Strategy aims to grow nominee program
Tens of thousands of NWT jobs expected to open up in next 15 years
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Monday, July 10, 2017
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The GNWT is looking to ramp up its nominee program for foreign nationals as part of a new immigration strategy aimed at building a skilled work force and strong economy into the coming years.
The June 30 document forecasts between 28,500 and 36,700 jobs will open up in the NWT over the next 15 years, 78 per cent of which require post-secondary education or other extensive experience.
The document shows nearly all of those job openings are expected to result from people retiring or moving out of the territory. It indicates the GNWT wants to increase approved applications to its nominee program by 25 per cent each year until 2019, including an increase in francophone applications of five per cent per year until 2022.
"There's going to be situations where Northern residents aren't available to fill those job opportunities," said Andy Bevan, assistant deputy minister of labour and income security for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
If employers are unable to find workers within Canada, he said, the nominee program can help them bring qualified foreign nationals to Canada to fill labour shortages.
"It actually provides permanent residence to those people who successfully apply on the job," Bevan said. "And then of course they become, themselves, Northern residents."
The new immigration strategy also aims to attract foreign investment, educate people about workplace safety, ensure GNWT departments are working together and support people's settlement needs.
"We want to make sure they have language supports and they have economic integration support," Bevan said. "So we're working with the settlement community to make sure people not only come . but when they come, that they stay and that they're happy here."
But Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart says the strategy does not address concerns about family reunification that he said he is hearing from new Canadians.
"It's easier to get a nanny from outside of Canada to come into the territory than it is for a grandmother, and that is a very difficult situation," Testart said.
He explained new residents have less impetus to stay here if the NWT if they cannot be with their relatives.
While Testart acknowledged immigration primarily a federal responsibility, he stressed the provinces and territories can provide advice to influence decisions.
"If you can't reunify with your extended family, it can have a hardship not only on the community, but also economically as well," Testart said.
Education, Culture and Employment Minister Alfred Moses in June promised to raise the issue of family reunification with the federal government.
