Revitalizing Atlantic Canada: immigration and the labour market

Past Event

How does Atlantic Canada need to pivot priorities for regional economic growth and immigration for post-pandemic prosperity? Atlantic Summit 2020 brings together leaders in policy development, government, business, education and social services for a forward-looking exploration of what it will take to confront old challenges compounded by new crisis.

Past Event

Employers across Atlantic Canada are facing labour and skill shortages. Retention of young people and newcomers in the region remains a challenge, and many people who relocate elsewhere in Canada report jobs as a leading cause for their decision to move away. To truly understand the issues that Atlantic Canada is facing, PPF and Professor Tony Fang from Memorial University are conducting a roundtable discussion in Nova Scotia to learn about employer experiences and priorities regarding hiring and retaining skilled workers.

Past Event

Past Event

Past Event

Atlantic Canada needs newcomers. Join ACOA's Francis McGuire, IRCC's Marta Morgan and the region's top thinkers on Fredericton on March 21 for a full-day conference on attracting immigrants - and how to keep them.

What did a survey of over 800 Atlantic employers tell us about their outlook and activities to drive business growth before COVID-19? Explore our findings in five thematic reports and what it means for supporting employers as economies rebuild.

Entrepreneurship has been called the backbone of the economy. Despite the popularity of hoodie-wearing CEOs and global tech innovations, broad-based entrepreneurship that fuels local productivity and helps solve real-world problems has declined across developed nations. Canada is no exception. COVID-19 has added to the challenge. As Canada recovers, how do we get entrepreneurship back on track?

Employers across Atlantic Canada are facing skills shortages and are turning to newcomers to fill job vacancies. Yet retention in the region remains a problem, and many immigrants who relocate elsewhere in Canada report employment as a leading cause for their decision to move away. A consultation with local business leaders, business council representatives, educators and immigrant workers provided insights into challenges and policy opportunities.

Newfoundland and Labrador's labour force is shrinking — not to mention population — and once again more people are leaving the province than arriving. PPF developed recommendations to upskill existing workers and bring in new workers at a St. John’s consultation with leaders in government, civil society, immigration, education institutions and business as part of our Atlantic Revitalization project.

Employers across Atlantic Canada are facing skills shortages and are turning to newcomers to fill job vacancies. Yet retention in the region remains a problem, and many immigrants who relocate elsewhere in Canada report employment as a leading cause for their decision to move away. A consultation with local business leaders, business council representatives, educators and immigrant workers provided insights into challenges and policy opportunities.

Employers across Atlantic Canada are facing skills shortages and are turning to newcomers to fill job vacancies. Yet retention in the region remains a problem, and many immigrants who relocate elsewhere in Canada report employment as a leading cause for their decision to move away. A consultation with local business leaders, business council representatives, educators and immigrant workers provided insights into challenges and policy opportunities.

Where seasonal work is more common, what kind of EI reform would both protect workers and help create prosperous local labour markets? This paper explores six options focused on Atlantic Canada, arguing that widespread use of EI by seasonal workers makes it seem there's more unemployed workers than is really the case – a distortion that negatively impacts the economic potential of the region.

Explore the findings of PPF regional consultations in Atlantic Canada in a province-specific report on employers and communities experiences with skills and labour shortages in context to key provincial factors.

The economic fortunes of rural Canada depend on attracting human capital, and while international students are highly skilled & qualified candidates for settlement, they don't often stick around. PPF Fellow Sean Speer identifies lessons from two promising programs in Atlantic Canada which seem to be convincing students to settle, against the odds.

The Public Policy Forum’s 2018 Atlantic Summit is the first major initiative in a 3-year project. From 2018-2020 we will conduct research, engage communities and decision makers, and work to support the momentum building behind the Atlantic Growth Strategy. The focus of our first year has been on demographics and the role of immigration as one approach to attract, and keep, the talented people who make Atlantic Canada home.

Atlantic Canada is taking action to rebuild its aging and slow-growing population: The region needs to attract - and keep - more newcomers.

In the sixth edition of our Atlantic Newsletter, our latest report explores how is Atlantic Canada working to retain international students and our Skills Next series looks at what Canadians will need to succeed with the changing nature of work. Plus: a sneak peak at upcoming reports on Atlantic growth & save the date for the 2020 Atlantic Immigration and Revitalization Summit and Frank McKenna Awards Dinner.

In the fifth edition of our Atlantic Immigration & Revitalization Newsletter, Kelly Toughill looks at what Atlantic Canada is doing to attract newcomers who will start or take over businesses, create jobs and build the economy. Successful immigrant entrepreneurs share their lessons learned and give advice to fellow and future entrepreneurs.

