TERRACE BAY — Federal programming that makes it easier to attract workers from other countries should be available to smaller communities, say municipal representatives in the Northwest.
Thunder Bay and the surrounding area — which goes about as far west as Hymers and South Gillies and east to just shy of Dorion — was the only region in the Northwest included in the Rural Community Immigration Pilot. It is one of 14 designated “rural” communities across Canada that “showed they can support and benefit from skilled migrants,” according to the federal government website.
“They will approve certain employers to hire for jobs that they can’t fill with local workers.”
Other communities well outside of Thunder Bay have the same issues, said Terrace Bay Coun. Gary Adduono, which he said includes his own. “It's not even an option which comes across as a little bit of an unfair advantage for employers in the city versus employers in our rural town,” he told Newswatch.
“It looks like a lot of those (immigration) programs were distributed to some of the larger centres, even though we have needs locally and for some of those employers, those employees are key to their business model for success,” Adduono said. “From an economic business perspective, if a business doesn't have the workers they need, they have to reduce their hours of operation or close entirely or reduce a significant portion of their business.”
“For some of our convenience stores and gas stations, the reduced hours on a highway community is actually quite a challenge on many levels.”
That, for a North Shore community on the Trans-Canada, also hurts tourism as well as the provision of local service, he said.
Rick Dumas, the mayor of Marathon and the president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, said immigration programming — not only in terms of which communities are eligible, but also what types of jobs are being prioritized — is a top-of-mind issue.
“We not only want the immigration portals to look at … the skills training and the people who are coming here with trades or skilled labourers, we want to also look at … how do we get these programs with the service sector industry,” Dumas said.
“Because in the small northern rural communities of Northwestern Ontario … if you don't have the (local) restaurant open because you can't get staff, or the corner store or the service station because you can't get staff, you need to have those facilities serviced by having employees available,” he continued.
“Maybe some of those employees (can come) through immigration opportunities.”
Dumas said NOMA has met with Thunder Bay-Superior North MP and Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu about the issue, saying that “there was some really good traction made there.”
In a statement to Newswatch provided by her office, Hajdu said she recently met with mayors and NOMA officials “to discuss their challenges and opportunities.”
“Immigration and (the) job market was the main topic of conversation.”
“I’m focused on advocating for the needs of Northwestern Ontario to grow our local and regional economies,” her statement continued, adding that includes “attracting skilled workers to fill critical employment gaps.”
In Terrace Bay, Adduono said having people from other cultures moving to smaller communities has benefits that are over and above filling job vacancies and contributing to a local tax base.
“The quality-of-life piece — having a number of immigrants — changes the dynamic in our community (in) a positive way,” he said.
“It's made us and our community stronger but (if) we don't have them here, it changes the dynamics again.”
-With files from Mike Stimpson
