Ottawa has launched a pilot program to fill labour shortages and fuel economic growth in small rural communities by matching them with prospective immigrants interested in settling outside of Canada’s urban hubs.

The five-year Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot requires remote communities to submit a thorough plan identifying available middle-class job opportunities and developing social support infrastructure to help the newcomers settle.

“Thirty per cent of our GDP comes from rural Canada. These communities are experiencing out-migration and are having difficulties in filling unfilled jobs when 78 per cent of our immigrants are settling in large urban centres,” Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told the Star in an interview from Sudbury, where he made the announcement.

“This is a major move to make sure our rural communities can grow their economies and populations through immigration.”

Hussen said the program aims to bring 2,750 principal applicants — plus their family members — each year to communities with less than 50,000 people or where the population is under 200,000, but are far away from urban centres.

The initiative builds on the success of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot program that was launched in 2017 to help drive economic growth in Atlantic Canada by attracting newcomers to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Since its inception, 1,562 newcomers, including 734 principal applicants, were approved for permanent residence in the four provinces.

Hussen said the new program adopts the same community-driven approaches where local employers, governments and service sectors must work together to connect newcomers with job opportunities through networking and mentoring and help them navigate the education, housing, transportation and health-care systems.

“This is not just about attracting immigrants to the community, but also retaining them in the community,” he said.

Rural Canada has been struggling with an aging population and declining workforce over the years. Between 2001 and 2016, the workforce has shrunk by 23 per cent as the retirement age population has gone up by 40 per cent.

“That’s why we want to attract more immigrants to these smaller communities. We want them to feel welcome, so that they can work and live there. The focus of this pilot is not just on getting the person with the right skills,” said Hussen.

“Under the Charter, we can’t make them stay. We want to help that person and their family feel welcome so that, when they come to these regions, they stay in these regions.”

Led by local economic development officials, interested communities must submit their plans by March 1 and selected communities will be announced in the spring. They will be matched over the summer with potential immigrants interested in moving there.

The program is only available to communities in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Yukon.