Dear Mr Brown,

I recently heard about a new programme targeting cities to sponsor new immigrants to Canada. I would like to know more about this in order to weigh my options.

— OK

Dear OK:

There have been many cities or municipalities in Canada that have been addressing labour market shortages by sourcing workers from abroad.

Motivating immigrants to settle in Canada’s smaller towns and cities is a challenge dating back many years. These smaller communities struggle with the impact of a shrinking labour market and high emigration rates.

The Liberal Party of Canada has made a pledge to assist rural municipalities access more immigrants through a new programme that would be referred to as the “municipal nominee program”.

Municipal Nominee Program

The programme will empower local communities across Canada to directly sponsor new immigrants for Canadian permanent residence.

This programme would be for workers who:

• have the skills, education and work experience to contribute to the economy of a specific municipality;

• want to live in that province; and

• want to become permanent residents of Canada.

Each municipality would have its own requirements and streams to target certain groups, and requirements. For example, in a programme stream, municipalities may target:

• students;

• business people;

• skilled workers; and/or

• semi-skilled workers.

The programme will allow “local communities, chambers of commerce and local labour councils” to “directly sponsor new immigrants”, which seems to imply that the programme will be based on employer sponsorship.

The Liberal Party has represented that the arrangement would create a minimum of 5,000 spaces for the programme, which is not a significant number, as Canada seeks more than 330,000 immigrants in 2019. As such, although it may become a viable option if it becomes an official immigration programme, you should definitely be open to the existing federal and provincial nominee options.

Please visit jamaica2canada.com for additional information on Canadian permanent residence programmes, including Express Entry, The Study & Work programme, visas or appeals, etc.

Antonn Brown, BA, (Hons), LLB, MSc, RCIC, is an immigration counsel and an accredited Canadian education agent of JAMAICA2CANADA.COM — a Canadian immigration and education firm in Kingston. Send questions/comments to jamaica2canada@gmail.com.