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Roundtable meetings with Minister McCallum have taken place across Canada over the summer months. So far there have been 35 roundtables, including ones in Edmonton and Calgary.

The consultations highlighted a particular need for more immigration to rural Alberta, where employers in hospitality, meat packing and agriculture find it difficult to find workers, McCallum said.

“Canada is an aging country, so we are in need of new blood because Canadians aren’t having enough babies and so the labour force growth depends very much on the entrance of immigrants,” he said.

Even though the greatest need is for immigration to small towns and rural areas, that’s not where they choose to go, McCallum added.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses agree with McCallum, saying there are still many rural businesses that are looking for workers in highly-skilled or semi-skilled trades.

There’s a big mismatch between the people that are currently looking for work and positions that are going unfilled at the moment

“There’s a big mismatch between the people that are currently looking for work and positions that are going unfilled at the moment,” Amber Ruddy of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

In fact, more than half of immigrants settled in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto last year with many of the rest heading to other major cities, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

“We have to find ways to induce immigrants to go where they are most needed,” McCallum said, noting that a meat packing plant in rural Alberta provided its immigrant workers with free English classes after they finished their shift.