New northern immigration pilot programs aim to ease skilled worker shortage
New immigration pilot programs announced this week aim to help rural communities attract skilled labour and encourage French-speakers to settle outside of Quebec.
The new programs were announced Wednesday by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller, and are seen as a step toward creating a permanent rural immigration program.
Both the Rural Community Immigration Pilot and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot will launch in fall 2024.
“It aims to ensure that rural communities continue to have the ability to access programs that address labour shortages and help local businesses find the workers they need,” the federal government said in a news release Wednesday.
“It will provide pathways to permanent residence for newcomers who can help to overcome critical labour job shortages and want to live long term in these smaller communities.”
The francophone pilot will focus on increasing the number of French-speaking newcomers settling in French-speaking minority communities outside of Quebec “and will help ensure the economic development of Francophone minority communities, while also helping to restore and increase their demographic weight,” the federal government said.
A selection process will begin in the spring to determine which communities will participate in the pilots.
"Employers across the region from many sectors have been calling for more ways to build their workforce due to unprecedented skilled worker shortages,” Nickel Belt MP Marc Serré said in a news release.
“Working hard with our government, we implemented the highly successful RNIP (rural and northern immigration) program, and now by launching the Rural Community Immigration Pilot and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot, we will further support a pathway towards RNIP becoming a permanent program.”
As of Dec. 31, 2023, 4,595 newcomers received permanent residence through the RNIP, helping address labour shortages in key sectors such as health care, accommodation and food services, retail, manufacturing, scientific and technical services.
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