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Sudbury pushes to make northern immigration pilot permanent

To date, 388 newcomers have settled in the city, thanks to the three-year program
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Traffic makes its way past the 89 flags flying along the Bridge of Nations on Paris Street in downtown Sudbury.

With the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program picking up steam in its second of three years, Sudbury city council has unanimously agreed they’d like to see it become permanent. 

During an Aug. 9 city council meeting, the city’s elected officials voted in favour of advocating for the federal government to make the program permanent, and that the city develop a business case for 2023 budget deliberations to create one full-time position dedicated to the file.

It’s not enough that the city joins local MPs and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce in advocating for the program, but they should also put more skin in the game, city economic development director Meredith Armstrong told city council.

“We know that we can maintain the process of supporting it if we have the city’s support for the permanent resources required as well,” she said. “The city’s show of support for the program and the resources required to maintain it is very important to back up that advocacy.”

During 2022 budget deliberations, city council approved $96,182 toward workforce for the pilot program’s third year.

The city already has a business development officer for workforce in place on a contractual basis, whom a municipal report notes “has been instrumental in securing new partnerships, programs and initiatives and funding for the City of Greater Sudbury.”

Their goal into the long term would be to “improve regional capacity and competitiveness as companies become better equipped to identify and address their labour shortages, thereby giving them the ability to grow their businesses.”

The City of Greater Sudbury was one of 11 communities selected in 2019 to participate in the pilot program, which has been billed as providing “an additional pathway to becoming permanent residents, while at the same time helping to confront Greater Sudbury’s labour shortages due to youth outmigration, declining birth rates and aging population.”

In 2021, 84 candidates were recommended through the program. Including their families, this amounted to 215 newcomers to Greater Sudbury.

So far this year, 104 candidates have been recommended, which has resulted in 173 total newcomers, including their families. 

Approved candidates have come from throughout the world, including North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, according to a municipal report. The majority of them have been experienced workers relocating alongside spouses and children. 

“The program has been utilized significantly by the mining supply and service sector, which accounts for among the largest proportion of our recommendations,” according to the report. “A number of these individuals are in high-paying senior roles, some in professional roles such as engineers, project managers, and IT professionals, and others in skilled trades (millwrights, welders, electricians, labourers and truck drivers).”

The second-highest category includes the health-care and social assistance sectors, early childhood educators and food/accommodation services. 

With city council’s unanimous support, whatever incarnation of city council elected Oct. 24 will decide on how to proceed with the staffing question, while municipal advocacy toward making the program permanent will proceed.

“We all know it’s hard to find employees and attract talent to our community, and this would be another advantage that we would have in Greater Sudbury and the North to attract talent to Northern Ontario,” Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti said.

Thus far, FedNor has funded the program to the tune of $480,746, while the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation, a not-for-profit agency of the City of Greater Sudbury, has contributed $346,398. 

— Sudbury.com