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Canada makes push to attract skilled migrants, including for defense
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a half‑trillion‑dollar plan to upgrade Canada's military and defense‑related infrastructure over the coming decade.
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AFP - Thu, 19, Feb 2026
- 16:43 EST
- 16
Flag of Canada / Unsplash
Canada has launched a new program to attract highly skilled immigrants, including specialized military recruits, as it moves to overhaul a system the government says had become unsustainable.
Canada has for decades been a top destination for economic migrants from the developing world, but in 2024, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau said too many people had been let in too quickly, straining the health care system and housing stocks.
ALSO READ: Canada expands Express Entry for labor gaps
Prime Minister Mark Carney has echoed Trudeau's message, saying in October that his government was "getting immigration under control" while promising to bring in migrants with the skills needed to boost a Canadian economy facing unprecedented threats from U.S. tariffs.
Carney on Feb. 17 announced a half‑trillion‑dollar plan (US $365 billion) to upgrade Canada's military and defense‑related infrastructure over the coming decade, a massive spending program he says will spur broad economic growth.
His immigration minister, Lena Metlege Diab, on Feb. 18 unveiled a new scheme she said would help "attract the best talent to Canada."
"We are creating a new category for skilled military recruits to attract highly skilled foreign military applicants," Diab said, specifying that this group includes doctors, nurses, and pilots.
"This new category will support our government's commitment to strengthen our armed forces, to defend our sovereignty, and to keep Canadians safe," she added.
Diab said Ottawa would be proactive in finding the workers it wants to safeguard Canada in an era the prime minister has defined as increasingly dangerous, with the U.S.-led rules‑based international order crumbling.
"We're not waiting for the right people to find us. We will go out into the world to recruit the people our country needs," Diab said.
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