{"id":180644,"date":"2018-09-09T04:01:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T08:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=180644"},"modified":"2018-09-09T04:01:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T08:01:11","slug":"vision-proposed-northern-ontario-immigration-pilot-outlined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/09\/vision-proposed-northern-ontario-immigration-pilot-outlined\/","title":{"rendered":"Vision for proposed Northern Ontario immigration pilot outlined"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cMy colleagues at the\u00a0Northern Policy Institute (NPI)\u00a0have found that seven of the 10 jobs in demand in Northern Ontario, based on number of vacancies posted, were \u2018middle-skilled\u2019 jobs in National Occupational Classification codes C or D,\u201d Cirtwill said. (Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The head of one of the main organizations pushing for an immigration pilot for Ontario\u2019s northern regions has provided new details of his vision for the program.<\/p>\n

Charles Cirtwill, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Policy Institute, detailed a number of key issues that he said the pilot must address in\u00a0a column published this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For one, Cirtwill said it is essential that the pilot reflect the fact labour needs in smaller, rural communities are typically different from those in urban centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy colleagues at the\u00a0Northern Policy Institute (NPI)<\/a>\u00a0have found that seven of the 10 jobs in demand in Northern Ontario, based on number of vacancies posted, were \u2018middle-skilled\u2019 jobs in National Occupational Classification codes C or D,\u201d Cirtwill said.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s\u00a0National Occupational Classification, or NOC<\/a>, organizes more than 30,000 occupations according to skill level and skill type. Skill levels C and D include semi- and low-skilled occupations in the trades, primary and manufacturing industries, sales and services, and some clerical and assistant categories.<\/p>\n

Cirtwill says the pilot must also recognize the fact that labour needs in Northern Ontario can vary from community to community \u2014 \u201csome need truck drivers, others tourism staff, skilled trades or office support staff,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the pilot program should allow for a broad range of foreign labour while placing \u201ca hard cap on any one specific job classification.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u20181,500 new immigrants a year\u2019<\/h3>\n

As to how many immigrants the\u00a0proposed\u00a0pilot should welcome on an annual basis, Cirtwill said the various regions that make up Northern Ontario need \u201cat least 1,500 new immigrants a year to have a sustainable mix of working age population to dependents (under 19 and over 65).\u201d<\/p>\n

This target assumes full employment among current residents, including Northern Ontario\u2019s Indigenous Peoples, he said.<\/p>\n

Planners would also have to establish sub-targets to ensure that each region covered by the pilot receives its fair share of newcomers. This would ensure that Northern Ontario\u2019s \u201cBig Five\u201d communities \u2014\u00a0North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, Thunder Bay, and Sault Ste. Marie \u2014 aren\u2019t the only beneficiaries of the pilot program, Cirtwill said.<\/p>\n

Other key considerations are the project\u2019s duration and the need for proper oversight and monitoring. A minimum of three to five years would allow for the collection of \u201csound data,\u201d Cirtwill argued, adding that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) must prioritize \u201creleasing better and more timely data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cirtwill\u2019s column follows meetings in August that brought together business and community leaders from Northern Ontario with Canada\u2019s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen.<\/p>\n

The Northern Policy Institute and others are hoping Hussen and IRCC will approve a pilot program for Ontario\u2019s rural and remote regions along the lines of the\u00a0Atlantic Immigration Pilot<\/a>, which was introduced last year to fill skilled and semi-skilled labour shortages in Canada\u2019s Atlantic Provinces of\u00a0Nova Scotia<\/a>,\u00a0New Brunswick<\/a>,\u00a0Prince Edward Island<\/a>and\u00a0Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time, Minister Hussen said his department is studying the possibility, but a better understanding of the region\u2019s specific needs is required.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like in Atlantic Canada, if we\u2019re going to proceed with that, we want to have a program conceivably that is very much tailored to the local needs of the regions and also a program that is really designed by the stakeholders [in Northern Ontario], as opposed to the government in Ottawa,\u201d\u00a0Minister Hussen said.<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of one of the main organizations pushing for an immigration pilot for Ontario\u2019s northern regions has provided new …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":140527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","mauthors-stephen-smith","mauthors-cic-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}