Yan Li doesn't want to uproot her two young daughters again and be forced back to China, but she fears that could happen if Ottawa doesn't heed calls for an extension to federal work permits this year.

She joined more than 100 people who rallied at the steps of the Manitoba Legislative Building on Tuesday to call on government to extend federal work permits that are set to expire.

"Most of us here ... work permits will be expired this year, and if we don't have [an extension], we go back where we come from," Li, 38, said. "That would be very terrible."

Li came to Winnipeg from Wuhan two years ago and graduated from a culinary arts program at the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology. Now employed as a cook, she hopes the provincial government is advocating for people like her so her daughters can stay.

The rally comes about two years after Ottawa said it would no longer be extending post-graduate work permits.

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That announcement came in late 2023, though in 2024 the federal government approved a request from Manitoba to extend permits for thousands of workers for at least two years.

The cut and past extensions came on the heels of a spike in the number of temporary foreign workers and international students who arrived during the COVID-19 pandemic amid a labour shortage.

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