After success keeping immigrants in Atlantic region, pilot program becomes permanent

After a five-year test run, an Atlantic immigration program that lets employers handpick workers from other countries, then fast tracks their permanent residency in Canada will be made permanent.

Starting in January, Canada will be able to accept at least 6,000 applicants a year to the Atlantic program. 

In a virtual announcement Friday, federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said that after one year in Canada, more than 90 per cent of newcomers who arrived under the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program were still living in Atlantic Canada, a higher rate than any other program. 

"What does this mean for our region? In one word, growth," Fraser said. 

People can begin submitting applications for permanent residence under the new program on March 6, 2022, and the process would take about six months. Without this program, it could take immigrants up to five years to receive permanent residence status.

Fraser didn't say if there would be a province-by-province allocation of the 6,000 spots.

The pilot was launched in 2017, and 2,000 newcomers and their families per year were eligible to immigrate to Canada through the Atlantic pilot stream.

What sets the program apart is the extensive involvement of employer. A company can ask to be part of the program, then hire foreign nationals to fill positions they haven't been able to fill locally. The company would be responsible for most of the settlement and recruitment process.

Since its start, workers have been retained for nursing homes, child-care centres, the seafood and technology sectors to name a few, Fraser said.

Jason Shannon, president of the senior-care provider Shannex, said his company has hired 160 employees through the program, including nurses, with "hundreds more to come."

"These programs allow newcomers to attain their [permanent residence] status more efficiently with greater certainty, allowing them to bring their families over quicker and keeping them together, which really improves the settlement experience and increases the chances of them making Atlantic Canada their permanent home," he said.

"I'm relieved to hear this will continue."

Premiers Tim Houston of Nova Scoia and Andrew Furey of Newfoundland and Labrador, Arlene Dunn, New Brunswick minister responsible for immigration, and Matthew MacKay, Prince Edward Island's minister of economic growth, spoke about the benefits of the program, saying this is good news for all of their provinces' population numbers.

"Almost 4,500 people came to Nova Scotia through that program, and Nova Scotia is absolutely better for it," Houston said.