The Atlantic region is consistently becoming more supportive of immigration than any other part of Canada, which is now paying dividends in population growth driven by newcomers

Atlantic Canada is competing globally to attract newcomers to start or take over businesses, create jobs and build the economy. It’s obvious why governments want to recruit them, but it’s surprisingly hard to do.

Lin expected to spend $150,000 and launch her New Brunswick candy business in a little more than a year. It took more than three years and $650,000. She praises government settlement and business support programs, but wishes they weren’t so hard to find.

Nova Scotia’s premier developer feels an obligation to talk about why he came to Halifax from Lebanon, why he stayed, and why immigration is good for Canada

The co-founder of HeyOrca! launched the social media solutions company because he wanted to learn how to run a business. It worked.

The CEO of Peace by Chocolate is on a mission to spread hope—and to be a major player in Canada’s candy market

In the fourth edition of our Atlantic Immigration & Revitalization Newsletter, PPF and research associate Kelly Toughill explore the challenges that rural areas face when attracting and retaining newcomers and the barriers that newcomers face when living in small communities.

The Acadian shore of Nova Scotia is one of many rural areas of Atlantic Canada betting its future on immigration. But even French-speaking newcomers aren’t a solution to preserving the area’s Francophone heart.

Opinion: If Atlantic Canadians are serious about boosting immigration and making newcomers feel welcome, writes Kelly Toughill, we need to find a way to have real conversations about regional culture and the come-from-away phenomenon.

A small influx of foreign workers has sparked sharp reactions in Chipman, New Brunswick. Many see the newcomers as potential saviours of a town headed toward extinction. Others see them as competitors for local jobs. In between, a handful of immigrant families are trying to figure out how to feel at home. The challenges of immigration in small communities are different than in cities, both for newcomers and for local residents. Solving them may be key to the future prosperity of rural Atlantic Canada.

Why don’t a quality education, strong language skills and an open work permit guarantee success in Atlantic Canada? Fewer international graduates stay in this region after graduation than any other. Students and their advocates tell KELLY TOUGHILL what can be done to counter the trend.

Canada is becoming dependent on the economic stimulus of international students, writes KELLY TOUGHILL, but are we promising more than we can deliver? Many international students will face difficulties adjusting to Canadian academic systems, finding work, making friends and securing permanent resident status.

In this second edition of our Atlantic Immigration & Revitalization Newsletter, PPF research associate Kelly Toughill talks to leaders and refugees across Atlantic Canada to understand what we can learn from their higher retention rates and overall success

Access to more settlement services, easier family reunification and safety are among the myriad reasons refugees tend to stay where they settle in the Maritimes, writes Kelly Toughill

Our immigration system pits family reunification against Canada’s economic needs. That’s short-sighted and counterproductive, argues Kelly Toughill

Some employers and advocates want Canada to recruit refugees to fill local labour shortages, Kelly Toughill reports. Others worry that would dilute the humanitarian mission of resettling the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

Atlantic Canada faces profound demographic changes that challenge its future prosperity and economic sustainability. With a new email newsletter, the Public Policy Forum will keep you up to date on our three-year research project on immigrant retention and labour market revitalization in the region and share other timely research and articles.

More than 3,000 job offers had been made through the program by the end of October 2018, but only 1,202 workers, spouses and children were granted permanent residency through the program in the same period. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is trying to speed up the pace of permanent residency admissions.

The disappearance of Bhutanese from Halifax is discouraging to those who believe the future of Atlantic Canada is tied to increased immigration, but it is also an opportunity to look at the factors that encourage newcomers to take root – and the factors that lead them away.

Cultural food security is key to how and whether immigrants take root in their new home. In Halifax, Common Roots Urban Farm was the only source of some traditional foods for newcomers, but the community garden was shut down and no one knows where – or if – it will rise again.

Revealing the list of employers authorized to bring immigrants to Canada through the Atlantic Immigration Pilot is an important first step in combating immigration fraud.

The summit, which attracted hundreds from around Atlantic Canada, kicked off PPF’s three-year policy research project on Atlantic revitalization, with a special focus on newcomer retention.

Whether they wear steel-toed boots or ballet slippers, workers from abroad are in high demand in Atlantic Canada. As Kelly Toughill found, successful companies have learned that keeping recruits happy requires more than a paycheque

Immigrants who stay in Atlantic Canada have higher employment levels, higher wages and face less discrimination than immigrants to other parts of Canada, yet the region struggles to attract newcomers and has the lowest retention rates in Canada.

“I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to say the future of Atlantic Canada is at stake,” former N.B. Premier Frank McKenna told the crowd of business leaders and academics at PPF's Atlantic Summit in Fredericton. His concern over the dwindling population of the region is buoyed by optimism about recent action taken by the four provinces and the federal government.