Business owners in the Rainy River district showed significant interest in last week’s Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot information sessions held in Fort Frances, Rainy River, and Emo.
Angela Halvorsen, the business investment manager for the Rainy River Future Development Corporation, said “overall it was well attended, but also well received.”
Halvorsen pointed out that despite the population size of these particular communities, staff shortages are affecting all types of employment across Northwestern Ontario.
“I think this solidifies that this is just something that we really need in these areas. What was interesting too was the jobs went right across the board right from entry-level jobs to right up to highly skilled medical professionals. Everything in between that you can imagine,” Halvorsen said.
Business owners from all sectors of employment showed up to find out a little more about what the pilot program can do to recruit more workers to their area.
The presentation took attendees through many different aspects of the program, particularly the specific community requirements. For example, the eligibility criteria for businesses is to be registered with the program, so newcomers can apply for the position.
Halvorsen said it would then be up to the business owner to go through the hiring process before the newcomer can settle in the community.
Once registered, their business will be posted to the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission’s website as a registered participant in the program. The economic development commission would then direct the newcomer to the job opportunities in the area.
“The TBCEDC does say be prepared, you are going to get a lot of applications you have to weave through. Some of them will not be eligible. Some of them will not be skilled in the job you are putting out there. But that’s not much different from any time you put out a job listing. You get people that just apply thinking you never know I might get it,” Halverson said.
On the other side, newcomers also need to meet certain criteria before they could apply for the program as well, including job experience and language skills.
“There is a language test to seek if they can read, write, understand and speak English or French depending on the program of course,” Halverson said.
Move over, while in the program, the newcomer’s work permit is tied to their residency application, which is also tied to their employer.
“They can come in in a short turnaround, which is approximately three months, but they can work while their residency paperwork is being processed and that is tied into their employer,” Halvorsen said.
Halvorsen points out that if for whatever reason the newcomer doesn’t meet the job expectation and they have not obtained permanent residency status, upon termination the newcomer would face deportation.
Once they get permanent residency, the newcomer would obtain mobility right and then the newcomers would be able to leave employment with their employer and seek other careers and residencies in the country.
However, the aim of the pilot program isn’t to provide a newcomer with the opportunity to come to Canada. Halvorsen found that the objective of the program is retention in the north. Not only is the employer supplying a newcomer with employment, but if successful, they want to stay within the community.
“The whole idea is to really work towards hiring somebody that has some ties to the community or has the intent to stay in the community, but also you have now a year to really get them integrated into the community in the hope they will stay,” Halvorsen said.
Another example of what business owners should look for when hiring a newcomer is if they will be bringing family with them.
"If they say they have children that they are bringing with them and those children get integrated into some of the sports programs or that type of thing and they start to make friends,” she said.
These types of roots within the community will ultimately lead to more retention and recruitment. One newcomer enters the program; but by bringing their family with them, those individuals will also be seeking employment opportunities in many different sectors of employment.
“Obviously the job is what brings them there, but the community is what is helping them stay there,” Halvorsen said.
