Newsroom Story Ideas

Building a Workforce for the Future

Left to right: Hasmik Minasyan, Internationally Trained Intern, CIRRO Coordinator in Brockville; Dipti Patel, Internationally Trained Intern, CIRRO Coordinator in Chatham-Kent; Andre Dukhia, Internationally Trained Intern, CIRRO Coordinator in North Bay; April Stocco, Community Development Branch, OMAFRA; Magdy ElDakiky, CIRRO Lead, OMAFRA

“In the next 10 years, over 10,000 Huron County workers will retire. If all the youth in our communities stay at home – which they won’t – even they only number 7,500. In stark mathematical terms, Huron County is facing a workforce crisis.”
— Paul Nichol, Economic Development Manager, Huron Business Development Corporation

A similar story can be heard across Ontario, as our population ages and the birthrate declines. Many see the solution in attracting more skilled immigrants. Although this poses some unique challenges for Ontario’s smaller urban and rural communities, there is assistance available.

"From an economic development perspective,” says Dave Paul, Director of Development for the City of Brockville, “we think immigration is going to be the best thing for our demographic balance."

Brockville is one of three communities working on a pilot project to make their communities a destination of choice for skilled workers wanting to come to Canada. Along with North Bay and Chatham-Kent, Brockville is developing best practices for attracting and retaining a skilled and educated workforce, as well as business immigrants, through the Community Immigrant Retention in Rural Ontario (CIRRO) program.

Smaller communities require an integrated community economic development approach to successfully attract and retain new citizens, and that’s how CIRRO can help.

“The City of North Bay recognizes the economic and social benefits of integrating newcomers into the fabric of our community and has therefore adopted immigration attraction and retention as a key element of its overall population and labour market development programs,” says Marla Tremblay, Economic Development Officer for North Bay.

Teresa Fysh, Executive Director of the Cultural Coalition of Chatham-Kent, sees two sides to the settlement process: hosting and introducing immigrant into Canadian culture and creating a community that is accepting and inclusive to new cultures.

 “We’ve made concerted efforts to educate our current residents, businesses and community services on the need for immigration and to increase our cultural competency,” Fysh says. “Community workshops and forums are the training grounds that will help us embrace a future that is diverse and inclusive.”

To date, funding from the program has paid for specialized community economic development interns with international training. A series of workshops was held in the three pilot communities and information on other funding programs for related projects was shared. At the end of the project, CIRRO will have a toolkit of recommended practices and case studies to share with other Ontario communities.