Image: Immigration Fredericton Facebook page.
Representatives of municipalities, business organizations and advocates of immigration in New Brunswick reacted positively to the federal government’s plan to introduce a program that will allow cities and towns to nominate newcomers for permanent residency.
In line with his campaign promise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has instructed Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to introduce a municipal nominee program and make permanent the Atlantic Immigration Pilot (AIP) in a recent mandate letter.
The municipal nominee program will allow cities and towns, chambers of commerce and local labour councils to directly sponsor permanent immigrants. Trudeau has instructed to dedicate at least 5,000 new slots for this program, and another 5,000 to the AIP.
The New Brunswick Multicultural Council (NBMC), an umbrella organization that supports settlement agencies and multicultural and ethnocultural associations, has been advocating for a municipal nominee program since 2017.
“We believe that a key driver of retention lies in our cities, in our communities. If you want to get a greater sense of attachment, belonging and inclusion, cities hold the keys to those things,” Executive Director Alex LeBlanc said.
“We’re among one of the first organizations in Canada on record advocating for a municipal nominee program. But we’re not alone…there’s a lot of people, a lot of groups that saw promise in empowering local communities to really take ownership over the new residents coming into their community.”
LeBlanc says the “the gravity and urgency” of population challenges in New Brunswick requires new solutions. Besides, place-based immigration programs like Provincial Nominee Programs and the Atlantic Immigration Pilot have proven to work, he said.
Between 2015 and 2018, the AIP contributed to increased permanent resident landings by nearly 72 percent in Atlantic Canada, from 8,300 to 14,240. LeBlanc noted that for a region representing around 6.5 percent of the country’s population, receiving 4.5 percent of the country’s total landings is significant.
A municipal stream just means more tools to help attract and retain immigrants.
“If you’re trying to attract people across Canada in a more equitable way and making sure that all regions of the country grow and prosper, you need to have more nuanced immigration streams to really target and get people into specific areas,” he said, noting that one-size-fits-all programs had tended to favour large cities. “The potential here is that we just see more alignment, more resources invested at a local level to help attract and retain newcomers.”
A different program with a similar local-level involvement, called the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, has already been rolled out in Manitoba and Ontario. That program allows rural and northern communities to recommend immigrants that fits their economic needs, have an employment opportunity and have the intention to stay in the community.
But the proposed municipal nominee program means small and mid-sized cities like Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton could also have a chance to make similar recommendations.
New Brunswick Cities And Business Organizations Express Interest
Angelique Reddy-Kalala, the immigration strategy officer for the City of Moncton, says cities already play a major role in immigration.
Greater Moncton, which includes Dieppe and Riverview, had a four-year strategy that helped it attract 1,450 newcomers in 2018. Last year, it launched a second four-year strategy that aims attract 1,900 newcomers this year, and between 2,700 and 3,500 newcomers a year by 2024.
“We believe that it’s at the municipal level that we see cracks in the social and economic fabric of our community, and we want to be consulted on matters that involve our community both from attraction perspective…and also from an integration and retention perspective,” she said.
“We do advocate to have a direct line of communication with the federal government. That’s very important to us. We want to be involved in the immigrants that we are attracting, recognizing that we want to set them up with success even prior to landing.”
Reddy-Kalala says the new pilot could help municipalities support immigrants who not only fulfill local labour needs, but also integrate well into the community.
While the municipal nominee stream is “an exciting opportunity” for New Brunswick municipalities to pursue as they face labour market challenges, it also means additional resources will be needed, she said.
The CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton, John Wishart, said the proposed pilot is an “innovative” answer to Canadian chambers’ demands to boost the number of immigrants and find news ways to solve local labour shortages.
“The beauty of what this appears to address is if you’re in Moncton, and we need 100 truck drivers or 25 mechanics, then hopefully we can apply under this program specifically to fill those spots, working with businesses that have identified that as a need,” he said.
Details of the program are not yet known, but Wishart could see the chamber serve as a conduit to businesses that identify their needs.
“We’re very supportive of this initiative,” he said. “But while this is all good, we would continue to push the federal government for a return of front line IRCC office here in Moncton and in similar-sized communities across the country.”
Mohamed Khirallah, an immigrant entrepreneur who owns Roticana Coffee in Fredericton, and Janet Moser of Ignite Fredericton. Image: Submitted/Stephen MacGillivray
Janet Moser, managing director of immigration services at Ignite Fredericton, says the municipal nominee program would be a “game-changer” because it will help cities fulfill their unique needs.
“It’s a win for employers, it’s a win for the economy, and it’s a win definitely for the newcomers in terms of our biggest challenge, which is retention,” she said.
Ignite Fredericton is the lead on population growth, economic development and entrepreneurial support under Fredericton’s five-year immigration strategy, which was launched last year. The city aims to attract 1,800 newcomers this year, Moser said.
“To be able to have a direct ability to bring the exact people to match the jobs that are currently available and to streamline that process is huge because if newcomers cannot come into the region and find employment, they’re going to go,” she said.
While 5,000 initial spots for the whole country might be small, Moser isn’t worried and she expects the number to grow if the pilot brings good results.
She also hopes the pilot will open doors for easier recognition of immigrants’ educational and professional qualifications, and for economic development agencies to directly recruit immigrant entrepreneurs that want to buy businesses in New Brunswick from retiring owners and those who bring innovative experiences and want to invest in the region.
Saint John’s city councillors also agreed to send a letter of interest to participate in the pilot at its meeting Monday night.
Councillor David Hickey says the city should make the program a priority because “it seems like a really big opportunity for the city” to attract newcomers.
“This should become a regular topic of discussion when interacting with provincial and federal counterparts, as a policy expectation of the city,” Deputy Commissioner of Growth and Community Planning Phil Ouellette added.
The details aren’t clear yet, but LeBlanc says it’s a good sign that immigration is becoming a “nation-building project.”
“I think we’re definitely moving in a really exciting and promising direction,” he said. “I really hope to see the inclusion of New Brunswick municipalities in that program. We’ve advocated for it. We have a number of communities that would be great participants in that program.”
A version of this story was published in Huddle, an online business news publication based in Saint John. Huddle is an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
