TORONTO — Because the federal authorities seems to be to drastically cut back its immigration targets over the subsequent few years, the mayors of northern Ontario’s largest cities say they want extra immigrants to maintain native economies and inhabitants.
The mayors of Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Sudbury are calling on Ottawa to ship on its promise to make everlasting a pilot program that resettled expert employees of their communities, saying a one-size-fits-all method to immigration coverage doesn’t profit northern areas.
Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker stated the now-closed rural and northern immigration pilot program allowed employers within the metropolis to fill extremely expert positions in plane restore, engineering and varied trades.
“It has been an enormous success,” Shoemaker stated, including that with out financial immigrants such jobs would disappear from the area.
The five-year program was aimed toward attracting immigrants to smaller communities throughout Canada, together with 5 cities in northern Ontario, and it supplied 1000’s of newcomers with a path to everlasting residence.
In March, the federal Liberal authorities promised to create a everlasting rural immigration program whereas saying plans to launch two different pilots this fall focusing on rural and francophone communities.
However months later, Ottawa stated it will slash its immigration goal for everlasting residents and dramatically cut back the variety of non permanent residents within the nation with the intention to ease the rising pressures on housing, well being care and different providers.
The federal government had focused bringing in 500,000 new everlasting residents in each 2025 and 2026. Subsequent yr’s goal will as a substitute be 395,000 new everlasting residents, and that can fall to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
Ottawa can be aiming to scale back the variety of non permanent residents — which incorporates non permanent international employees and worldwide college students — by 445,901 in 2025.
Shoemaker stated these modifications are designed to blunt the consequences of excessive inhabitants development in massive cities, however immigration is significant to the expansion of Sault Ste. Marie “because otherwise our death rate outpaces our new births,” resulting in a shrinking inhabitants and municipal tax base.
“One size does not fit all,” he stated of the coverage change.
Shoemaker stated greater than 1,000 folks have been resettled within the metropolis over the previous few years because of the agricultural and northern immigration pilot and people immigrants helped the native inhabitants develop for the primary time in 25 years, to about 78,500 folks in 2024.
“For the 25 years before 2024, our population shrunk every time it was measured,” he stated. “(The program) has provided a turnaround for us in terms of population size.”
He stated the federal authorities ought to acknowledge that the wants of northern Ontario cities are completely different from these in southern Ontario.
“Don’t make us pay for the affordability crisis that’s been created in southern Ontario because we can help continue to grow the population and be thriving contributors to the Canadian economy,” he stated.
Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff stated he has related considerations concerning the federal authorities’s pivot on immigration.
“We have lots of room and lots of jobs because the mining industry is really quite booming,” he stated. “The community itself, both from an educational standpoint and as a regional centre, is also doing very well.”
He stated Thunder Bay is working to construct extra housing as rapidly as potential and supply sufficient leisure actions to draw extra immigrants and entice them to remain.
“We could use as many new immigrants as the federal government would allow us,” Boshcoff stated.
Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre stated 1,400 expert immigrants arrived within the metropolis over the course of the pilot program, with a few of them bringing their members of the family for a complete of two,700 new residents.
“We’re asking (the federal government) to reopen the program … as soon as possible because we have a lot of opportunities, a lot of jobs that are waiting to be filled,” he stated. “We have housing and we’re able to accommodate and certainly welcome them in our communities.”
He stated the native mining trade is in search of engineers, welders and mechanics, whereas the health-care and training sectors are additionally in search of expert employees.
Natalie Mum or dad, human useful resource supervisor for Pioneer Development Inc., which is predicated in Sudbury and likewise operates in different northern Ontario cities, stated the big civil engineering firm has benefited from the agricultural and northern immigration program.
“It’s really been a game changer for our organization when it comes to some of those hard-to-fill positions because it allowed us to address some critical shortages for those roles that are essential to our operations,” she stated.
“The mechanic position is like the most challenging to fill because there’s a limited pool of qualified candidates in the north.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it acknowledges completely different communities’ wants as it really works to create a everlasting rural immigration program.
“We are continuing to assess how immigration can best support the needs of rural areas, which face different challenges compared to major urban centres,” spokesman Jeffrey MacDonald stated in a press release.
“While we have introduced measures to manage volumes of international students and temporary workers in the years to come, we remain committed to supporting the unique economic and demographic needs of rural communities through targeted immigration pathways.”
Frédéric Boulanger, director of immigration applications and providers at Collège Boréal — which gives language and employment assist for newcomers throughout Ontario — stated immigrants are prepared to resettle in areas with good employment prospects.
“They’re looking for not only a job, they’re looking for a career,” he stated. “They want to maximize their potential, use their skills, use their educational background, their personal background and contribute as fast as possible.”
