Nova Scotia able to welcome hundreds more immigrants this year
CBC
The Nova Scotia government has announced a huge jump in the number of allocations to the provincial nominee and Atlantic immigration programs.
The province said in a news release Thursday it can approve a total of 5,430 applicants this year — 40 per cent more than the 3,857 it approved to settle in Nova Scotia in 2021.
The increase includes 400 new spaces, or 17 per cent more than last year, through the provincial nominee program. Under the program, prospective newcomers — including physicians, entrepreneurs, and other workers whose skills are in demand in Nova Scotia — are nominated for immigration.
An extra 1,173 spaces for Nova Scotia, or 75 per cent more than last year, have been added to the Atlantic Immigration Program, which provides a pathway to permanent residency for skilled foreign workers and international graduates who want to live in one of the four Atlantic provinces.
The Nova Scotia government said Ottawa is also committed to expanding allocation targets for these programs over the next three years.
Booming immigration and interprovincial migration led to Nova Scotia's population exceeding one million for the first time at the end of last year.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot launched in March 2017 and was designed to bring more skilled workers to Atlantic Canada by quickly identifying employers and reducing applicant processing time to six months or less. The program became permanent Jan. 1.
Refugees and people arriving on the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel are not included in the allocation.
More than 500 people from Ukraine have arrived since February and are staying in Nova Scotia.
In 2021, Nova Scotia welcomed a record-breaking 9,025 new permanent residents.
However, the province also recently made some abrupt changes to the Nova Scotia Experience: Express Entry program which left the future of hundreds of foreign student workers murky.
The budget for 2022-23 includes an additional $1 million for marketing campaigns targeting Nova Scotia's immigration and population growth, as well as $895,000 to hire staff to support newcomers. There is also an additional $1.4 million for settlement services in communities across the province.
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