It comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals are planning to announce a new immigration plan in the upcoming federal budget, and as the opposition Conservatives and leader Pierre Poilievre are calling for the significant reigning in of people from other countries coming to Canada.
In places like Fort Frances and Atikokan, immigration in recent years has made significant contributions to the local labour force and the communities at large. Heather Johnson, the executive director of the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce, told Newswatch people from other countries have filled desperately-needed jobs in numerous sectors.
It’s been very important — I would have to say one of the most major places that you would see it is in our health care,” she told Newswatch. “We certainly have been very lucky to have our immigrant population be nurses, be RPNs, be doctors coming in, and it’s definitely a stream that we need to see.”
“We’d be in a big, big mess if we didn’t have them come in and help us out.”
Mayor Andrew Hallikas agreed, saying that a number of local businesses would likely have to curtail hours or, in extreme cases, even close without being able to bring in foreign workers.
“I know the situation is not necessarily the same in urban centres, but for small, rural, northern municipalities, there’s a definite shortage of workers across many categories,” he said.
“The workers coming in have adapted very well to life in our communities,” Hallikas continued. “They are loved in the community, they do excellent work, they do volunteer work, and in fact, are exactly the type of people that we would like to keep and (have) live in our community.”
“So, we need more of them.”
Further east just off Highway 11, Garry McKinnon, the executive director of the Atikokan Economic Development Corporation, told Newswatch the local Domtar sawmill in Sapawe, just east of the town, was able to “substantially” expand its production when the company hired over 30 people from Ukraine, and also pointed to other foreign-born workers filling positions in the service industry and other sectors locally.
“We all have an aging population and when people age, they like to retire, but that creates vacancies,” he said. “Unfortunately, our … population growth isn’t adequate to supply those needs, so we do require immigrants to fill the job vacancies that we have.”
In Fort Frances, Johnson said local officials and business leaders have been lobbying for more access to immigration streams — recently, she said, with Liberal Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski. In the Northwest, Only Thunder Bay was chosen to be part of the current Rural Community Immigration Pilot, which offers a path to permanent residence for qualified immigrants.
“Their businesses are really going to suffer if we don’t have the immigration numbers, if we don’t have the knowledge and the ability that they bring to their jobs,” she said. “The trades are the ones that are hurting the most.”
In an Oct. 22 national address ahead of the tabling of the federal budget, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the document will include Canada’s new immigration plan, in order to “match immigration levels with our needs and our capacity to welcome them.” The new plan, he said — without yet giving specifics — will “do better for newcomers and for everyone.”
While in Thunder Bay earlier in October, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called for the end of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (which allows employers to hire foreign workers to fill certain jobs when qualified Canadians are not available) and pledged a crackdown on asylum-seekers and those applying for refugee status on what he charged were dubious grounds.
Earlier in the summer, according to multiple reports, he called for hard caps on immigration in general.
Speaking with reporters in Thunder Bay, Poilievre was asked about how local labour shortages — particularly in the context of building more homes — would be filled if immigration was curtailed.
“I would have to look at the data for this area,” he said. “I know that there’s increasing unemployment for construction workers across Canada, particularly in Ontario, so we need to make sure that our workers get those jobs first, and that is the best way to employ our people and get the homes built.”
In Atikokan, McKinnon said it’s important that those coming into the region have the needed skills.
“We need to make sure that the immigration that we do have are people that are bringing needed skills and work ethic and are going to be contributing to the country.”
Atikokan Mayor Rob Ferguson said ensuring the people who have moved to the town from Ukraine can stay longer-term is a pressing issue. “They need some (assurance) that they’re going to be able to stay in Canada, and we really appreciate them in the community,” he said.
“Some of them have been here three-and-a-half years already, and they are part of our community and we want to make sure that they can stay.”
And, he said, politicians must ensure that immigration policy takes localized needs into account.
“One size does not fit all.”
