The Tory government says it’s making the provincial nominee program — Manitoba’s major source of immigration — quicker, smarter and more efficient.

Applications to the program will now cost $500, but be processed more quickly, Education and Training Minister Ian Wishart said at a press conference Thursday in Winnipeg. The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) — which uses a points system to select skilled workers according to their ability to get established economically and set down roots in Manitoba — will be more in sync with the labour market and make the path to permanent residence quicker for international students, he said.

Manitoba has an aging population and needs immigrants to meet labour market needs — forecast at 170,000 job openings between now and 2022, Wishart told a crowd at the Punjab Cultural Centre.

"This is why our provincial nominee program is so valuable and why we’re taking action to restore the program to its full potential," Wishart said. "When our government took office last year, we inherited a backlog of 5,100 applications, some of them dating back as far as 2013.

"Folks have been waiting for years and getting no answers. This is not fair and it’s definitely not respectful, or indicative of the friendly reputation our province has come to have.

"Effective immediately, all complete applications will be processed in six months or less."

That was good news for pork producer HyLife in Neepawa. About 1,000 of HyLife’s 1,900 workers are provincial nominees, human resources director Jeremy Janzen said.

"Without the program, we couldn’t continue to grow as a company," Janzen said at the press conference. Hog processing plants in Manitoba such as HyLife are operating below capacity because of a lack of hogs, but that is expected to change as the industry ramps up hog barn construction under looser environmental regulations.

It was good news for international students applying to the nominee program because they want to stay in Manitoba, Wishart said.

The program "will now include new pathways for Manitoba-trained international students to settle in our province permanently and put their training to work here in Manitoba," he said.

University of Manitoba engineering grad Tong Shu came to Canada in 2009 from Tianjin, China. When he graduated, he went to work for Manitoba Hydro. He got married, bought a house and started a family, but can’t get his professional credentials recognized until he has permanent resident status.

"MPNP’s announcement today of (quickening) the processing time for applications will definitely help me realize two of my dreams. One of my dreams is to become a Canadian permanent resident and be able to stay in Winnipeg and Canada. My other dream is to be able to achieve my professional engineering designation," the 28-year-old Shu said.

Same goes for Tina Tian. In 2011, the 26-year-old international student from Qingdao, China, chose to study at the U of M over schools in Australia, the U.S. and elsewhere in Canada.

"Canada has the qualified education and Manitoba had a very flexible immigration program," Tian said.

Since graduating, she’s been unable to work toward becoming a professional accountant because she is not yet a permanent resident. She applied to the nominee program in October and learned last week she was accepted. She expects to have her permanent resident status by the end August and to stay in Manitoba, where she met her boyfriend, whom she plans to marry.

"We have many close friends here," Tian said. "The city of Winnipeg is very friendly."

After holding a sit-in at the legislature in February to call for improvements to the provincial nominee program, Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux (Burrows) said Thursday she’s now optimistic about the program’s future.

She’s waiting to see if the province can keep its promise to process applications within six months.

She said Wishart promised her earlier that MLAs helping constituents with nominee program inquiries would get a "direct line" for help and responses to their inquiries within two weeks.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca