A federal program designed to attract skilled immigrants to work and live in Thunder Bay is just about ready get off the ground.
The city’s Community Economic Development Commission is organizing the immigration pilot project. Spokesperson Emily Lauzon explains getting the program running is just a signature away. She notes there are still communities that need to sign their agreements, or memorandums of understandings, with the federal government.
The commission official tells us they are a few weeks away from matching interested immigrants to local employers who are taking part in the program. She points out on Tuesday there was a meeting for local employers so they could become familiar with the program and get details on how they can participate.
To reach this point the CEDC and the federal government worked together to identify what kind of workers our city wanted to attract. Lauzon says those “in demand occupations” include nurses, personal support workers, medical technologists, pharmacy technicians, aircraft mechanics, butchers, bakers, tile setters, and forestry technicians.
At the time it was introduced Liberal MP Patty Hajdu told us there was no set number of workers that would be welcomed, noting it all depended on the amount of interest.
The five year program is designed to attract immigrants to work and live in Thunder Bay and in other rural and northern communities across Canada.
The other communities chosen for the project are Sault Ste. Marie; Sudbury; Timmins; North Bay; Gretna-Rhineland-Altona-Plum Coulee, Manitoba; Brandon, Manitoba; Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Claresholm, Alberta; West Kootenay, British Columbia; and Vernon, British Columbia.
