Five-year pilot aims to involve communities to address diverse labour market needs of smaller communities
The Government of Canada recently announced a five-year Rural and Northern Immigration pilot program. The program aims to involve communities and provincial/territorial governments to address the diverse labour market needs of rural communities. The goal of the pilot program is to help spread the benefits of economic immigration to smaller communities in Canada. The pilot will work with communities to:
- Use immigration to help meet local labour market needs
- Test a new pathway to permanent residence in rural Canada for skilled foreign nationals
- Create welcoming environments that encourage new immigrants to stay in rural communities
The pilot program is open to economic development organizations (EDOs). Examples of EDOs include:
- A community futures group
- A chamber of commerce
- Another independent or not-for-profit economic development organization
- A hybrid organization of a municipality with an independent board of directors made up of community stakeholders
Applications must be submitted by an economic development organization. While a municipal government would not be eligible to apply on their own, they could form a collaborative organization with other community groups. For more information on what type of organizations are eligible to apply, click here.
Currently the program is accepting applications from communities interested in participating in the pilot program. For more information on the pilot program, click here. Please note the deadline for applications is March 1, 2019. At this time the pilot program is only seeking applications from communities; information for permanent resident applications will be available later this year.
For enquiries, please contact:
Warren Noga
Policy Analyst
warren@RMAlberta.com
Tasha Blumenthal
Director of External Relations & Advocacy
tasha@RMAlberta.com