominee Program, the federal limit on how many workers the province can nominate for permanent residence each year, is one of the province's main tools for turning temporary workers into permanent residents. With the allocation capped at 6,239 and no new permit extensions on the table, about 6,000 workers could see their federal permits expire before the province can process their applications.
Marcelino told CBC News on Thursday that the meetings produced "steady no, no, no, no." She said she met with the prime minister's deputy chief of staff and her federal counterpart during the trip.
Who went and what they brought
Marcelino said she went "armed with economic data" and was joined by leaders from the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and the Manitoba Business Council.
Bram Strain, president and CEO of the Manitoba Business Council, said his group presented preliminary findings from a labour force survey of seven large Manitoba employers, mostly manufacturers and food processors. The survey suggested 1,050 workers who came through the Provincial Nominee Program were linked to roughly $150 million in provincial GDP.
Strain said that figure did not include the approximately 6,000 workers on federal work permits who could also be affected. "If those 6,000 workers who are employed were to leave, that number would be a very substantial number on two bottom lines," he said.
Ottawa's position
A federal spokesperson told CBC there were no plans to extend work permits again. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it would continue working with provinces to "achieve our shared economic immigration objectives, including by transitioning more temporary residents to permanent residents."
That language does not include the extensions Manitoba was seeking. The Carney government has maintained tight immigration caps as part of a broader effort to reduce temporary resident levels nationally.
Four days before Marcelino's Ottawa trip became public, Manitoba opted into a federal temporary measure that gives rural employers a separate form of relief. Effective April 14, eligible employers outside the Winnipeg CMA can now retain their current proportion of low-wage temporary foreign workers above the standard cap, and benefit from a raised 15% ceiling instead of the usual 10%.
The measures run until March 31, 2027. Ottawa denied the permit extensions Manitoba asked for while offering a separate measure the same week. But the workers most at risk — those in food processing — already fall under a different 20% cap and do not benefit from the new rule.
How Manitoba got here
Manitoba's nominee allocation has been a source of friction with Ottawa for more than a year. Manitoba entered 2025 with just 4,750 nomination spots after a federal cut. For 2026, that figure rose to 6,239 as part of a national expansion that increased total PNP allocations by roughly 31% across provinces. Manitoba had asked for 12,000.
In 2024, Ottawa agreed to extend expiring work permits for more than 6,700 Manitoba newcomers. The province argued then that it needed time to process applications and keep people employed.
Marcelino said Ottawa's broader immigration rollback is hitting Manitoba harder than other provinces. She said Manitoba was not consulted when the cuts were made and that the resulting numbers are "not acceptable for what we need as an economy."
A worker with an expiring federal permit may have a Manitoba employer and a provincial nomination pathway but still depend on decisions made in Ottawa to remain in the country.
"But that doesn't mean we stop advocating. We have to keep trying," Marcelino said.
What this means for you
If you are a temporary foreign worker in Manitoba with a permit expiring before the end of 2026, Ottawa has confirmed there will be no new round of work-permit extensions.
The province is still pushing for , but you can’t afford to plan around an outcome that hasn’t materialised. What you need to know right now:
Talk to your employer. Manitoba employers are on record arguing your economic case to Ottawa. If your employer is not aware of their options or has not engaged provincial channels, that conversation is worth having now.
If you work in food processing or healthcare, the new federal TFW measures announced this week do not cover your sector. Those sectors operate under a separate 20% cap that was not changed.
If you work in another sector outside Winnipeg, your employer may now retain a higher proportion of TFWs through March 2027. Ask whether they have applied for this under the new federal measure.
