Ontario immigration will focus on attracting workers to six northern and rural communities:
Greater Sudbury/Grand Sudbury. Kenora District. Nipissing District. Rainy River District. Renfrew County. Thunder Bay.
As part of the Regional Economic Development through Immigration (REDI) program, which the province announced it would restart on Oct. 16, 2026, specific nomination spaces will be set aside for eligible workers in these areas under any Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) stream.
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Currently, the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream (OWPS) is the only active provincial immigration pathway that allows foreign nationals to qualify.
The reintroduced REDI initiative will function by assigning a certain number of nomination spaces to each of the six participating communities and is expected to continue until Dec. 31, 2027.
The OINP has not disclosed the quotas as of this writing.
The boundaries for each community are defined based on census divisions from Statistics Canada.
The OINP shared news about this new round of REDI on its Program updates web page.
Before its official announcement on Oct. 16, the OINP updated its REDI initiative web page with the new partner communities on Oct. 14.
Originally launched in January 2025, REDI was meant to last one year; however, OINP continued to hold REDI draws for some areas until April 2026.
Thunder Bay remains the only community from REDI’s previous list of participants, which included Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, and Sarnia-Lambton.
The OWPS was introduced in June 2026 as part of Ontario’s planned two-phase restructuring of its immigration program-although no date for this next phase has been revealed as of now.
The last version of the REDI initiative worked through OINP’s Employer Job Offer streams, which were closed in May 2026 during a broader reform of Ontario’s immigration program.
While intake opened for the OSPW on Aug. 4, there have been no draws held under this stream yet.
The most recent REDI draw conducted by OINP occurred on April 8, 2026, resulting in invitations sent to 32 candidates who had valid study or work permits along with job offers in Lanark or Leeds and Grenville.
This initiative began as a pilot project back in 2020 with three initial communities before expanding in 2025 to include four additional areas.
So far, nearly 1,000 workers have received nominations through the REDI initiative and contributed to growth within key sectors like health care and skilled trades.
Three out of six regions involved in REDI also feature communities or institutions that take part in federal immigration pilots providing pathways to permanent residence (PR):
Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP): Provides PR for foreign workers who get job offers from employers approved by participating rural or remote communities.
Three RCIP communities are found within REDI regions: Sudbury within Greater Sudbury, North Bay and Area within Nipissing District, and Thunder Bay.
Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP): Grants PR to French-speaking individuals who secure job offers from designated employers in participating francophone minority communities. Candidates must show proficiency at NCLC level 5 or higher across all language skills.
Sudbury is currently the only FCIP community located within a REDI region.
Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot (FMCSP): Offers French-speaking international students from eligible countries a route towards obtaining study permits and potentially PR if they meet all requirements.
This FMCSP runs through participating post-secondary institutions rather than individual communities; there are currently17 such institutions with campuses located in REID regions: Université Laurentienne situated in Sudbury and Collège Boréal present both in Sudbury and Nipissing District.
REDI region RCIPFCIPFMCSP Greater Sudbury Yes Yes Yes Nipissing District Yes No Yes Thunder Bay Yes No No Kenora District No No No Rainy River District No No No Renfrew County No No No
These pilots operate separately from the OINP process. Candidates need different application methods , so eligibility criteria may vary.
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