COW - Rural Municipalities and New Immigration Study – June 10, 2021

General

As the Canadian population ages and the birth rate declines, rural Canada’s workforce has seen a significant decrease in available workers.
Canada is focused on supporting immigration strategies that will enable smaller communities to enhance their economic, social and demographic vitality.
The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) is an innovative pilot that is testing a new community-driven approach to addressing the diverse economic development and labour market needs of smaller communities.
Eleven rural and northern communities are participating in this program to welcome newcomers and make these communities their permanent homes.
The selected communities are: Thunder Bay (ON), Sault Ste. Marie (ON), Sudbury (ON), Timmins (ON), North Bay (ON), Gretna-Rhineland-Altona-Plum Coulee (MB), Brandon (MB), Moose Jaw (SK), Claresholm (AB), West Kootenay (BC), and Vernon (BC).
Rural communities employ over 4 million Canadians and account for almost 30 percent of the national GDP and supply food, water, and energy for urban centres, sustaining the industries that contribute to Canada’s prosperous economy.
Canada is committed to attracting the best talent around the world to fill skill shortages and drive local economies in rural Canada that will benefit all Canadians.

Despite challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the communities participating in the RNIP continue to have labour needs that cannot be filled locally, and so implementation of the pilot has continued.
RNIP continues to help communities grow their economies by addressing local labour market needs, and supports the Government of Canada’s commitment to welcome newcomers who bring the skills our economy needs to grow and recover from the global pandemic.

We understand some applicants have experienced considerable wait times with the processing of their applications, and we continue to work to reduce processing times.