Roundtable on immigration

Matthew DeCourcey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Immigration Minister, was in North Bay on Wednesday to host roundtable sessions with various local stakeholders.

They want to get the word out about working with remote and rural centres in efforts to attract newcomers to communities like North Bay.

He says they’ve done a pilot project on what communities can do to attract newcomers and they want to expand it around the country.

” We’re trying to supply those lessons from the atlantic immigration pilot to a northern remote and rural communities pilot. Places like North Bay can feed off the success of what we’ve learned in other parts of the country,” he says.

There is a lot of local interest in becoming a pilot as DeCourcey met with municipal and chamber of commerce offficials about getting involved.

DeCourcey says the government wants to put the supports in place because there will be a need for immigrants in the north.

“Over the next number of decades Northern Ontario will need 50,000 new people to sustain its population and to maintain the economic opportunity that’s here. We know newcomers will have job opportunities when they come to these communities,” he says.

He says there are several factors that a community would have to detail in becoming a pilot site including newcommer integration, labour market needs and housing and health care solutions.