Sector targets published as ranges for the first time

The targets British Columbia disclosed appear on page 11 of the statistical report. By the end of 2026, the province says, it intends to issue 1,620 to 2,015 nominations to skilled workers in priority healthcare occupations and 360 to 440 to early childhood educators.

Set against the 6,254 nominations the province has available in 2026, the two figures translate into the following shares:

The remaining nominations, the province says, will go to workers in education, veterinary care and construction, along with "high economic impact" candidates drawn from across all industries. Notably, although British Columbia has singled out five priority sectors this year, the report attaches quantified targets to only two of them; education, veterinary care and construction were each left without a published nomination range.

Against 2025: health care keeps expanding, child care holds flat

Placed alongside last year's figures, the direction of the tilt becomes clearer. In 2025, British Columbia issued 1,435 nominations in priority healthcare occupations and 409 to early childhood educators — 1,844 in total, or 29.7% of the 6,214 nominations issued that year.

Even on the most conservative reading of the range, healthcare nominations in 2026 would come in more than 10% above last year's actual figure; at the top of the range, the increase approaches 40%. The early childhood education target, by contrast, brackets last year's result almost exactly, with little room in either direction — a sign that the province considers demand in that occupation to have settled.

An allocation rollercoaster: halved, then topped up twice

Understanding this year's targets means understanding how violently British Columbia's nomination allocation has swung over the past two years. In 2024, the province received 8,000 nominations. Then, after Ottawa cut the national Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) landing target roughly in half, British Columbia opened 2025 with just 4,000 nominations, suspended invitations in most categories, and kept only limited draws running for high economic impact candidates. Two federal top-ups, in October and December of that year, eventually restored the 2025 total to 6,214.

The path in 2026 has looked much the same. British Columbia was the first province in the country to publish its allocation for the year, and it started with 5,254 — far short of the 9,000 it had requested from the federal government. Only on August 18 did Ottawa add a further 1,000 nominations, lifting the province's available total for the year to 6,254, marginally above where 2025 finished.

The longer-term signal points the other way. The federal 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan raises the Provincial Nominee Program's permanent residence landing target to 91,500, up sharply from 55,000 in the previous plan, leaving room for larger provincial allocations in the years ahead. Among the other provinces that have published 2026 numbers, Ontario has 14,119, Alberta 6,403 and Saskatchewan 4,761 — and Ontario, like British Columbia, has named healthcare workers and early childhood educators as priorities, a sign that provinces working with tighter allocations are converging on care occupations.

After the overhaul: Care, Build and Innovate

In April, British Columbia carried out its most far-reaching redesign of the BCPNP in years. The province closed the Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) category, ended the International Graduate and International Post-Graduate streams, and stopped running dedicated draws against a tech priority occupations list. In their place it narrowed selection to three lanes: Care, covering health care, child care, education and veterinary care; Build, covering skilled construction trades; and Innovate, aimed at high economic impact candidates from any industry.

Within that framework, 31 healthcare occupations are designated as priority occupations. The full list is below:

*Workers in NOC 33102 must be registered with the BC Care Aide & Community Health Worker Registry to be eligible for nomination.

The child care sector is represented by a single occupation, early childhood educators (NOC 42202). Applicants must hold a one-year or five-year ECE certificate issued by the province's ECE Registry. That requirement sits directly on top of British Columbia's child care expansion plans: the province currently has roughly 27,050 people working in early childhood education, added more than 25,000 licensed child care spaces in 2025, and plans some 40,000 more by 2027–28, making the workforce gap the practical justification for the tilt in the allocation.

Progress this year: cut-off scores down four draws running

In execution terms, as of August 25 British Columbia had issued invitations to apply for nomination to 474 priority healthcare workers and 451 early childhood educators this year, a combined 925. Across all skills categories, invitations issued this year total no fewer than 4,838.

The four Care draws held since May show the same pattern: more invitations, lower score thresholds.

The healthcare minimum fell from 108 to 84 over four months, and the early childhood education minimum from 115 to 102, while the August 6 draw more than doubled the previous round's early childhood education invitations. Analysts have tied the shift directly to the federal top-up the province received in mid-August, which leaves it with more nominations to work through before the year closes. Separately, a temporary provincial program supporting healthcare staffing in remote communities plans to nominate 250 people; it has issued 60 invitations so far, at a minimum score of just 50.

The province has not yet reported how many of this year's invitations have converted into actual nominations. The report does disclose, however, that of the 6,553 nomination applications submitted under the skills categories in 2025, 6,195 resulted in a nomination — an approval rate of 94.5%, suggesting the post-invitation stage is not the main bottleneck.

At least 35% of nominations reserved for outside Metro Vancouver

The report restates the province's commitment that, across all sectors, at least 35% of skilled worker nominations will go to applicants working outside Metro Vancouver. British Columbia exceeded that floor in 2025, reaching 38%; the comparable figures were 34% in 2023 and 42% in 2024, indicating that regional balance has become a standing policy objective of the BCPNP rather than a one-off commitment.

How permanent residence works through the BCPNP

For foreign nationals considering an application, the pathway itself has not changed as a result of this year's overhaul. Applicants must first confirm that they meet the requirements of at least one category; every skills category requires a full-time job offer from an employer in the province.

The applicant then registers through the BCPNP Online User Portal, submitting an expression of interest (EOI). The system scores each profile on factors including work experience, language ability and the wage attached to the job offer, and places it in a registration pool. The province draws from that pool at regular intervals, issuing invitations to apply for nomination to candidates who meet the criteria for that round.

Invited candidates have 30 days to submit a complete application. Once approved, the applicant receives a nomination certificate and can use it to file an application for permanent residence (PR) with the federal government.