On January 24, 2019, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced the creation of a new federal immigration pilot focused on supporting economic development in rural and northern communities. This pilot will partner selected communities in Ontario, Western Canada and the territories with the federal government to test new approaches to retaining economic immigrants who can support local economic development needs.

The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot was developed to help spread the benefits of economic immigration to smaller communities throughout Canada. The Government of Canada will work with local communities to:

• Use immigration to help meet local labour market needs and support regional economic development
• Test a new pathway to permanent residence in rural Canada for skilled foreign nationals at various skill levels
• Create welcoming environments that encourage and help new immigrants to stay in their new communities

We are looking for community partners. Communities interested in participating in this pilot will work with a local economic development organization to complete an application. The economic development organization must be the one to submit the application.  The submission process is now open.

From January 24, 2019 to March 1, 2019, at 11:59pm (PST), IRCC is accepting applications from interested communities to participate in the pilot.

Interested communities must meet certain criteria, and not all communities that meet the criteria can be selected for participation at this time.

IRCC will notify the selected communities in spring 2019.

Additional information on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot is available here.