The Government of Canada has named 11 Canadian communities that have been selected to take part in its new Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot.
The pilot is to help smaller rural and remote communities attract foreign workers of various skill levels and provide them with permanent residence..
The pilot’s goal is to help these communities counter labour market shortages caused by declining birth rates, rising retirement rates and the out-migration of youth to more populated areas of Canada.
The 11 communities named on June 14 are located in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
Ontario
• Thunder Bay
• Sault Ste. Marie
• Sudbury
• Timmins
• North Bay
Manitoba
• Gretna-Rhineland-Altona-Plum Coulee
• Brandon
Saskatchewan
• Moose Jaw
Alberta
• Claresholm
British Columbia
• West Kootenay
• Vernon
Each community will work with a local economic development organization to recruit and assess immigration candidates based on local economic needs and job openings and endorse the selected candidates for permanent residence.
The communities selected could be in a position to begin identifying immigration candidates as early as this fall and those selected are expected to begin arriving in Canada 2020.
