THUNDER BAY — Eligible local businesses will soon get some help recruiting skilled workers seeking to immigrate to Canada.
The city has been selected as a host site for a new immigration pilot program.
The Rural Community Immigration Pilot aims to connect employers with newcomers to address labour shortages and help local businesses find skilled workers.
The healthcare sector will be the primary focus of the program, as well as the retail and accommodation sector and skilled trades, said CEO Jamie Taylor, The Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC).
The CEDC is leading the program and still needs a little time to work out the details, said Taylor, but she did say the program will be employer-driven.
“We're gonna be reaching out to employers to be able to educate them on what the program is all about to be able to onboard them to be eligible employers and they'll then work to identify candidates that are suitable for filling some of their labour gaps,” Taylor said.
The CEDC and the business community will look at a candidate's education and align them with a job that best suits their field of expertise, she explained.
The CEDC will be responsible for issuing a letter of recommendation for each candidate to get their permanent residency, Taylor said.
She said the CEDC already has applications from around 200 candidates and expects the number will rise as the pilot program continues.
The program's catchment area includes the Thunder Bay census metropolitan area which includes the city itself as well as Oliver Paipoonge, Neebing, Shuniah, Conmee, O'Connor, Gillies, and Fort William First Nation.
When asked how the smaller communities around Thunder Bay will benefit from this project, Thunder Bay–Superior North MP Patty Hajdu said some newcomers may choose to live in those outlying areas, while others might only work there.
“If you think about health care and mobile health care services, oftentimes, rural communities need people that can come to them for a variety of different services. This is a real opportunity for our region,” Hajdu said.
The CEDC helped over 1,200 newcomers through a previous program, the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, which ended on Aug 31, 2024.
That program had "has seen extraordinary success in Thunder Bay. Helping employers recruit the kind of talent they need all across sectors from healthcare sectors to small business employers, people that we need to continue to provide services to our community and to grow our local economy.”
The CEDC is also at the helm of a provincial immigration pilot, announced earlier this month, which is also geared towards attracting workers.
