St-Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba announces priority occupations for FCIP

St-Pierre-Jolys, a village in Manitoba located 50 km southeast of Winnipeg, has announced the priority sectors and occupations targeted under Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP) for 2026.

This year, St-Pierre-Jolys has identified one new sector and ten new high-demand occupations, while removing ten occupations from the priority list.

To obtain permanent residence (PR) and settle in St-Pierre-Jolys, foreign nationals need a qualifying job offer and must meet minimum French language proficiency requirements.

St-Pierre-Jolys priority sectors in 2026

This year, St-Pierre-Jolys prioritises the following six sectors under the FCIP programme, listed in order of priority, where “education, law and social, community and government services” and “sales and service” share equal priority: health; education, law and social, community and government services; sales and service; business, finance and administration; trades, transport and equipment operators; and natural resources, agriculture and related production.

These sectors largely reflect those chosen in 2025, with “natural resources, agriculture and related production” being the newly added sector (2025: five sectors compared to 2026: six sectors). The expansion of this sector is likely due to a wave of interest from employers in this field as well as the need to fill labour gaps in related occupations.

St-Pierre-Jolys priority occupations in 2026

The village of St-Pierre-Jolys prioritises the following 25 occupations – with corresponding National Occupational Classification (NOC) system codes – under the 2026 FCIP programme, with some minor changes compared to the previous year. Occupations in bold are newly targeted this year, while the remaining occupations were also prioritized in 2025.

Occupations	NOC code
Accounting technicians and bookkeepers	12200
Administrative assistants	13110
Automotive body repairers, finishing and glass technicians, and damage estimators	72411
Automotive service technicians, truck and bus mechanics	72410
Bakers	63202
Cashiers	65100
Cooks	63200
Customer service representatives – financial institutions	64400
Early childhood educators and assistants	42202
Elementary school and kindergarten teachers	41221
Elementary and secondary school teacher assistants	43100
Food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related support occupations	65201
General office support workers	14100
Insurance agents and brokers	63100
Janitors, caretakers and building superintendents	65312
Light duty cleaners	65310
Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates	33102
Other assisting occupations in support of health services	33109
Plumbers	72300
Religious leaders	41302
Secondary school teachers	41220
Social and community service workers	42201
Specialized livestock workers and farm machinery operators	84120
Stock handlers, clerks and order fillers	65102
Welders and related machine operators	72106

As of 21 January 2026, St-Pierre-Jolys has announced six designated employers, and the region has stated that the list will be updated regularly. Currently, designated employers have been provided for two sectors:

Priority sector	Designated employer
Education, law and social, community and government services	Garderie-Jolys (Les petites Grenouilles); École communautaire Real-Berard – DSFM
Sales and service	Boulangerie St Pierre Bakery; St Pierre Subway; St Pierre Bigway; Assiniboine Credit Union – Saint Pierre Jolys Branch

Employers in bold are not currently hiring. Additional employers are expected to be added in the future.

Below are ten occupations that St-Pierre-Jolys targeted in the 2025 FCIP programme but no longer considers in high demand for 2026:

• Beverage preparers (64301)
• Carpenters (72310)
• Construction trades helpers and labourers (75110)
• Dentists (31110)
• Electricians except industrial and power system (72200)
• Financial advisors (11102)
• General practitioners and family physicians (31102)
• Specialised nurses (31302)
• Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (31301)
• Veterinarians (31103)

Most of the removed occupations belong to the “health” and “trades, transport and equipment operators” sectors – whereas the replacement occupations span a diverse range of fields.

This shift in targeted occupations reflects changing labour market priorities, indicating that previous workforce gaps may have been filled through the FCIP programme and other immigration pathways such as Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) and Express Entry.

Introduction to the FCIP programme in St-Pierre-Jolys

The FCIP programme is an employer-driven immigration pathway designed to boost immigration to rural and remote French-speaking minority communities outside Quebec.

To be considered under the FCIP programme, foreign nationals must hold a job offer from an employer designated by the community (in this case, St-Pierre-Jolys).

Once a job offer is secured, the designated employer submits an application to the Economic Development Council for Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (CDEM), nominating the candidate for the FCIP programme.

Each candidate enters the evaluation pool provided they satisfy all eligibility criteria and accumulate at least 50 points under the scoring system. Under the St-Pierre-Jolys assessment grid, candidates must score 10 points in each of the following eligibility factors: job offer, work experience, language proficiency, education level, and settlement intention.

Every month, the highest-scoring candidates are invited to join the FCIP programme through monthly nomination rounds.

If nominated, candidates receive a nomination certificate from CDEM, allowing them to apply for permanent residence to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). These certificates remain valid for only 6 months from the date of issue.

After securing permanent residence from IRCC or once the permanent residence application has been lodged, candidates may liaise with CDEM and their employer to share details and the arrival timeline for the local area (if not already resident there).

Beyond the job offer, candidates must also demonstrate that they satisfy the following criteria to qualify under the FCIP programme:

• Language proficiency: achieve Level 5 on the Canadian Language Benchmarks (NCLC) across all four language skills.
• Work experience: at least 1 year (1,560 hours) of relevant work experience within the last 3 years (depending on the TEER of the job offer):
  • TEER 0/1 offers: experience in TEER 0-3;
  • TEER 2 offers: experience in TEER 1-4;
  • TEER 3/4 offers: experience in TEER 2-4;
  • TEER 5 offers: experience within the same 5-digit NOC code.
• Educational credentials: hold a Canadian qualification or foreign equivalent (upper secondary school diploma or above); foreign qualifications must be accompanied by Educational Credential Assessment (ECA).
• Settlement funds: demonstrate sufficient financial resources to support oneself and family members, ranging from CAD 10,507 for a single applicant to CAD 27,806 for a family of seven; not applicable to individuals currently working in Canada.

Certain exemptions apply to healthcare workers.

Under the FCIP programme, eligible individuals receive a dedicated 2-year work permit to begin working for their employer whilst their permanent residence application is being processed.

The federal government aims to raise the proportion of French-speaking immigration outside Quebec to 12% of total new permanent residents by 2029 – the FCIP programme was introduced to support this initiative to bolster the Francophone population across Canada.