New immigration pilot for rural communities
Credit to Author: Canadian Immigrant| Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 22:51:23 +0000
Communities can now apply to be part of new Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
It’s common knowledge that many immigrants are attracted to the big cities, with Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal still the most desirable, and smaller centres like Calgary and Winnipeg coming up close behind. But it’s actually often the smaller, rural communities that are in most need of newcomers to fill out labour gaps and grow their population.
A new Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot will hopefully help. The five-year federal immigration pilot aims to help participating communities gain access to a range of support to help newcomers settle in as part of the local community.
Building on the success of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot, which was launched in March 2017 to help drive economic growth in Atlantic Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is now seeking applications from communities in in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and the three territories that are interested in participating in the pilot.
“The economic and social benefits of immigration are apparent in communities across Canada,” sayd Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen. “By creating an immigration pilot aimed at rural and northern communities, we’re looking to ensure that the benefits of immigration are shared across the country.”
Interested communities must work with a local economic development organization to submit an application by March 1, 2019, demonstrating how immigration will promote economic development in their community.
Is your community eligible?
Eligible communities must have open job opportunities, an economic development plan and relationships with immigrant-serving organizations to help newcomers settle in and integrate.
They can be small communities of 50,000 people or less if located at least 75 kilometres from the core of a Census Metropolitan Area. Populations can be up to 200,000 people if they are considered “remote” from other large cities, using Statistics Canada’s index of remoteness.
Get application details online here.
Selected communities will be announced in spring 2019.