‘A huge opportunity for us’
Western REN getting word out about Atlantic Immigration Pilot
An initiative launched last year to help employers in Atlantic Canada hire skilled immigrants is a way to bring more people here and try to address some of the region’s labour challenges, says an official involved with the program in southwestern Nova Scotia.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot began in March 2017 as a three-year project put together by the federal and provincial governments.
Gino Thibeault, economic development officer (immigration) with the Western Regional Enterprise Network, said it has taken a bit of time to get the program off the ground, but “things are moving Gino Thibeault of the Western Regional Enterprise Network speaking at a recent meeting of Argyle municipal council. forward.”
The focus of this particular effort is on full-time employment, not seasonal jobs.
In a presentation to the Municipality of Argyle – part of a series of presentations he’s making to municipal units that are part of the Western REN – Thibeault described the Atlantic Immigration Pilot as “a huge opportunity for us.”
He elaborated in an interview, saying, “our population is getting older. That’s not a bad thing, but it does mean that eventually companies – manufacturers, you name it – will have a hard time to find employees because the workforce will be limited ... A lot of people work past the age of 65, but it’s still going to become an issue, and we can see that starting slowly in some fields.”
With the Atlantic Immigration Pilot, he said, the idea is to offer immigrants full-time positions and have them move here with their families, he said.
Participating employers must commit to working with a service provider organization in order to provide the immigrant with an individualized settlement plan.
As part of the process, employers also are required to show that efforts to hire locally were unsuccessful.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot has streamlined the process for businesses looking to recruit and hire a foreign worker.
“It’s much quicker than pretty much anything else out there right now because of the way they set it up,” Thibeault said.
The pilot is not, however, for seasonal work. For these types of positions, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program may be the way to go, Thibeault said.
As for the goal of bringing more immigrants and their families to settle in the region – contributing to the economy and to the community – he acknowledges that the Atlantic Immigration Pilot is just one of the pathways by which foreigners can come here.
“So this is not the be-all-and-endall solution,” he said, “but it’s one solution.”