Locals seeking permanent residence in Canada will be able to create online profiles from January 1, with the first invitations to apply issued “within weeks”.

The announcement came from Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, on the launch of the Express Entry system — an immigration recruitment campaign to meet Canada’s labour needs.

Workers will be selected according to a point system to match them with job vacancies where there are no Canadian candidates. Details were posted in Monday’s Canada Gazette.