By Sandi Krasowski | The Chronicle-Journal
In light of the province’s plan to review and revise the skilled worker stream of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce has partnered with 30 regional organizations to advocate for Northwestern Ontario.
In a letter, the group urged MPP David Piccini, Ontario’s minister of labour, immigration, training and skills development, to expand the Rural Economic Development through Immigration REDI pilot.
Charla Robinson, chamber president, said such a change would build on Piccini’s earlier decision to expand REDI in Northwestern Ontario to include not just the City of Thunder Bay but the surrounding rural district as well.
“Basically, there are two different ways to immigrate to Thunder Bay,” she said.
“One would be to go straight through the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) program, which is completely run by the federal government with Immigration Canada managing it. The second way is again through Immigration Canada, which allocates each province a certain number of immigration spots.
“Ontario is allowed to bring in a certain number of people into the province based on certain types of jobs that are in demand in Ontario, but might not be in other parts of the country. Basically, the federal government sets the overall immigration targets. They keep so many of those spots and manage how people are approved and come to Canada, but then they give a certain number of those spots to each of the provinces to decide what priority areas they want to attract people to.”
Robinson said the number of spots allocated to Ontario has been “significantly” increased by the federal government.
“We really want the minister to focus on the challenges here in Northwestern Ontario,” she said.
“Last year, we got 200 of those spots through this REDI program for the Thunder Bay district. That was a one-year thing. The pilot is done. Now we want them to continue with a pilot to do the same thing, to allocate spots for Northwestern Ontario and in addition to Thunder Bay getting 200 spots for this year through this program, we also want 400 spots for the district of Kenora and 400 spots for the district of Rainy River.”
She added that there is labour shortages in each of these regional districts, and that they need to attract and retain the workers.
“They’re struggling because they don’t have the (Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot) program like we have here, that sets aside spots specifically for that community,” she said. “If they want to immigrate to Kenora, Fort Frances, Rainy River, or any of those communities, they’re under the national program, and there’s no special stream to make it easier.”
Robinson pointed out that 300,000 other people are applying to come to Canada, and if someone is trying to make it to the top of the immigration pile from thousands of people in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, or elsewhere, it’s good reason the group is advocating for the north to create an easier stream.
“We need the province to specifically use a selection of their (federally allotted) spots to address these local needs by setting up these pilots for the Thunder Bay, Kenora and the Rainy River districts,” she said.
“Then that will allow the whole of Northwestern Ontario to better meet their workforce needs and actually get people who can stay here.”
She added that if they’re trying to stay in Canada, it’s a bit of an advantage to go somewhere where the programs are a little bit more customized to that area.
