The federal government has launched a new pilot program to attract and retain skilled immigrants in Canada’s rural, northern communities — including Sudbury — grappling with labour gaps.

The five-year pilot will help smaller communities “gain access to a range of support to help newcomers settle in as part of the local community,” Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s minister of Immigration, said during a press conference on Thursday at Cambrian College to announce the project.

The project is similar to the Atlantic Canada Immigration Pilot, which was launched in 2017; however, the difference the community, in a partnership between the federal government and communities that are selected, will drive the program.

Although not confirmed Thursday, Sudbury is expected to be a significant player in this project.

Selected communities will be able to begin picking candidates for permanent residence this summer, Hussen said.

Immigrants will be chosen for the pilot project based on matching their skills to the local needs of their communities. Their professions could come from a variety of ones, such as truck drivers, teachers, lab technicians, etc.

“What we’re looking for is communities that have two things; jobs to offer newcomers, and a welcoming infrastructure,” Hussen said. “What I mean by that, is people who are willing to help in the process of settlement and integration, but also organizations that could do the work in terms of language training and employment support for newcomers.”

Hussen said focus of the program is to not only get the right person with the correct skills to a job, but to incorporate them and their family into the community.

He added the goal of the program is to keep skilled immigrants in smaller communities, instead of relocating to urban areas.

“Our labour force itself is getting older and many smaller communities are losing their young people to larger cities,” Hussen said.

In stating statistics, he added that in 1972, nearly one in seven Canadians were working to support each Canadian retiree. By 2012 that number dropped to one in four.

By 2036, Hussen said, that number could again decline, this time to 2-to-1 Canadians working to support each retiree.

“That means that it will be increasingly challenging to sustain our cherished social programs like universal health care system, our infrastructure program, our public transit system, our Canada Pension Plan.

“In parts of Canada, that ratio is even more acute.”

For example, in Newfoundland and Labrador, he said, for every 100 workers who join the workforce, 125 leave and retire.

“As we’ve seen in rural Canada, the population is aging, as well,” Hussen said.

“Between 2001 and 2016, the number of potential workers in rural Canada has decreased by 23 per cent, while the number of potential retirees has increased by 40 per cent.”

In 2001, there were about 1.5 labourers for each potential retiree in rural Canada. By 2016 that number decreased to around 0.7.

“Rural Canada faces particular challenges when it comes to labour market growth and labour market participation,” Hussen said.

Rural Canada contributes roughly 30 per cent to Canada’s GDP.

Sudbury’s mining sector, Hussen added, will soon face a serious shortage of workers, impacting not only employers, but also affecting the regional economic development.

“The Mining Industry Human Resources Council says that the industry will be short more than 106,000 workers in the next 10 years unless the situation is turned around.”

The hardest hit industries to date, Hussen said, involve factory, retail and construction.

“And companies based in rural areas tend to have it tougher than the rest of the country,” Hussen said.

Hussen said no specific sectors are being targeted for this project, and that immigration pilot program applications is usually capped at 3,000 people. That’s 3,000 applicants, plus their families. If, for example, there’s an average of a family of three, that could result in 9,000 people.

“That’s a significant injection of workers and their families,” Hussen said.

Hussen said MPs have been pushing for this project, including Marc Serre (Nickel Belt), Paul Lefebvre (Sudbury), Anthony Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming), and Terry Sheehan (Sault Ste. Marie).

More than two-thirds of immigrants to Canada settle in bigger cities, which is why municipal leaders in smaller towns and communities have been calling on Ottawa to do more to help them attract newcomers.

They believe immigration is key to helping their communities fill labour gaps as more people leave small town Canada for urban centres.

“This is a common, common ask — municipal leaders are saying, ‘Please, we need more people, more workers, more families,”‘ Hussen said in an interview Thursday.

“Immigration is not the only tool, but it is one of the tools that can be used to address labour market shortages and skilled shortages.”

Only rural and northern communities with a population of 50,000 people or less or who have been designated by Statistics Canada as a remote city can submit a proposal to be part of this pilot. It is open to communities in all provinces except Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

This program is expected to welcome just under 3,000 people, or about 100 newcomers and their family members, per community. The winning communities will be announced in the spring.

– with files from Canadian Press

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